Log Kya Kahenge?

YOU would think the idea of a Caribbean twist to Jagjit Singh8217;s Ahista Ahista, one of Asha Bhosle8217;s favourite ghazals, would have ...

YOU would think the idea of a Caribbean twist to Jagjit Singh8217;s Ahista Ahista, one of Asha Bhosle8217;s favourite ghazals, would have appealed to her. After all, last heard, the doting grandmother of two rendered the saucy Lucky Lips, picturised on 16-year-old Sneha Ullal. But believe it or not, the 73-year-old femme fatale of Bollywood music is cautious when it comes to experimenting.

8216;8216;Initially, she was wary of instant comparisons to the original,8217;8217; says composer Pandith Somesh Mathur, who spent four years and two months pushing his pop-rock flavoured ghazals before Bhosle gave in.

Son Anand, who manages her music, helped convince her to sign on the just-out self-titled album8212;a collection of eight classics originally sung by the likes of Mehdi Hassan, Farida Khanum, Ghulam Ali and Singh.

While the loungy Khanum number is scaling charts, it8217;s not our favourite. But listen to the electric guitar and sax add that jazz to your favourite Ghulam Ali classic Chupke Chupke, and you can hear her inhibitions fly out of the window.

In fact, Ali8217;s ghazals were the ones Bhosle was most anxious about. 8220;I listen to him a lot. He8217;s got a powerful style of singing, which had to be retained,8221; says Bhosle, who worked with him in 2004 on an album called Meraj-E-Ghazal. The popular Dil Mein Ek Lehar, is another difficult number, especially because of the scale available for a female singer and the modulations, but Bhosle8217;s tackled this one superbly.

Two months were spent finalising the gayaki singing style that would be used. The only point of disagreement was whether or not the songs should sound like the original. 8216;8216;After a point, I gently requested her to stop listening to the original songs,8217;8217; says 34-year-old Mathur.

There8217;s a sense of deacute;jagrave; vu here. When Bhosle decided to collaborate with Leslie Lewis for Rahul 038; I a decade ago, she wasn8217;t prepared for the slow-paced hip hop sound that Lewis had designed for Piya Tu.

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8216;8216;It was a bit of push and pull,8217;8217; he recalls, 8216;8216;The log kya kahenge dilemma came up and she said she couldn8217;t do it.8217;8217; But she understood Lewis8217; vision and decided to give it a shot. 8216;8216;I didn8217;t push her,8217;8217; he adds.

Remixes had just begun surfacing and Bhosle, who could never be accused of being a purist, hovered at the cusp of a new generation of music. Today, she8217;s planning her next remix album. 8216;8216;It won8217;t be just Panchamda8217;s numbers,8217;8217; she says.

This latest album was knocked off in nine hours in a single session that started at 11 am in April. 8216;8216;We didn8217;t even break for lunch,8217;8217; says Mathur, 8216;8216;She snacked on mild tea and digestive biscuits and managed to sound younger than ever.8217;8217;

Bhosle admits she also enjoyed the experience. 8220;The sound evokes a sense of peace and, since I was familiar with all the songs, I was also losing myself in the music,8221; she says.

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Adventurer is the term Lewis uses to describe Bhosle8217;s spirit. 8216;8216;Look at her eyes and you know it,8217;8217; he says. 8216;8216;She reminds you that you don8217;t need to be young, that it8217;s all in the head.8217;8217;