QUOTE MARTIAL
MAKING WAVES
SHORT TAKES
ROUGH CUTS
MEMORIES
ARCHIVES
MOVIES CHAT

Chura liya hain tumne jo dil ko
Nazar nahin churana sanam...

Sharmila Taliculam in Madras

Not a whit had changed. The voice should have, according to the laws of nature, belonged to a 63-year-old. Instead, the sonorous, svelte tones seemed to come from someone who had just crossed her teens.

The uncrowned queen of Hindi film music had waved her magic wand and left her audience mesmerised. It was one glorious number after the other, as the sold-out SAF indoor auditorium in Madras swayed to her rhythm.

Asha Bhosle's concert was a small one -- the auditorium seated only 7,000 members -- the audience has a noticeable lack of South Indians, but it was hugely successful.

Concert details
July 5: July 6 July 11 July 12 July 13 July 18 July 19 July 20 July 26 July 27	New York Toronto Orlando Newark Atlanta Dallas Houston San Francisco Los Angeles Calgary

Cries of 'Once More' rang in the background as Asha, singing in her usual inimitable style, enthralled her audience for a full three hours. The concert explored the gamut of film music of Independent India (from 1947 to 1997) and celebrated 50 years of her singing career.

Her first stage performance in 12 years, it was a precursor to a year-long tour that would begin on July 5 in New York, do another 10 shows in the United States, go on to the Far East and then the Gulf. The tour will conclude in a grande finale in Bombay.

Like her son, Anand Bhosle, put it, "We have heard and seen great singers like Kishoreda, Mukesh and Rafisaab. But she has known them, personally and professionally. She can relive those moments for us."

Which was why the concert was called Moments in Time. The songs were selected with care, each one had a special memory attached to it. Eina Mina Dika, for example. It seems music director C Ramachandra called her up one fine day and asked her to see a film at the Eros theatre in Bombay. He wanted her to pay attention to a particular song, Let's Rock -- and reproduce tone for him. Asha obeyed his instructions -- the rest, of course, was history.

Each number was studded with one such precious nugget. Between songs, she also entertained people with interesting anecdotes from her long career in films. There were poignant moments, too, that brought tears both to the eyes of the singer and the audience. She was particular struck while rendering R D Burman's Mera kuch samaan from Ijazaat.

Yet, she had the audience on their feet with her very first number, Tanha tanha (Rangeela). With effortless ease, she then slipped back into the 1940s with Aaeeye meherban (Howrah Bridge). Ever rendition earned her a shower of applause and 'Once More' demands. But, of course, it was not easy to satisfy everyone in the short span of three hours.

Asha stunned the audience with her impeccable imitation of Shamshad Begum, Noorjehan and Geeta Dutt. But, as she later pointed out, it wasn't too much of a strain since she was used to changing her voice to suit the actresses on whom her songs would be picturised.

Added attractions were renditions of the immemorable Kishore Kumar-Asha Bhosle (Piya piya piya mora jiya pukare, Paanch rupaiya barah anna, Haal kaisa hai janab ka) and Mukesh-Asha Bhosle duets. The songs came alive once more as Asha teamed with their respective sons, Amit Kumar and Nitin Mukesh.

Amit also went solo with Koi lauta de mere beete huain din, Jeevan ke safar mein rahi, O mere dil ke chain while Nitin entertained with Jeena yahan marna yahan, Kabhie kabhie mere dil mein, Duniya banane wale and Dum dum diga diga. Asha paid him a rare compliment by asking him to accompany her on Rafi's Aaja aaja main hu pyar tera and R D's Piya tu ab tho aaja.

And then, the audience went wild. As the sensuous Zeenat Aman came on screen to request Asha for Dum maaro dum, the song that shot Zeenat to fame. In fact, says Asha, director-actor Dev Anand disliked the song to the extent that he originally wanted to chuck it.

Meanwhile, the audience was renting the air with "Sona, sona." It took the melody queen a while to realise that they wanted her to sing O mere sona re. And, as she broke into the next number Zara sa jhoom loo main, the audience chimed in with Na re na re na.

She wound up with stanzas from some of the songs she had sung in Gujarati, Marwari, Punjabi and Tamil. The curtain-downer -- Rangeela re from Rangeela.

And, as usual, the audience was left dissatisfied. It was 10.30 pm, she had been singing for three hours and she seemed tired. Yet, she sailed off the stage with a smile, promising her fans that she would be back.

Photographs by Sreeram Selvaraj