Pakistani musical legend Abida Parveen paid tribute to the late singer Asha Bhosle on Thursday, saying her voice was ‘a gift to the world’. Her tribute on Instagram has united music fans who are saying, “Art truly has no borders”.
Bhosle passed away aged 92 last week in Mumbai. Seventy-two-year-old Parveen, in a video message, said that she “perhaps did not have enough words to talk about her art. Her stature is bigger than words could ever describe”.
“Where words end, her art began, and the way she chose to use her voice across decades and eras is a mind-blowing feat”, she said in Urdu in the video. Parveen then went on to speak about Lata Mangeshkar, addressing her as ‘didi’ while calling Bhosle as ‘Tai’, adding that voices like theirs come once in a lifetime.
In true Sufi style, Parveen compared her relation with Bhosle and love for her as ‘aqeedat’— devotional in nature. She then spoke about her lifelong wish to meet both sisters, which came true during a 2012 singing reality show, Sur Kshetra. In the show, Parveen, Bhosle and Bangladeshi singer Runa Laila were judges.
“She has left such a colour that every Indian musician now tries to copy her. Every show begins with her song; we are mere students who see her as a guide. Such a moving voice that was never rhythmless. She was always in ibaadat to her music”, she said, noting how Mangeshkar too had labelled Bhosle as “versatile”.
“She was a pillar of India’s film industry as well as its shade,” she said.
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‘Songstress of the subcontinent’
Fans were ecstatic. Their sentiment captures the collective mourning in both India and Pakistan for the legendary singer.
“When legends like Abida Parveen ji speak about Asha and Lata Mangeshkar…ji you realize music was always beyond borders. Allah rest Asha ji’s soul in peace. Ameen Sum Ameen!,” Pakistani Instagram user Nimra Inam Baloch wrote.
Others agreed. A Pakistani user, Maryum Bashar, wrote, “Your generosity in superlatives for others is the proof and sign of ur greatness and spirituality. love u .may Allah bless us with ur presence for a long and healthy life. asha bhosle was also a legend .and art has no barriers and transcends borders!”
Another Pakistani user Nida added: “Beyond borders, beyond religion, beyond competition… these people are truly modern and eternal gifts for mankind. As Abida ji said, Allah ke maujize hain jo har waqt ibadat mein rahe hain.”
Even Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab commented on her post saying, “Love you Abida Jee”.
Soon even Indians joined in. “As Gulzar Ji once said when you perform Sufi kalaam, it channels directly to the God. Your tribute to Asha Ji is special. Artists like you, Asha and Lata Ji embody where art becomes devotion, and the boundary between singer, song, and the divine almost disappears,” an Indian instagram user Saurabh wrote.
Another user, Alka Selza, added, “Abida ji, aap ka bahut shukriya for the art you have shared with the world. And for sharing how you saw the humanity, and the lifelong dedication and devotion to the art of music in legends who are absolutely one of a kind. Asha ji loved bringing people of all backgrounds together through song”.
“Legend speaking for legend”, Pakistani user Sohail summed it up.
Earlier, Pakistan’s media regulatory authority, PEMRA, had issued a show-cause notice to the country’s biggest media house, GeoNews, over airing content related to Bhosle. Many Pakistanis had protested against the move.
Meanwhile, Pakistani cultural critic Sabahat Zakariya Wednesday shared pictures of a poster of Bhosle outside the National College of Arts, Lahore. It called her “bar-e-sagheer pak-o-hind ki gulookaara” (the songstress of Pakistan and India in the subcontinent).
(Edited by Saptak Datta)