Asha
Asha ki awaaz to paani hain" - Asha's voice is like water
that mixes homogeneously with anything. These were
Panchamda's words for his and also our beloved enchantress
Asha Bhosale and the whole world cannot deny this fact.
Asha tai sang for his father for years. In the early sixties
decade Asha was the only singer who recorded maximum for
Sachin Dev Burman. The young Rahul assisted his father and
also gave the singers rehearsals. Later he also ghost
directed S.D's films. R.D then established himself as a music
director and worked with her in some films when they
realised the compatibility between them. He as a versatile
musician and she as a versatile
singer went all lengths in music. The musical duo later settled
as a happy couple after tying a
knot in July'1979.

Also other musicians of yesteryears experimented but the
common factor in their experiments was Asha. Sachin da
recorded the first ever cabaret in her voice for Dev Anand's
'Taxi driver' - "jeene do aur jeeyo", C. Ramchandra tried
so
many like in Rock'n'roll and in classical in Navrang. Roshan
gave her the best qawwali "Nigahen milane ko jee chahta
hain" in 'Dil hi to hai', O.P Naiyyar and Asha were again
a
wonderful team. Also her brother Hridaynath tried most of
his difficult to sing songs on Asha tai and succeeded.
Similarly Pancham da's experiments in music were frequent
and to see them succeed he needed Asha. Both shared a wonderful
chemistry when they sang
or composed. Both experimented regardless the consequences.
It all started after 'Teesri
manzil'. Asha was a bit skeptical whether to sing to his tunes
initially because he had a different
style of composing but she took it as a challenge and just
listen to the sheer magic in all its
songs. "O mere sona re", "aaja aaja", "o haseena zulfonwali"
are obviously the most famous
songs in this film but as ever Asha was always one-up in all
her duets be it with any musician or
singer one cannot deny her grace in "Dekhiye sahibo woh koi
aur thi" where in every verse she
sounds just 'DIFFERENT'. Panchamda and Asha tai sang their
first duet in 'The train' and then
teamed up for many numbers including the beautiful "Sapna
mera toot gaya" in 'Khel khel
mein'.

Some of the greatest songs of this phenomenal couple
are "mar dalega dard-e-jigar" (Pati-patni), Jaane jaan
dhoondta phir raha"(Jawaani deewani), "Kitne bhi tu karle
sitam", "jaane jaan o meri"(Sanam teri kasam), "Kya ghazab
karte ho jee"(Love story), "Sharma naa yoon"(Joshila), "Do
lafzon ki hain dil ki kahani" (The great gambler), "Hawa ke
saath saath", "Zindagi hain khel"( Seeta aur Geeta), "Piya
tu
ab to aaja"(Caravan), "Mera naam hain Shabnam" (Kati
patang), "Bechara dil kya kare", "Ghar jayegi" (Khushboo),
"Dum maro dum"(Hare Rama Hare Krishna), "Bheega badan
jalne laga"(Abdullah),"Choro choro solah singar karoongi"(Manoranjan),
"Hai hai thanda paani"
(Bombay to Goa), "Mausam mastana", "Jhuka ke sar" (Satte pe
satta), "Yeh ladka hai
Allah"(Hum kisise kam nahi), "Aur kya ahd-wafa hote hain"(Sunny),
"Piya bawari", "Sun sun
sun didi tere liye"( Khoobsurat), . In all these songs one
can find a range of styles and
experiments. Also some of their not much famous songs like
"oye tauba mujhe toone badnaam
kar diya"(Jawaani deewani), "Hey baba hey baba"(Manzil manzil),
"Badal jo barse to"(Gardish),
"Jashn-e bahara"(Abdullah), "Chotisi kahani se" (Ijazat),
"Aaja mere pyaar aaja"(Heeralal
Pannalal), "Wallah kya nazara hain"(Ishq Ishq Ishq) are substantial
but ignored by the
intelligent listeners.

"Baat adhoori kyun hain"(Majboor) and "Meri nazar hain
tujhpe"(The Burning Train) are best examples of western
and Indian classical fused and presented by this team. "Hain
agar dushman" in 'hum kisise kam nahin' and the "Pal do pal ka saath hamara"in 'The burning Train' (in both Asha excels
over Rafi) are the evergreen qawwali's in film history. They
go high altitudes in 'yaadon ki baaraat' with "Aap ke kamare
mein koi rehta hain", this is possible only with a team like
Asha-Kishore-RD. RD confidently moved when Asha
accompanied him and so came up with utter classics. The
Gulzar-Asha-Pancham team was always enthusiastic to innovate
and always succeeded, but
1987 was a special year for them when they created waves with
'Dil padosi hain' in the non-film
music world and on the filmi front with 'Ijazat' which had
beautiful songs like "mera kuchh
samaan", Katra katra milti hain" and "Khali haath shyam aayee
hain" Asha Bhosale and Gulzar
both won the national award for their work in 'Ijazat'.

Asha never let down his hopes. Both can be rightly
termed as the best musical couple. Neither was he less nor
was she a loser, both Titans, both excellent, both equally
in
love with music and each other. Both married to music, both
married to each other. Asha Rahul Dev Burman, one name
that says/sings all.
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