Raju Bharatan's venom and hatred towards the legendary Asha Bhosle is only to well known.For decades the bigot has been indulging in the worst category of musical slander against this extraordinary diva who millions uphold as the true genius of the Mangeshkar family.His constant refrain that Ashaji's output in the fifties and the sixties just is of no significance is a case of sour grapes & a deliberately vicious attempt at twisting realities.Bharatan,you Lota Lunatic to beat all Lota lunatics well you know that from 1956 to 1969 Ashaji came up with the best work of her career.Her greatest hits and most loved &revered milestones are from this period.Those great OP Nayyar years which mesmerized millions of music listeners.Music created which remains enshrined in our hearts& minds to this day.Who the hell are you to downgrade a phenomenal body of work? What is your standing and credibility may I ask? As early as 1960 Mohd Rafi the greatest male playback singer of all time in a cover story for Filmfare placed Ashaji second only to the fabled Noor Jehan and relegated Lata to the third slot.The same lead story had Rafi Saab's immortal comment on Asha Bhosle:"My head bows down before her talent &versatility".This says it all Bharatan.
Get your facts &figures right.Lata Mangeshkar has not recorded 30,000 songs and that her name was expunged from the Guiness Book Of Records when the devestating revealation came to light that our dear and beloved Sati Savitri had a meagre &miserable 3,000 song output to her credit at the time of filing of the claim in the seventies.The real claimant to the title of The Most Recorded Artiste of the 20th Century is none other than Ms M's sister, Asha Bhosle who out played her sister in the principal decades of the fifties,sixties,seventies &eighties by a substantial margin and who today stands tall& unrivalled with a genuine tally of 13,000 songs,higher than that of any other artiste in the world.The Guiness Book authorities were horrified when presented with the facts of the case and promptly removed Lata Mangehkar's name from their book along with the most recorded category in a bid to prevent frauds of similar nature.To quote a senior official:"Our getting Ms Mangeshkar in was a matter of trust.How were we to know that the media touted saintly lady is such a wheeler dealer,who could play dirty with her own sister and deprive her of her rightful glory".I would like to conclude over here with musis maestro Shankar's quote on Ms Mangeshkar which says it all:"Can a woman who is envious of her own sister's greatness ever do or say good about others.Asha Bhosle is not a fraud & hypocrite like her elder sister!" DARIUS KAKALIA
