To understand our relationship with Asha aunty, one has to go back to our father, music director Chitragupt’s bond with both Lata aunty and Asha aunty. When our dad started around 1946, he got a lot of small-budget films and Asha aunty sang for most of them. Her songs composed by Chirtagupt were big hits like Do dil dhadak rahe hai (Insaaf,1956) with Talat Mehmood, Teri deed se tasalli (Samson, 1964), Aana hai to chale aao with Mohammed Rafi (Taxi Stand, 1958), Ae saba unse keh zara (Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor, 1954), or her fabulous fusion song with Manna Dey. Jodi hamari jamega kaise jaani (Aulad, 1968). Despite so much good work to his credit, we feel our father never got his due.
In 1954-55 AVM studios approached SD Burman for a South film called Shiv Bhakt (1955) but he begged off saying he did only four films a year and directed them to our father and that film was a hit. And thanks to that our dad did a lot of South films.
In Naag Panchami (1953), for which Ashaji sang Oh naag kahi ja basiyo re, Kalyanji bhai played the Been for our dad. Seeing how well he had played the Been, Hemant Kumar invited Kalyanji bhai to play it in Nagin (1954).
Whenever Lataji was recording at Mehboob Studios she would call up and say after recording she would come home for lunch and would stay the whole day. So both Lata aunty and Asha aunty had close relations with our family. In fact Milind was named Milind Madhav by Lata aunty.
Our dad worked in many Bhojpuri films. One of his big hits was Balam Pardesiya (1979). We saw people throwing coins in Elphinstone cinema in Bihar when the song Gorki patarki re, picturised on Rakesh Pandey and Padma Khanna, came on. That song too was sung by Ashaji with Rafi saab. Towards the end of his career we assisted him in about 30 films. He had suffered a heart attack and then a paralytic stroke. So we did all the balancing and arranging for his movies. We worked on all the interludes on his last few movies.
When dad was seriously ill in 1991, Ashaji was the first person to come to Bombay Hospital and check on him. She took us to meet the hospital management and told them our dad was very close to her and they should ensure that he’s well taken care of. When dad passed away a few days later she immediately came to the hospital to assist us further. Usually the formalities for getting the body after a patient dies takes hours but she ensured that all the necessary paperwork was readied within half an hour. That’s the kind of apnapan and love Asha aunty had for dad and us. Who does that today?
When we composed music for our first film Ab Ayega Mazaa (1984), Lata aunty sang the first song Raja tere raste se. Then Ashaji sang two songs along with Kishore da, Solah baras ki kamsin umariya and Kab jaane anjaane. We worked with Ashaji many times in songs like Aa bhi ja (Vansh, 1992), Bolo kya tum and Chalte chalte (Daayra, 1996). Even Pancham uncle was so happy when we got Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), despite it being made under the banner he had been closely associated with for decades. He really liked our new tunes. We saw how the industry was treating him in his low phase and he calmly told us that’s the way of the world.
We met Ashaji after a long time, just after COVID and she hugged us as warmly as before. Everyone gets busy with their lives and we might lose touch sometimes. But we shall always retain fond memories of our childhood with the Mangeshkar sisters – our wonderful Lata and Asha aunties.
Also Read: Anuradha Paudwal Recalls Singing With Legendary Asha Bhosle, Fulfilling Her Father-in-law’s Wish.
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