(Apologies for the hiatus, the result of a series of unavoidable circumstances). 

Last month, when I posted a solos list as a tribute to Asha Bhonsle, a couple of blog readers asked me if I would be posting one (or more) follow-up posts. After all when Lata Mangeshkar passed away, I ended up publishing five posts, a total of fifty songs showcasing the solos Lata had sung with fifty different music directors or music director pairs. Surely Asha merited something similar? Yes, indeed she does, but I personally think Asha’s most stunning solos were sung for a handful of composers like OP Nayyar and SD Burman during the 1950s and 60s. She did sing songs for a wide range of music directors, but I find a lot of those songs relatively forgettable.

I decided therefore to focus this post on another aspect of Asha’s career: her duets: Romantic, funny, flirtatious, poignant—and so much more. Songs where her voice merged with that of a co-singer to create magic.

Here, then, are a selection of ten of my favourite Asha Bhonsle duets, sung with ten different singers. As always these are all from pre-1970s Hindi films that I’ve seen and are in no particular order.

1. Achha ji main haari chalo maan jaao na (Kaala Paani, 1958): With Mohammad Rafi. The sheer volume of great Asha-Rafi duets made this one a very difficult song to pick (interestingly, the co-singer with whom Rafi sang the largest number of songs was Asha). Together, these two have sung everything from popular and very well-known songs like Deewaana hua baadal, O haseena zulfonwali and Abhi na jaao chhodkar to relatively obscure gems like the very melodious Ae saba unse keh zara.

I decided to choose Achha ji main haari not just because it’s a delightful song (by SD Burman and Majrooh Sultanpuri), but because both Asha and Rafi really act their parts through their voices. The teasing manaana on her part, the huffiness on his; her cajoling, veering close to pleading; his final recapitulation… these two act as much (and as well) as Madhubala and Dev Anand do, onscreen.

2. Kajra mohabbatwaala akhiyon mein aisa daala (Kismat, 1968): With Shamshad Begum. OP Nayyar is the music director most associated with Asha through the 1960s—but before Asha became his muse (so to say), Shamshad Begum and Geeta Dutt were the female singers he preferred the most. In this iconic song, OP Nayyar uses Shamshad Begum’s distinctively nasal (and therefore possibly considered slightly more deep?) voice as playback for Biswajeet in drag. Asha, with her rather more conventionally ‘feminine’ voice, is the perfect fit for Babita (who, though dressed as a man, has a disguise flimsy enough to be useless). A delightful, funny song.

3. Kya ho phir jo din rangeela ho (Nau Do Gyarah, 1957): With Geeta Dutt. Both Asha Bhonsle and Geeta Dutt had a versatility that made their voices suitable for just about any kind of song—and I personally think that when it came to the fast-paced, Westernized type of club song, there was no beating these two (remember Mera naam Chin Chin Choo? Dil ki manzil kuchh aisi hai manzil? O babu o lala mausam dekho chala?). Together, in this scintillating song composed by SD Burman (and written by Majrooh Sultanpuri), they are style and pizzazz itself. Geeta Dutt (singing playback for Shashikala) begins each stanza softly, almost caressingly—and then Asha, singing for a young and pretty Helen, joins in, her voice upping the energy levels of the song. Fabulous.

4. Aankhon-aankhon mein hum-tum (Mahal, 1969): With Kishore Kumar. Like Mohammad Rafi, Kishore was also one of Asha Bhonsle’s more frequent co-singers.  They sang hundreds of songs together, their first collaboration probably being a song composed by flautist/composer Pannalal Ghosh in 1949-50; and Kishore’s very last song to be recorded was a duet with Asha. Through the 50s and 60s, the two of them sang many hits—Arre yaar meri tum bhi ho gazab, Haal kaisa hai janaab ka, and Chhod do aanchal zamaana kya kahega among them. Kalyanji-Anandji’s score for the 1969 suspense thriller Mahal had some excellent songs, including the seductive Asha solo Aaiye aapka thha humein intezaar and the romantic duet Yeh duniyawaale poochhenge. This duet (written by Majrooh Sultanpuri), though, is one of my favourite duets of the 60s: warm, charming, and very melodious.

5. Humein haal-e-dil tumse kehna hai (24 Ghante, 1958): With Talat Mahmood. Asha’s pairing with Mohammad Rafi or Kishore Kumar is well-known; with both these men, she sang literally hundreds of songs. But Talat? In the popular imagination, if Asha is stereotyped as the voice of the cabaret dancer, Talat is equally stereotyped as the soulful singer of ghazals. Not, you would think (if you went by those stereotypes), two voices that might come together often. But they did, in fact: Talat and Asha sang some lovely songs over the course of the 50s and 60s. There’s the beautiful Do dil dhadak rahe hain; there’s Pyaar par bas toh nahin, and Pyaas kuchh aur bhi bhadka di… and there’s this, a fairly little-known romantic duet composed by Bipin-Babul and written by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. Lilting, frothy, sweet: what a very likeable song.

