‘Music is my breath’: I faced difficulties but when I look back, it all seems mazedar, says legendary singer Asha Bhosle at 90
Music, like an ever flowing river, never ends, says Asha Bhosle. And as she turned 90 on Friday with a live concert in Dubai, India’s singer for all times and ages could well be describing her own career that started an incredible eight decades ago.
“At the age of 90, I have to stand for three hours on stage and sing songs, I’m happy I can do this at this age,” Bhosle said. She sang her first film song Chala Chala Nav Bala for the Marathi film Majha Bal in 1943. Eighty years and some 12,000 songs later, Bhosle is readying to hold the stage again — and shows no signs of slowing down.
Music, she said, is simply like breathing. And it wasn’t always easy, said the singer whose voice has emoted every nuance and mood for actors down generations, right from Meena Kumari to Kajol and hundreds of others in between.
“Humari saans nahin hoti hai toh aadmi mar jaata hai. Mere liye music meri saans hai (For me, music is my breath). I have spent my life with this thought. I have given a lot to music. I feel good I’ve come out of difficult times. Many times I felt I would not be able to survive, but I did,” Bhosle said.
From peppy numbers such as Piya Tu Ab To Aaja and O Haseena Zulfon Wali to soulful ghazals like Dil Cheez Kya Hai and the classical Tora Man Darpan Kehlaye, Bhosle has been the voice millions of Indians have tuned into day and night.
“In every field, there’s politics. In films too there’s politics, so it is not easy. I believe a lot in destiny; whatever is meant for me will come to me and what is not meant for me, I’ll never get that. I faced difficulties but today when I look back, it all looks mazedar (fun) as I came out of it,” she said.
