When we talk about versatility in the singing club, Asha Bhosle’s name tops the list. She has a wide repertoire of albums spanning Bollywood films, pop, traditional ghazals, bhajans, folk songs and qawwalis – in fact, her career spans more than 13,000 songs.
In a special interview with The Guardian, she talked about her music career and life. She said how singing in a movie depends a lot on the actor who is playing and the role which is to be enacted. “If I don’t act, the song won’t have any emotion and the actor, too, shall find it difficult. Each song is different and I sing it in the style of the actor or the movie situation, not as myself. They would each sound too similar if I sang all of them in the same style.”
She said that she feels music has moved from the heart to the brain now. “The earlier songs had a lot of meaning. Lyrics made sense. Tunes had more melody.
They were composed from the heart. Now the brain composes songs. Computers do the job which artists did. The songs are more technically perfect because they have been created by the mind, but they have no heart in it. The soul has gone.”
She also spoke about her bests- To choose her favourite of over 13000 songs, she picked Dum Maro Dum, Piya Tu Ab To Aaja and Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko.
She also mentioned Ms. Usha Khanna as one of her favourite (female) music directors.
