Path: Lehigh.EDU!netnews.upenn.edu!newsserver.jvnc.net!newsserver2.jvnc.net!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!sgigate.sgi.com!fido.asd.sgi.com!news From: Harish Suvarna Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.misc Subject: Asha Bhosle in Bay Area. Date: 2 Jun 1996 02:23:33 GMT Organization: Silicon Graphics Inc., Mountain View, CA Lines: 161 Message-ID: <4oqtv5$53t@fido.asd.sgi.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: xavierite.mti.sgi.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1S (X11; I; IRIX 5.3 IP20) To: sundu X-URL: news:rec.music.indian.misc Finally the much anticipated day of this show by Asha happened yesterday in Berkely. Huge crowd may be 400-500 turned up. I could see many silk sarees, suits, salwaar-kamizs, Jeans and also many people who really belonged to the generation of Biswaas/Saigal/Naushaad/Roshan/Chitalkar/SDB/Salil. Ofcourse, they would have really loved to see the great of their generation. I guess many of them came from India to spend summer with their children. And the children working here could not have taken them to a better show. The show started may be 20 minutes late, but it was OK. They put up a big screen in the center of the stage and project vedio clips whenever they wanted to. It started with showing Asha singing that 'Piyaa Tu Ab to Aaja' and various other clips of her illustrious career. To a thunderous applause Asha Bhosle walked on to the Podium. She was in total jovial mood. She told that she sung for heroines like Madhubala, Nargis,Meena Kumari, Waheeda and also to Kajol, Urmila and Aiswarya Rai (very recently). She explained that when she started career the punjaabis used to dominate the Indian Music scene and she had to establish herself among the presense of Nurjehaan,Geeta Dutt, Shamshhad Begum and Lata. She imitated how all the four used to sing in early 50s and late 40s. She 'picked' Mohe Bhool Gaye to imitate Lata. So she decided to have a strategy to sing in a different fashion to establish herself. The strategy as I understood was to sing normally (not with nose), sing in pop/rock-roll style also. The other singers were Amit Kumar and Sonu Nigam. Let me tell you pals, Sonu gave a sterling performance. He wil give us a good break in the next decade. It was really freshening to hear his voice. The following are the songs she sang 1) Tanhaa Tanhaa Yahan pe jina (Rangila) 2) Aayeye Meheruban Baithiye Jaaneja Shauk se lijiye Ishk ka Imtehaan 3) Dil Cheez Kya Hai Aap meri Jaan Lijiye... (Umrao Jaan) Here before singing she explained that, while recording the song she told Rekha that by this song/film, she would get the 'darzaa' of Meena Kumari. But the film bombed at box office. So Rekha was grim cribbed to Asha 'Aap ne bola tha ki Meena Kumari ka darzaa mil jayega. Na paise mila hai naa naam mila hi'. Then Asha has adviced her that 'sirf paison ke liye kaam mat karo kabhi kabhi kaam ke vaaste kaam karo'. So after some 6/8 months both got National Awards and at that occassion Asha looked at Rekha with her eyes questioning 'ab kyaa bolte ho?'. 4) Piyaa Tu Ab to Aaja 5) Eena meena Tika dai damanika.. 6) She explained that a singer is complete only when he/she has experienced 'dard'. If they have not experienced 'dard' they can not sing well. She gave the example of Baijubawra trying to learn music for the sake of defeating Tansen. In between Baijubawra's 'preyasi' dies because of a snake bite and out of that grief Baiju sang very well. Then only his guru Swamy Haridass said his education is over. At this point on the vedio Kishore da came singing 'Aaachanl se tujhe mi leke chalu'. Asha commented that Kishore Jaisa singer na hua tha na hoga. She said he was natural singer. So after the mukhda, Amit Kumar appeared on the stage to finish the song. Then Amit Kumar took over. 7) Khilte hain Gul Yahaan 8) yeh jawaani hai diwaani meri ... (RDB MD) 9) Rama oh Rama Tune yeh kya duniyaa banayi Asha came back. 10) Dummare Dum some duests with Amit Kumar 11) Jaane ja Dundhta Phir Rahan 12) Lekar Hum Diwaana Dil 13) Mera Piya piya mora jiya pukaare 14) Haal Kaisa hai janaab ka At this point Sonu Nigam was introduced as the one who will carry the mantle of Rafi. He started the show with the Rafi's song (Rafi used to sing this first in all his abroad shows) 15) Badi Door se aaya hun mi tofaa laya hu. Then he sang the Shammi-Rafi hits thoda-thoda. 16) Tumse se achcha kown hai Baar baar Dekho Aasmaan se aaya farishta Yun to hamne lakh hasi dekhi hai 17) Then the song of the show Sou Nigam sang Mannadey-Roshan-RK combination Laaga Chuneri Me daag Chupaavu kaise. This Sonu Nigam is a hope for this generation. His voice was sweet, His basics are strong (shruti-laya-aalapna he is well trained classically). He was Modest. My personal hunch is that he will make it big like Rafi, KK. 18) After this he explicitly gave a statement that how tough to sing 17) and how easy to sing 18) Ek Ho Gaye Hum aur tum to udgae .. Asha came back to sing some duets with Rafi. Again just mukhdaas. 19) yeh Ladka haye allha Diwaana Hua Baadal Raaste Hum safar Woh hasina Julfe waali jaane Ishaaro Ishaaro Ude jab jab julf tere (kashmir ki kali) 20) Jarra sa Jhumlu (DDLJ) 21) Tananana ... (some classical piece of her guru. could'nt get it). 22) Kuch na kaho kuchbhi na kaho. At this point she remembered RDB and became sentimental. She cried. 23) Yai re Yai re jor lagaake nacho re Then the program was abruptly winded up. Every one was expecting that it will go for another 3,4 songs. But that compere (so lousy and mean) said that we should clap and the show is over. Then Asha came and said namashkaar.. Throught the show she was jovial and danced on the stage also. At the end it appeared so short a program. I would crib that the program is short even if she had performed for another 2 hrs. But 23 songs and 3 hours, is'nt it really short? One of the security officers (american) asked us who she was when we tried to get her autograph. Before I could say, one cute lady (blue silk saree) beside me replied that she is a living legend etc singing for the last 40/50 years. Then that american asked 'is it like Michel Jackson in US'. The lady gave a honest opinion of hers 'Much more than Michel Jackson. We are around 800 millions in India and every one loves her'. Finally someone else took the autograph papers of mine in the crowd. -- ================================================================== Harish Suvarna Work Phone: 415 933 4333 MIPS, Silicon Graphics Inc Home Phone: 408 383 0645 2011 N Shoreline Blvd Email: sundu@mti.sgi.com MS 10U-181, Mountain View CA 94039-7311 ==================================================================