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'I have been sidelined'

Annoyed: Asha Bhosle

She'd taken it silently for years -- the second grade treatment, the coldness, the disdain. But singer Asha Bhosle had enough when the Maharashtra government snubbed her again recently when presenting an award, ironically instituted in her sister Lata's name, to her brother Hridayanath Mangeshkar.

"I am a step-daughter of the Maharashtra government. They never acclaimed me as a singer. They have always sidelined me," she said while speaking at the 10th anniversary function of Indradhanush, a cultural institution in Thane, on Sunday.

Bhosle decided it was time she retaliated when she was refused permission to speak about her brother at the Lata Mangeshkar Puraskar function.

Favoured: Lata Mangeshkar

"I would have talked a lot about Bal (Hridayanath Mangeshkar). I brought him up... I was like a mother to him," she adding that "Hridayanath's understanding of Indian music was as profound and as solid as Baba's (her father Dinanath Mangeshkar)." "But they (the state government officials) did not let me speak. I brought this to the notice of the director of cultural department. But he refused to accept my objection," she said.

She told compere Sudhir Gadgil that due to this kind of ill-treatment, she had stopped accepting any award. Her ire was in no way directed at her sister. "Lata Mangeshkar is Lata Mangeshkar. Nobody can ever touch her," she said. But she was clearly still smarting from the insult her home state meted out to her.

"I have sung as many as 6,000 songs of various hues, be they classical, pop or folk songs. I have even performed free of charge for the Maharashtra government." She said that, along with Lata, she had sang at the World Marathi Conference about the glory of Marathi. But all the gratitude she got was then chief minister Sharad Pawar telling her "A bouquet has been kept for you at Nehru Centre. Pick it up from there."

She said she was happier with her fan following worldwide. "That is my real award," she said.

Insulting: Sharad Pawar

The singer also attacked the government for permitted the sale of old songs in new albums. "It is unethical to promote old songs sung by new artistes and the government should ban these things. It is tantamount to calling a pirated, corrupt copy, a good one."

Bhosle, winner of four Channel [V] awards last month, also defended the music channels on satellite television.

"Let children come across good as well as bad things. MTV is unnecessarily criticised for dishing out obscenity." She said she found Doordarshan airing even more obscene dances. "They show the worst programmes. And parents force their children to watch these obscenities," she said.

Bhosle said she was launching an album of Hridayanath Mangeshkar's most difficult and melodious drama songs. Her autobiography, which is near completion, will be out within the next six months, she said, adding it would be published in English, Hindi and Marathi.

If it has been written in the same way, it should be a humdinger.

Compiled from the Marathi media by Prasanna Zore

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