Asha Bhosle – the dynamic singer of bollywood.

Asha Bhosle – the dynamic singer of bollywood.

Asha Bhosle can be considered as one of the most dynamic singers who had glorified bollywood for the last 60 years. She had shown her skills in singing any type of song including qawallis, ghazals, western songs, pop songs, light classical songs, etc. She had been successful to provide everlasting hits with major composers of bollywood.

When Asha Bhosle started her career in bollywood, already leading singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum, Suraiya, and others were dominating the world of playback singing. She showed her charishma in the song “aiye maherba” in the film Howrah Bridge, which was picturised on Madhubala. She had also provided romantic andaz in the song “haal kaisa hai janab ka” with Kishore Kumar in the film Chalti Ka Naam Gaari. Raj Kapoor gave her a break in the film Shree 420, in 1955, where she sung “Mur Murke na dekh” composed by Shankar Jaikishan. In the earlier years OP Nayyar composed most of his songs for Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle.



She was also given quality songs by Khayyam and Ravi. In the 60s she had sung successful songs for leading actresses and hit films. In Mera Saya, her song “jhumka gira re”, composed by Madan Mohan and picturised on Sadhna was big hit. All her songs in Ek Musafir Ek Haseena, Phir Wohi dil Laya Hoon, Kashmir Ki Kali, Mere Sanam, composed by OP Nayyar were super duper hits along with the melodious performance of Rafi. She had made notable contribution in films like Waqt, Humraaz, where the tunes were composed by Ravi .

Asha Bhosle also had sung hit songs in Bengali films like Choddobeshi, where the songs “aro dure cholo jai”, “amar din katena”, composed by Sudhin Dasgupta became immortal. RD Burman had given her songs of different dimensions including “piya tu” from Karwa, to qawalli titled “hai agar dushman zamana” in Hum kisi se kum nahi, to “pal do pal ka saath hamara” in Burning Train.



In the early 80s Asha Bhosle sung probably the most romantic songs in her career in the film Umrao Jaan, picturised on Rekha where all the songs were composed on the background of mujra and all were very successful. It is very difficult to highlight the contribution of legendary singer like Asha Bhosle in a short article, but it can be said that she had been an institution in herself and the new generation can learn a lot from her use of classical skills both for eastern and western songs.

Article by By: Rumi Chatterji.

Mukesh - the passionate singer of the last century

Mukesh – The passionate singer of the last Century.

The 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s are categorised as the golden age of bollywood music and all the playback singers had made notable contribution for the success of the films made during that period. Mukesh had a sweet voice and his songs made notable contribution in most of the films of Raj Kapoor.

In the early 50s his songs in the film Awara, like “awara hoon,” “dum bhar jo udhar mu phere” were big hits. He had sung his major songs under the composition of Shankar Jaikishan as they had composed the maximum number of songs for Raj Kapoor. His other notable songs include “aja re”, “sub kuch sikha humne”, “ kisiki muskurahato pe ho nisar”, “ ai sanam jisne tujhe chand sa sura di hai”, etc. Salil Chowdhury also had liking for Mukesh. His songs include “dil tarap tarap ke kah raha hai aa bhi ja”, “ suhana safar” from Madhumati, 1958, “ kahi door jab din dhal jaye”, “maine tere liye hi saat rang ke”, etc., from Anand, 1970.


Other than singing in films of Raj Kapoor, Mukesh always made significant contribution in songs related to pathos, which were sung for different actors. Songs like “yeh mera diwanapan”, for Dilip Kumar, “sawan ka mahina”, for Sunil Dutt, “ taoba yeh matwali chal” for Manoj Kumar, etc., had a lasting impact even after 40 years of their creation. May be the passionate andaz of Mukesh use to touch the hearts of the listeners, and that was one of the reasons inspite of having nomajor classical background Mukesh’s songs ended up being major hits.


There was lot of truth in his voice and his singing which persuaded many composers and lyricists to compose songs for him. Songs like “chandan sa badan”, composed by Kalyanji Anandji,” “saranga teri yaad me”, composed by Sardar Mullick, “ aansoo bhari hai” composed by Dattaram, “bhuli hui yaaden” composed by Madan Mohan had the identity of being typical songs composed for Mukesh, where his realisation of the words and tragic spirit had helped him to do justice to the landmark creations. His other songs for Raj Kapoor include “ mera naam raju”, “ aa ab laut chale”, “ har dil jo pyar karega”, “duniya banana wale”, “ chalia mera naam”, “chale jana”, etc.

Mukesh also had made major contribution to filsm like Saathi, where for a change Rajender Kumar had given lips for his songs which were composed by Naushad. Khayyam’s soft tunes were given right expression by Mukesh in the film Kabhi Kabhi, 1975, in songs like “kabhi kabhi”, “mai pal do pal ka shayar hoon’, etc.


It is very difficult to highlight the contribution of the singing legend in a small article who had made major contribution to bollywood films for over 30 years. But there is no doubt that bollywood music would have remained incomplete without the contribution of Mukesh, which had galvanised the golden age of music along with major contributions from Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, Talat Mehmood, Lata, Asha and others.