6. Rafta-rafta woh hamaare dil ke armaan ho gaye (Hum Kahaan Jaa Rahe Hain, 1966): With Mahendra Kapoor. Unkindly called ‘the poor man’s Mohammad Rafi’, Mahendra Kapoor however did sing some beautiful songs—many of them for Ravi, who used his voice in several hit songs in films, including Humraaz and Gumraah. Given that Asha, too, was a favourite of Ravi’s, it was hardly a surprise that she sang several great songs with Mahendra Kapoor. The more famous ones include Jhukti ghata gaati hawa, Dhadakne lage dil ki taaron ki duniya, and Aadha hai chandrama raat aadhi; but I decided I should go the unexpected route here. A song that’s actually well-known, but from an obscure film. A softly melodious tune (music by Basant Prakash, lyrics by Qamar Jalalabadi), and both Asha and Mahendra Kapoor manage to imbue their voices with all the yearning of two romantic young souls on a moonlit night.

7. Zulfon ki ghata lekar saawan ki pari aayi (Reshmi Roomal, 1961): With Manna Dey. Oddly enough, some of Asha’s most famous songs along with Manna Dey are not duets, but songs featuring more than two singers: the iconic Na toh kaarvaan ki talaash hai, for instance; or Dukh bhare din beete re bhaiya, or even the kiddie song Thehar zara o jaanewaale. They did sing some wonderful duets together, though, of which this is one of my particular favourites. Composed by Babul, and with lyrics by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, one of those love songs that make me melt. So beautiful.

8. Jab-jab tumhe bhulaaya tum aur yaad aaye (Jahanara, 1964): With Lata Mangeshkar. Which Asha list would be complete without at least one song with her elder sister, the colossus of Hindi playback singing? Over the course of their careers, Asha and Lata sang together in anywhere between fifty and eighty songs (I haven’t been able to find a more exact number, at least not online), including some of my favourites: Mere mehboob mein kya nahin, Koi aayega aayega humre gaaon koi aayega, and Manbhaavan ke ghar jaaye gori.

This court dance from Jahanara, picturized on Minoo Mumtaz and a very young Aruna Irani, is especially superb. Madan Mohan’s music is excellent, Rajendra Krishan’s lyrics bring a poignancy and even a sense of despair into the song, and the two Mangeshkar sisters are perfect, their voices melding seamlessly, then moving into their own tracks, before coming back again for the mukhda.

9. Woh subah kabhi toh aayegi (Phir Subah Hogi, 1958): With Mukesh. This was one of the first songs that popped up when I began researching Asha’s songs with Mukesh. Woh subah kabhi toh aayegi happens to be one of my favourite songs (Sahir’s lyrics, Khayyam’s music and Mukesh’s very restrained vocals always bring a lump to my throat). But should it really count as an Asha song, given that Mukesh gets to actually sing all the stanzas? She just joins in on the mukhda and adds to the song with her non-lexical vocals.

Surely there were other Asha-Mukesh duets that gave her more prominence? After all, together these two sang some good songs: the fun romantic Nain tumhaare mazedaar; the little-known (but excellent) Kahaan ud chale hain mann-praan mere, and (in later years) Hum donon milke kaagaz ke dil pe. Should I choose another? But no; I came to the conclusion that if it weren’t for Asha, Woh subah kabhi toh aayegi would not have had the same impact. Her voice, hesitant at the start, gathering strength and comfort as she progresses, is a vital part of the song, acting as a sort of backdrop for Mukesh’s vocals.

10. Humein dum daike sautan ghar jaana (Yeh Dil Kisko Doon, 1963): With Mubarak Begum. And, to end this list, a song with a sadly overlooked playback singer. Mubarak Begum, though she sang some well-known songs (Devta tum ho mera sahaara, Kabhi tanhaiyon mein yoon among them) tends to often get sidelined by the bigger names. With Asha, she sang a few good duets, including Jab ishq kahin ho jaata hai, from Aarzoo. This song from the Shashi Kapoor-Ragini starrer Yeh Dil Kisko Doon was composed by Iqbal Qureshi (another immensely underrated personality) and written by Qamar Jalalabadi. Mubarak Begum sings for Madhumati, who dances at a kotha, using all her wiles on her audience—until the wife (Jayshree Gadkar) of one of these men (played by Agha) gatecrashes the mehfil and makes it a mujra face-off. Fabulously sung by both the women.

Which other songs would you add to this list? Preferably with singers I haven’t mentioned in this list, but of course anybody will do!