It  was a crisply cold night on April 13^th as I walked into Symphony hall to attend the concert titled:  Asha Bhosle – 75 years of Asha – A musical journey presented by World Music.  I went in with very little expectations, mainly because I had heard some very negative reviews of her show a couple of years ago with the Kronos quartet.  Nevertheless, there was still this twinge of excitement, because it was Asha Bhosle performing - one of my favourite singers as long as I can remember and I have always idolized her voice and style of singing and it had been 10 long years since I had attended a concert of hers!   

The flyer for the show states that Asha is the most recorded voice on earth, with over 13000 titles to her credit and has had a six decade long career as a playback singer with over 900 films to her credit.  She has also had crossover successes with musicians like Boy George, Code Red and the Kronos Quartet.  Besides her vocal skills, she is a culinary expert and has opened very up-market restaurants in Dubai and other countries.  She is now celebrating her 75^th birthday with the release of ’75 years of Asha’, a CD of all new music released in April 2008 and also a series of concerts in the US and Canada through April.  She will be backed by an 8 piece orchestra and will be joined by Amit Kumar, son of Kishore Kumar in this series of concerts. 

The show started with very little delay around 8.05 pm with Amit Kumar taking the stage and introducing the 8 member orchestra and opening with his own song from Teri Kasam -Ye zameen gaa rahi hai followed by Aanewal Pal and Phoolon Ke rangse. Then the moment everybody was waiting for arrived – with great flourish Amit announced the arrival of the one and only ‘the living legend’ Asha Bhosle.  There was considerable and palpable excitement amongst the audience who gave her a rousing welcome! Asha made an elegant entry on to the stage, clad in her shimmering and sequined white saree with jewellery to match and greeted the audience and started off her evening with Raat baaki from Namak Halal.  I must confess that I was a tad disappointed with the opening song, but only because I had wished fervently that she would start off with Aayiye Meherban or one of her more classy numbers! And no sooner had I started wondering how her voice was going to sound, all my worries were put to rest and it was indeed incredible to hear her sing –exercising so much of control and still so expressive and appealing.   

Saawan Aaya re was followed by a walk down memory lane as she regaled the audience with snippets of her early days as a singer and then she broke into the strains of Chain Se Hum Ko kabhi, the song that heralded her famous break up with O.P.Nayyar and won her the Filmfare award for Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaaye and for some strange reason was never included (or even picturised) in the film – it was a near flawless rendition of the song and clear testimony to her unparalleled voice modulation. She held the audience enraptured through the song and then went into Madan Mohan’s Lag Jaa Gale – originally sung by her sister Lata.  Earlier she had done a highly amusing segment imitating her siblings singing a Marathi song! 

When at one point, the crowd kept demanding Dum Maro Dum –she just graciously smiled and assured them ‘all in good time’… 

Her opening aalap for Shurami, a Marathi song, gave me the goose bumps – what mastery she wielded as her vocals so effortlessly explored and exploited the finer nuances of the raga and she had the audience spellbound.  At this point, she also introduced the orchestra with a few words about each musician.  Then came Jhumka Gira Re which had the audience clapping and whistling – she didn’t let the tempo flag as she went into Tum Jo Mile to dil ne kahan and followed it up with Churaliya which drove the audience quite wild with joy! 

Amit was soon back on stage to join her in a series of duets which included O nigahen mastana and O meri soni and the classic Jaane Jaan.  She danced vibrantly with Amit Kumar through their duets and matched him for every move of his.   

Amit Kumar also had the audience engaged with his narration and peppered it with a lot of anecdotes esp. of his father, Kishore Kumar.  Besides his own songs which also included the wonderful bade ache lagte hain from Balika Bodhu, he did a number of Kishore’s songs most of which he did justice to.  He had the audience in splits when he recounted the original tune that Dada Burman had planned for Roop Tera and then went on to sing the song as we all know it but with Bengali lyrics following it up with the original song. 

