Happy birthday to 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, 2009. 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, 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, Ek Musafir Ek Haseena, Mere Sanam, Kashmir Ki Kali, 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”, 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, Ravi, who had given songs to Asha Bhosle in films like Waqt, Humraaz, Gumraah, etc.

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, etc. She sang in almost all the films where RD Burman composed music.

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. 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 in Uttam Kumar’s film Choddobeshi composed by Sudhin Dasgupta was worth mentioning.The listeners expect Asha Bhosle to continue the great work she had started more than 50 years ago.

Joy Mukherjee and OP Nayyar.

Joy Mukherjee and OP Nayyar.

Joy Mukherjee gave hits after hits during 60s films and became extremely popular in an age when inspite of domination of Showman Raj Kapoor and Tragedy King Dilip Kumar, stars of various capabilities displayed their individual skills which include Rajender Kumar, Pradeep Kumar, Bharat Bhushan, Shammi Kapoor and others. The music of the films of Joy Mukherjee played a very significant role in their success and in that context OP Nayyar’s name comes without hesitation.

Joy Mukherjee’s film Ek Musafir Ek Hasina did brilliant business in the early 60s. Raj Khosla’s musical thriller addressed every section of the society with romantic performance of Joy Mukherjee and Sadhna. All the songs of Rafi and Asha picturized on Joy Mukherjee and Sadhna became super hit. It includes songs like “aap yuhin agar humse milte rahe”, “mujhe dekhkar aapka muskurana”, “phir tere shahar me”, “mai pyar ka rahi hoon”, “bahut shukhriya, bari meherbani”, “humko tumhari isqh ne”, to name a few. OP Nayyar was probably at his best in the film and his blend of eastern and western music created the romantic mood for the film.

Joy Mukherjee, Rafi and OP Nayyar’s magical combination continued in the film Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon. Most part of the film was shot at picturesque locations of Jammu & Kashmir and the landscape was as romantic as the songs sung by Rafi and Asha in the film. The prominent songs included “banda parwar, thamlo jigar”, “lakho hai nigahon me”, “nazneen bara rangeen hai wada tera”, “aanchal me sajalena kaliyan”, “zulf ke chayon me chehere ka ujala lekar”, to name a few. Asha Parekh showed her dancing skills to perfection in the film. Rajender Nath played the role of the relief character in the film. In fact OP Nayyar maintained the same standard of music in Shammi Kapoor’s film Kashmir Ki Kali and Biswajeet’s film Mere Sanam which were made after Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon.

Joy Mukherjee’s combination with OP Nayyar continued in the film Humsaya. In that film Sharmila Tagore got the lead role opposite Joy Mukherjee. By that time due to emergence on new actors and actresses in bollywood films, Joy Mukherjee’s popularity declined and the film also did moderate business. In respect of the songs, Rafi’s song “dil ki awaaz bhi sun” became hit. But OP Nayyar gave a number of songs to Mahendra Kapoor was well which did not strike gold in the box –office.

In the 70s, with the advent of action films led by Big B, Vinod Khanna and others, Joy Mukherjee faded away from the film arena. Even OP Nayyar’s music in films like Ek Baar Muskurado did not create storms the way it did in the 60s. The films of Joy Mukherjee and OP Nayyar should be preserved for their immense musical value.