Legendary Indian singer Asha Bhosle, who was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 11th edition of Dubai International Film Festival (Diff) on Thursday, is a woman of few words.
But she doesn’t mince them.
At 81, the world’s most recorded artist — she has sung 13,000 songs in several Indian languages including Hindi and Marathi — doesn’t hesitate to critique the way music is churned out today.
“Lyrics are very bad. There’s no deep meaning and I don’t like that. They don’t know how to write songs anymore,” said Bhosle in an interview with tabloid! at Madinat Jumeirah.
Where are the good lyricists such as Anand Bakshi and Majrooh Sultanpuri, she asked.
“Nowadays writers are very less. There are only two noted lyricists such as Javed Akhtar and Gulzaar saab. It isn’t like the old times when there were many writers.”
The singer who began her career in 1943 and is credited with long-enduring hits, including O Mere Sona Re, In Aankho Ki Masti and Piya Tu Ab To Aaja, says though she doesn’t enjoy the process of music recording anymore, she would continue to work because her love for music dominates her existence.
“Nowadays [making] music is very easy because they record one word or one line in a day due to computers. The voice sounds different and can be changed. I don’t like that. There’s no soul in those songs. Earlier we used to sing in front of the microphone for around four or five hours. All emotions were there. That was a different era,” said Bhosle.
Just like her attire — a muted pistachio silk sari and multiple long strings of pearls — she is understated when it comes to her own achievements. Ask her how she managed to record more than five songs a day for several decades, she says: “it’s all right”.
“Work is work. I had to sing day and night. I worked day and night. I used to work from 7am till 3am. That’s why my songs are 13,000. When the Guinness World Book Of Records recognised me as the world’s most recorded artist: I just thought it was my life’s work,” said Bhosle. Her typical work day included setting up appointments with a string of musicians every two hours. There was no time to take it easy.
“And those appointments meant live recording. It was difficult because it was hard work. And not just hard work, but we had to use our brains.”
While she has scaled down on the pace considerably in the last few years, Bhosle is still willing to experiment and push boundaries. At 79, she made her big-screen acting debut in the Marathi film, Mai, in which she played a woman afflicted with Alzheimer’s, chronicling her journey when her children disown her due to her illness.
“I didn’t like it so much. But my son Anand is my backbone. He said I have done everything like singing all styles of songs in English and Hindi. So he said try movies. So I said OK and I tried my best,” said Bhosle with a shrug.
For a legendary singer, who has won multiple awards, including Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2000, Padma Vibhushan in 2008 and the Diff Lifetime Achievement this week, Bhosle is tolerant of today’s trend of actors turning into singers.
“She’s a very good singer and a nice person,” said Bhosle about actress Priyanka Chopra’s attempts to carve an international pop career.
“In my opinion, anybody can sing. If they have a voice, they must sing.” On the opening night of the Diff, she proved good her theory when she broke into an impromptu song on the stage prior to receiving her award, with the audience clapping to her tunes.
“I loved it. It felt great receiving the award — not in India but in Dubai. I knew that Indians in Dubai knew me, but yesterday I saw so many people in kanduras [the UAE’s national dress] following my music in the auditorium. It felt so nice. To receive the Lifetime Award felt great.”
Did you know?
Asha Bhosle, who has two namesake restaurants called Asha’s in Wafi City and Mall of the Emirates, will be back in Dubai at the end of this month to ring in 2015.
-1554625842490_16a45057f34_small.jpg)
