Asha Bhosle leaves behind a rich legacy of songs that have remained the favourites of generations. (Photo: WIkimedia Commons)In Asha Bhosle’s death, the Hindi film industry today lost one of its most versatile and prolific voices. Bhosle leaves behind a rich legacy of songs that have remained the favourites of generations.While Bhosle sang and performed in many formats, she built her career as a ‘playback singer’, that artise unique to Indian cinema, who carries much of the film’s popularity on her shoulders while never facing the camera.In most film industries, a song belongs to the performer who sings it. In Hindi cinema, the face and the voice have long been separate—stitched together through playback singing. Like most artistes of her generation, Asha Bhosle was moulded by this practice, but also managed to extract her own ground from it.Playback singing is basically a method where trained singers record songs that actors later lip-sync — and in India, often dance to — on screen. Playback singing as default in movies is ubiqutious in India, but hardly the norm in the world. Various factors led to it becoming such a mainstay in Hindi films.UK-based author Nasreen Munni Kabir wrote in the Lincoln Center journal Film Comment in 2002, “In the early sound era, songs were filmed with synchronous sound”, recorded “with two microphones, one directed at the singer and the other at a small number of offscreen musicians, usually just a sarangi and a tabla player…Visually static, the early song sequences evoke the experience of attending a classical music concert…In the early Forties, magnetic taperecorders were introduced, and because film songs could at last be pre-recorded, classically trained singers began to lend their voices to onscreen performers on a regular basis. These professional voice doubles came to be known as “playback singers.”Thus, the actors on the screen had much more liberty to move around and perform to the song someone else was singing. Song-and-dance routines were part of Hindi cinema’s legacy from theatre as well as folk arts. As big money began riding on films, specially after World War II, skilled and bankable performers came to be in huge demand.Pavitra Sundar, Associate Professor of Literature, Director of Cinema and Media Studies at Hamilton College, New York, wrote in her 2008 paper Meri Awaaz Suno: Women, Vocality, and Nation in Hindi Cinema: “Equally important to the history of playback singing is the mass migration and civil war that accompanied Partition. Many talented artists moved to Bombay in search of work, and the city fast became the new Mecca of the film industry.”Story continues below this adThis was the milieu in which Asha and her elder sister Late Mangeshkar made their careers.A space for AshaPlayback singing also served to divide and distribute the persona of the woman on the screen. This woman, performing publicly, was a transgression, but also needed to be popular and lovable. Thus emerged the binary of pure and virtuous heroine versus the sensual and “bold” vamp. This was established not just through the styling and mannerisms of the actors, but also the aurality of the playback singer. Thus, Lata Mangeshkar’s clean, melodious voice could establish the innocence and virtue of heroine after heroine.Asha, who cultivated a style distinct from her sister’s so she could have her own identity, often became the voice of the siren, the seductress, the cabaret dancer, the bar girl.Over the decades, specially with her collaborations with husband RD Burman, Asha came to stand for something else — a more playful, energetic, outward-looking persona, easy to identify as more “western”.Story continues below this adSundar writes, “Bhosle managed to walk this fine line by demonstrating her obvious proficiency and versatility as a singer and winning the approval of the finest musicians of the day…As R. D. Burman’s primary singer, Asha Bhosle voiced postcolonial India’s careful negotiation of modernity and Western culture.”Yashee is a Senior Assistant Editor at The Indian Express, and she heads the Explained Desk. With over 12 years of experience in mainstream journalism, she specializes in translating intricate geopolitical shifts, legal frameworks, and historical narratives into accessible insight. Having started her career with Hindustan Times and later contributing to India Today (DailyO), Yashee brings a veteran’s perspective to contemporary analysis. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the historic Presidency College, Kolkata, and a postgraduate diploma from the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai. Her work provides readers with the deep context needed to navigate a complex world. ... Read More © IE Online Media Services Pvt LtdTags:Express Explained