Happy birthday to Shabana Azmi.

Happy birthday to legendary singer Asha Bhosle.

Happy birthday to Asha Bhosle. The viewers of bollywood films and listeners of music all across the country wish happy birthday to Asha Bhosle on 8th September, 2018. She had remained a legend of legends in the field of music. She came to limelight in the 70s and 80s and ended up being the most successful female playback singer after Lata Mangeshkar. In the 50s, Asha Bhosle had to face the competition from other singers dominating the bollywood playback industry like Lata Mangeshkar, Shamshad Begum, Noorjahan, Suraiya, Geeta Dutt, Suman Kalyanpur, Sudha Malhotra and many other singers. Asha’s successful songs in the 50s include “mur murke na dekh” composed by Shankar Jaikishan in the film Shree 420, “aiye meherban” composed by OP Nayyar in the film Howrah Bridge, “accha ji mai hari” composed by SD Burman in the film Kala Pani, to name a few. In the 60s, OP Nayyar backed Asha Bhosle, and her duets with Rafi in films like Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon released in 1963, Ek Musafir Ek Haseena released in 1962, Mere Sanam released in 1965, Kashmir Ki Kali in 1964, are considered milestones in Indian film music. Her famous duets with Rafi include “naznee bara rangeen hai wada”, “mai pyar ka rahi hoon”, “isharon isharon”, “diwana hua badal”, “bahut shukriya”, “zulf ki chayon me chehere ka ujala lekar”, etc. Few other composers only reposed their confidence on Asha like Khayyam who made her sing memorable songs in Raj Kapoor’s film Phir Subah Hogi, released in 1958. Ravi had given songs to Asha Bhosle in films like Waqt, Humraaz, Gumraah, etc. Some of her notable songs in those films include “in baharon me in fizayon me”, “wo subah kabhi to ayegi”, etc. Roshanlal Nagrath’s famous qawalli “na to karwaki talaash hai” in Barsaat Ki Raat in 1960 featured Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey, Asha Bhosle and Sudha Malhotra. Shankar Jaikishan used Asha Bhosle in Rajender Kumar Vaijayantimala starrer Suraj, notably in the song “kaise samjhayun” which was a classical duet song between Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle. The list can go on. In the 70s Asha Bhosle married RD Burman and it changed the career of the premier singer. Her westernized style of singing was used by RD to give her super hit songs like “piya tu ab tu aja” in the film Karwan, “dum maro dum” in the film Hare Rama Hare Krishna, “chura liya” in the film Yaadon Ki Baraat, etc. She sang in almost all the films where RD Burman composed music. Asha Bhosle had sung landmark qawallies opposite Mohd. Rafi like “hum kisi se kum nahi”, in the film Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahi, “pal do pal ka” in the film Burning Train, etc. In the 80s, Asha Bhosle crossed new milestones by showing her skills in singing mujras in the film Umrao Jaan, composed by Khayyam. All the songs in the film including “dil cheez kya hai”, “justju”, etc., were appreciated by the critics. Her song “mera kuch saman” in Gulzar’s film Ijazat showed the versatile class of singing of Asha Bhosle. She received filmfare awards a number of times and she balanced the innovative style of singing of Kishore Kumar with her own innovation. It is not possible to cover the accomplishments of legendary singer Asha Bhosle in a single article as she had sung more than 25000 songs in hindi and other languages. Even her songs “amar din katena”, “aro dure cholo jai” in Uttam Kumar’s Bengali film Choddobeshi composed by Sudhin Dasgupta was worth mentioning. After marrying RD Burman, she had sung a number of Bengali songs composed by RD Burman. She had even sung ghazals with Ghulam Ali. In 2012, she had remained one of the judges of Sony TV Indian Idol 6 Program along with the other judges Anu Malik, Sunidhi Chauhan and Salim Merchant. There also she did a great job. The listeners expect Asha Bhosle to continue the great work she had started more than 50 years back.

Looking back at combination of Rafisahab with Mehmood on death anniversary.

The viewers of Bollywood films remember Mehmood on his death anniversary on 23rd July, 2018. The viewers of bollywood films remembered Mehmood and showed their respect to legendary comedian Mehmood on 29th September, 2015. He was an indispensable actor during the 60s and 70s. He had acted in different types of roles ranging from serious ones in Choti Behen to villainish roles in Pyaasa and obviously serio-comic roles in Gumnaam. He was the other comedian other than Johnny Walker, who had given lips in majority of songs in landmark films. His combination with Subha Khote and Dhumaal, was as brilliant as the legendary pairs of Dharmender Hema Malini or Shashi Kapoor Nanda. Shankar Jaikishan had always been known to set trends and not follow any existing system created by the other compositions. SJ used Lata to her limit in Barsaat in the late 40s, during a time when the other female singers like Noorjahan, Suraiya, Samshad Begum, Rajkumari were also prominent in singing playback songs in bollywood films. SJ never stuck one single team and that was one of their secrets of success in bollywood films. In respect of Mehmood, it was a tradition for most of the composers to use Manna Dey to sing for Mehmood, most of which were very very successful. SD Burman used Manna Dey to sing “duniya bananewale” in the film Ziddi for Mehmood, where he used Rafi to sing the songs for Joy Mukherjee like “bolo bolo, aye dildaar”, etc. RD Burman used Manna Dey to sing the songs “sawaariya” and “ek chaturnaar” in the film Padosan for Mehmood. LP used Manna Dey to sing “o mere maina” in the film Pyar Kiye Ja, for Mehmood. There are numerous other examples where Manna Dey was used by the composers to suit Mehmood. Shankar Jaikishan had something else in mind. He used Manna Dey in very serious classical songs like “sur na saje” in Basant Bahar, emotional songs like “tu pyar ka sagar hai” in Seema, or folk songs like “chalet musafir” in Teesri Kasam. When it came to Mehmood, SJ experimented with Rafi, and those songs probably are considered the most successful songs of Mehmood in his entire career. The song “ajahu na aye balma sawan bita jai” in the film Saanjh Aur Sawera, picturized on Mehmood, stands out as one of the most classically oriented compositions of SJ for Rafi. The song had both appeal for the mass and also the class. The song “hum kale hai to kya hua dilwale hai” in Gumnaam, became a trademark song of Mehmood. Rafi almost reproduced the style of dialogue throwing of Mehmood in the song and it appeared to the masses that the song was sung by Mehmood himself. SJ used Rafi to sing the song “mai rickshawala” in the black and white era in the film Choti Bahen, during a time when Mehmood’s image was not created. Mehmood almost made people cry in the film and the credit goes to Rafi’s emotions in the song. In the film Zindagi, Rafi’s song for Mehmood titled “ghungharwah mora cham cham baje”, became big hit. The other hit songs of Rafi for Mehmood composed by SJ include “o gori chalona hans ki chaal”, “zindagi mujhko dikhade raasta”, “mai hoon jaani tera”etc. Rafi’s presence was felt in the films Beti Bete, Bhai Bhai, etc. where Mehmood had prominent roles and SJ composed the music of those films. Even the song “bakhma bakhma” in the film Shatranj became successful. Even in the duets that were sung for Mehmood, SJ created a new trend in allowing Suman Kalyanpur to sing some of the songs with Rafi or Sharda to sing some of them, in addition to Lata who had sung around 440 duets with Rafi during the golden age. The songs and the films of the legendary combination of Shankar Jaikishan, Rafi and Mehmood should be restored for their filmic appeal and versatile creations.