Asha Bhonsle

It’s not difficult to pair Asha Bhonsle with Sachin Tendulkar, despite the decades that come between them. And Ashaji — as I call her — is looking forward to it. She wants to sing a duet with the Master Blaster. And then, once that is done, she hopes to croon with actor John Abraham.

No, Bhonsle is not the one to age. A young 74, she is raring to go. Work is about to begin on her new album, Asha and Friends, Volume II. And Bhonsle continues to show a great willingness to innovate and experiment. No wonder she has always been regarded as a singer who is way ahead of the times.

I first met her in the late eighties. I was a journalist and she was recording a song at a Mumbai studio. The worried music director didn’t want me to hear the song lest I leaked out the details, but Bhonsle called me in, telling the director that I was just a cub journalist who would do no harm.

She didn’t remember this when I talked of it, years later. I had had a few odd interviews with her when I met her while she was recording for the album, Asha and Friends. Shamir Tandon, who conceptualised and composed the album, had originally thought of her singing with other big musicians. But the gutsy lady had another thought — she wanted to sing with people from different walks of life. People such as actor Sanjay Dutt and cricketer Brett Lee.

“You know, it will help give the music of the album a different dimension. I know it is tough to get new people to sing but you will also have a great time shooting the videos. Everybody will watch and hear these songs as well,” she opined. She was right — the album is a success today.

Bhonsle, currently on a world tour, keeps pace with music as well as technology. “I earlier had an aversion to technology. Once, when I was recording a song, I was given headphones to wear. I found the pair uncomfortable and made a face and chucked it away. R.D. Burman was watching me intently. He walked up to me and told me to put the headphones back on my ears. He said, ‘You need to move with technology. Music will not be the same in the future.’ So years later when Shamir Tandon contacted me in the US and asked me to send a recorded voice of mine for a tune he had e-mailed me, I was ready for it. I recorded it and sent it back.”

The song turned into Huzoor e ala from the film Page 3. “We all know how popular it is today. I have felt the need to keep pace with the times,” she says.

Her strength has been her desire to be different — something that music pundits from Bollywood often attribute to her being a younger sister of the bigger legend, Lata Mangeshkar. Her towering presence in the Indian music industry has clearly meant that Bhonsle has had to prove herself from time to time. “I like to do different things. I am very particular about the things I have and use as well.”

That’s true. Hours before a video shoot with Sanjay Dutt, Bhonsle calls me to discuss the colour of her sari. She is worried about how Sanjay Dutt would feel singing and dancing with her. “He is such a big actor. Do you think he will sing with me?” she asked. She needn’t have worried. “How could I ever say no to you, Ashaji? You are such a great figure for us,” said Sanjay Dutt.

I saw her have a very hearty laugh when she heard Brett Lee’s initial apprehension about singing with her. The cricketer, who did not know Bhonsle’s age, didn’t want any romantic link-ups during the video as his wife was pregnant. He was a bit perturbed despite having sung a romantic number himself. “Has he seen me? Why didn’t you tell him that he is 29 and I am 74,” she said, laughing uncontrollably.

Now, the duets with Tendulkar and Abraham have to be worked on. After she returns from her world tour, she will start recording and then shooting with some five or six more achievers from various fields for Asha and Friends, Volume II. “I want to sing very selectively now. I record three or four songs a month. I refuse a lot of singing offers these days. I like playing grandmother as well,” says the singer who is also enjoying acting in videos.

That is why her daily travel routine covers over 75 kilometres in Mumbai. She moves from her Peddar Road residence to Khar, where her son lives, to meet her grandchildren every day. Then she goes to Santa Cruz, which was her husband R.D. Burman’s house. This is the place where she likes to spend time in solitude, or for some music sessions with musicians. That house holds some great memories for her.

Children and new talent hold a great place in her heart. “That is the reason why I decided to go and judge a show on TV. It was fun. The children who were singing in the competition were extremely talented. They even took on some tough songs to impress me and the other judges. I guess it is also the kind of pressures that parents put on children these days. I have seen how parents are desperate to make their children succeed and how much they push them.”

She knows what she is talking about, for she started singing some six decades ago. “But no one goaded me into it. Today the scene is different. But then, at the same time you get to witness talent at an early age,” she says.

I mention the Himesh Reshamiyya controversy and she says, “I am over it now. I just said what I felt then. He is a good boy and even met me a few times and apologised to me. He is a good singer and successful, too. I hear he is going to act in movies. He has potential, and the will power. He will succeed,” says Bhonsle.

The controversy happened after Reshamiyya was accused of singing through his nose, and retorted that so did R.D. Burman. Bhonsle, who is known to speak her mind, was critical of Reshamiyya’s words. But the chapter has long been closed.

The best part about her is that everything still excites her. “I went to Pune for a show which had earlier been cancelled because of rain. But the next time it was held, it started raining again. One would have expected the audience to run off and take shelter, for it was raining heavily, but they stood and heard me sing. I felt very good. Over 5000 people were present in a place meant for 3000 people. I was actually moved by the gesture,” says the songstress.

Not many know that Bhonsle is a brilliant mimic and can easily copy half the people from the industry — including me! What’s difficult, though, is to imitate her. There is, after all, only one Asha Bhonsle.