Her voice to his songs. A month after Asha Bhosle died, singer-composer Adnan Sami says there is nothing more precious to him than that. Nothing else matters.“Her love is priceless,” Sami said about his relationship with the music legend who died on April 12 at the age of 92.Their collaboration began with the 2000 hit album “Kabhi To Nazar Milao” and soon evolved into a deep bond, almost like that of mother and son.“She and I would fight over the smallest of things. Her biggest complaint would be, ‘Tum dikhte nahi ho, kabhi aate nahi ho’ (You are never seen; you never visit),” Sami told PTI.“I would tell her, ‘You are living in town and I’m living in the suburbs, in Lokhandwala.’ With the kind of traffic Mumbai has, it is not easy for someone to visit regularly. It was the typical fight a mother and son might have,” he remembered fondly.The relationship between Sami and Bhosle, who sang more than 12,000 songs in an eight-decade career, including classical, jazz and pop, extended beyond the recording studio. They worked on indipop numbers such as “Kabhi to Nazar Milao” and “Aao Na”, their disagreements stemming from mutual affection and a desire for each other’s attention.“Sometimes, I would fight with her because of some ‘gila-shikwa’ (complaints) I had… Missing her call by mistake was extremely rare. But if I saw her call, ‘sar aankhon pe’ (it was a priority); I would leave everything to attend to her. She was sensitive about a lot of those things.”Pakistani-born Sami, who moved to India in 2001, said Bhosle spoke her mind without holding her emotions back.“Whatever was in her heart, she would just say it. Afterward, she’d say, ‘Aacha, maine jo kehna tha maine keh diya, ab mein theek hoon’ (Okay, I’ve said what I had to say, now I’m fine).“She never kept things inside; she was exactly who she appeared to be on the surface, which is a beautiful thing. From that perspective, she was a simpleton,” he added.Sami, who was born in London and became an Indian citizen in 2016, credits the veteran vocalist for a life-altering piece of advice that led him to move to India and build his career in the music industry.It was Bhosle who encouraged him to release his 2000 album “Kabhi Toh Nazar Milao” in Mumbai instead of London. The romantic track, sung by Sami and Bhosle, was picturised on Sami and model-actor Aditi Govitrikar. It was a major hit that year.“Once I arrived in 1999, I thought I would just release the album and go back to Canada, where I was living at the time. Instead, I ended up staying, and the rest is history,” Sami said.What does he treasure most from their decades-long association?“Her voice to my songs. There could be nothing more precious to me that that, everything else doesn’t matter. And her love is priceless.”