What was especially remarkable was the way Asha carried the entire show with her own commentary and did not need a compere to hold the show together – she was charming, witty and with her linguistic skills, she was able to converse freely with the audience in Hindi, English, Bengali and Punjabi and Marathi – she touched and amused and enchanted and engaged the audience throughout the show.   

The second segment saw Asha in a change of costume and before she started singing she did make a statement that her songs were being remixed so much that she sometimes wondered if the original was her own song and if she had sung it at all!!!  With this she broke into her super hit song from Don (the original version) Ye mera dil…….and wow –she showed the audience that she still rocked!  The orchestra simply excelled in this very elaborately orchestrated song. 

The final segment of her performance had Asha singing a few Punjabi numbers including Mera laung vacha.  By now, the audience was dancing with complete abandon in the aisles! Her agility on stage even at the age of 75 was really astonishing– in fact she was able to get the audience up and on their feet dancing away when she told them that if at her age, she could be dancing then so could they! That was all they needed to get up and boogie in the aisles. 

Succumbing to audience pressure to give them one of her oomph songs, the grand finale was Piya tu ab tu aaja (really – how could an Asha show be complete without Dum Maro Dum or Piya tu or even Aaja Aaja)– and she really rocked her way through the song –  and as the last strains of Monica swept through the hall, and Asha and Amit had taken a bow to a standing ovation from the audience, the band took over with a tremendous improvisation and concluded the show with resounding applause from the audience.  It was delightful to see the young guitarist dancing away merrily through all the songs – he was so uninhibited and floored the audience with his boyish charm as he so deftly played and sang back up and danced! 

Nitin Shankar (percussionist and music director) who has composed new songs for Asha’s latest CD) and his remarkable team namely Anup Shankar on the electronic pads, Sachin Dhamankar (dholak & tabla), Ankeet Bham (drums), Santosh Mulekar and Deepak Walke (keyboards), Narendra Salaskar (guitar) and Dominic Fernandes (Bass) and the sound engineer for the evening, deserve special mention for the superb accompaniment and the very disciplined and well synchronized performance that evening! 

It was only during one point of her rendition of Dil Cheez Kya hai that Asha’s sur dropped – but she recovered admirably and got back on track for the rest of the song – and any doubts or misgivings we might have had quickly vanished on hearing her sing In aankhon ki masti.  To the keen ear, it was apparent that she was singing most of her songs in lower scales than the originals but her superb vocal modulation and control and versatility were also evident as she glided from classical to semi-classical to ballad to rock and roll to Punjabi folk effortlessly.   

One also did feel cheated each time Asha concluded a song with just one stanza – we wanted more but I guess this way she was able to sing more songs.  She also paid tribute to the great singers of yesteryears by singing her favourites amongst their hits, including Bekarar Karke, Jaane Kahan, Babuji Dheere, Maine Poocha Chand.  Though this seemed to eat into the time she could have spent singing more of her own songs, it also spoke of humility and grace on the part of such a senior performer to be able to acknowledge and honour other singers in a public forum.   

It was also indeed a pity that she sang almost none of O.P.Nayyar’s compositions, except Chain se hum ko kabhi and Babuji Dheere Chalna (only by default as a tribute to Geeta Dutt), considering that the OPN-Asha combine had produced some of the most unforgettable and brilliant hindi film songs of the 20^th century. 

Also maybe the show could have gone on a little longer but given her age and her untiring and sparkling performance that evening, one should cut her some slack.  I did talk to a few people after the show who were unequivocal in their praise and appreciation for Asha’s performance. 

What’s the secret of Asha’s eternal singing youth? As Raju Bharatan mentioned in an article in the Hindustan Times recently -She never hesitated to reinvent herself.  And that is exactly what she kept doing on stage that evening as well, reinventing all along…… as she so smoothly transitioned from classical to light, from tender to passionate, from mellow to racy, from serious to impish ………   Need I say more…………..?

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