Happy Birthday Asha Bhosle!! You have given us some of the most joyous, hottest, sultriest, coolest, most versatile songs over the years. Savour and love singing each one of your stunning songs: Aage bhi jaane na tu, Zindagi ittefaq hai, all Ijaazat songs, sooo many gorgeous fun songs with Kishore, sultry Helen songs, the ghazals of Umrao Jaan, thumris of Lekin, non film ghazals. Such an amazing body of work!!
Since I am technically covering Kishore songs at the moment and it's Asha Bhosle's bday-besides they made an absolutely stunning singing pair- bringing you some lovely Kishore-Asha duets.
CHHOD DO ANCHAL
Now this was a singing pair made in heaven. Asha and Kishore are synonymous with a youthful vibe, some great coquettish chemistry, fun and frolic. Two voices perfectly in sync and complementing each other and creating magical moments of camaraderie, comfort and pure craft. Both had an unassuming, casual style of singing and seemingly effortless delivery ever since their first duet 'Ek do teen chaar' in the movie Muqaddar (1950) that lent itself particularly well to slightly humorous, 'nok jhonk' love songs, the kinds that could always shoo away all tensions and stresses in a jiffy and make you want to venture out and court a little delectable trouble of your own!!:-)
YEH DUNIYA WALE POOCHHENGE
And yet to say that Asha-Kishore could only sing frothy, frivolous numbers would be wrong. Clearly they had a more young contemporary feel to their voices as compared to say Lata and Rafi who were mostly pitched in for songs requiring more soul, more 'Thehraav' or solid timbre, but Kishore Asha did sing some very enchanting, serious raag based numbers such as this one. It is a lovely composition and has that air of old world romance. Asha's vivacious voice is reasonably reined in and matched by Kishore's mature mellow vocals. The lead couple too kind of pretty much define that era. Dev playing the quintessential, chivalrous, thorough gentleman and Asha Parekh who personified genteel, elegant, pert-updo-and-stitched-into-tight-shirts kind of doll-like wide-eyed delicateness.
MERI SONI MERI TAMANNA
But it was with R D Burman's music that Asha and Kishore gave some of their most memorable duets. Times were changing, the music was getting more westernised and so were the characterisations. Kishore and Asha paved the way for slightly anglicised phrases or hook lines coming into Hindi songs. Their voices made a carefree college romance more believable(with due respect to Mohd Rafi, hearing him say 'I Love you' would always give a very fatherly love type of feel, I mean have you heard him say 'Happy Burday to You'!!) This was the time when heroines in India too turned more liberated in terms of their attire and mannerisms, spurred by the prevalent International mood of flower power and hippie culture, psychedelic music and social permissiveness.
JAANE JAAN DHOONDHTA
At other times Kishore-Asha upped the cool quotient of an insipid lead with brilliant vocals. As far as range and melody goes, I find this duet of theirs wonderful. So even though it starred the podgy non-actor Kapoor-Randhir and Jaya in a saree with a doll( never could figure out this one!), it is simply R D's music and the easy, natural adaptability of these two voices that make this song worth listening even today.
KEHTE SUNTE BAATON BAATON MEIN
This is one movie that I must have seen 50 times and still catch it happily if its coming on TV. Found Amol Palekar very geekily cute even when I had never heard of the term geek. Tina Munim though not a great actress, looked so fresh and scrubbed clean in this movie and somehow fitted the role of a middle class, innocent working girl to a T. The movie has an easy going pace, very realistic plot and catches the typical pulse of Bombay of those days, a very natural portrayal of the catholic community without getting into caricatures of minorities as in block buster movies of today. Pearl Padamsee was particularly endearing and Tina's brother forever playing the violin at all the wrong moments! It was sweet and something one could relate to. Not to mention this wonderful duet by Kishore- Asha.:-)
SANAM TUM JAHAN MERA DIL WAHAN
But any collection of Asha Bhosle songs is a little incomplete without the sultry seductive number. So this sexy solo. For her's is a voice that was always oozing with sensuality and mystique. It was the classic club crooner voice, the dangerous dancing diva, the temptress and the enchantress. The Jezebel who threw caution to the winds and was the toast of the club circuit. Sizzling in sequined body suits and raven black tresses, her eyes darting killer glances while her mouth spewed double entendres to the Bond-like whisky guzzling hero till she caressed him into lazy, languid stupor and laid siege on the coveted diamond valise with the slithering stealth of a serpent.
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