Saaz, the film that triggered talk around Asha Bhosle's bond with Lata didi

Sai Paranjpye's 1998 film, Saaz, traced the relationship between two sisters who become successful singers. Were Aruna Irani and Shabana Azmi's roles inspired by Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle in any way?

In Short

• Saaz portrays two sisters in Mumbai's competitive music industry
• Many feel the protagonists draws certain parallels with Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle
• Shabana Azmi and Aruna Irani star in the Sai Paranjpye film

In 1998, Sai Paranjpye made the musical drama, Saaz, about two sisters who arrive in Mumbai after their parents' deaths. The girls, Mansi and Bansi, have inherited a passion for music from their father, the late singer and stage artist Vrindavan. Several plot twists later, Mansi and Bansi are renowned singers, also bitter rivals in the fickle world of music.

Where Saaz recalls the Mangeshkar story

A lot of Saaz – particularly, the backstory of the two sisters arriving in Mumbai after the death of their parents and finding their feet thanks to music – has a straight resemblance to the lives of the Mangeshkar sisters, Lata and Asha. Not surprisingly, the film became the centre of conversation upon release.

Just like Mansi and Bansi, Lata and Asha came to Mumbai after the sudden death in 1942 of their father, Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar, a celebrated classical singer and theatre actor. Suddenly, the family had no source of income, and Asha, nine years old at the time, and her elder sister Lata took to singing for the sake of survival.

The rest is history. Like Mansi and Bansi on screen, if compulsion drove the Mangeshkar sisters to sing in films, their unparalleled talent took them to the top of the hierarchy of female singers in Bollywood. Indeed, by the onset of the sixties, Lata and Asha were the only two female voices you mostly heard on the radio, or spotted on a vinyl soundtrack, if it was a Hindi film song. While Lata ruled, Asha was still finding her feet.

Where Saaz weaves in fiction

Saaz, being fiction for the screen, carries forward the sisters' saga with twists of added drama. Mansi, played by Aruna Irani, becomes a successful professional singer. Bansi (Shabana Azmi), too, wants to establish herself in the profession but Mansi insists she should get married and bear children to carry forward Vrindavan's lineage.

Despite discovering she has a good voice, Bansi allows herself to be trapped in a very wrong marriage, before a composer named Indraneel recognises Bansi's talent and gives her a break. Although she is at the peak of success, Mansi doesn't like Bansi's newfound fame. More so when a young composer, Himan Desai, is obsessed with her, professionally as well as personally.

Are these notes in the screenplay drawn from the lives of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle? Filmmaker Paranjpye never officially acknowledged it, and the debate has raged ever since Saaz was released.

Yet, driven by two very contradictory emotions as Saaz is, the story of Mansi and Bansi has kept bringing back to mind the two mightiest female voices of Bollywood music ever, who happened to be siblings. Saaz draws from the deep sense of love and caring that can only be born when two people have suffered their darkest days together. But the film's screenplay also plays up an aspect that has been mentioned about the Mangeshkar sisters for long, though only on the gossipvine – a tale of sibling rivalry that springs when nearest ones turn rivals.

What Lata Mangeshkar said

In Nasreen Munni Kabir's book, Lata Mangeshkar... In Her Own Voice, Lata Mangeshkar underplayed all talk of sibling rivalry. To quote Mangeshkar: "It's wrong to talk of rivalry having spoilt our relationship. We are sisters and neighbours. We talk to each other and eat together. If either of us has a problem, we tell each other. And if we have something to celebrate, we celebrate together."

She would go on to praise Asha's undeniable versatility: "Looking at the variety of songs she can sing, no singer can match her."

Asha's rise and Lata's reign

Indeed, it was versatility that let Asha Bhosle emerge out of the shadows of Lata Mangeshkar. By the sixties, Bhosle was quietly carving a niche, with the exciting sound of Bollywood that OP Nayyar had ushered. Suddenly, their collaborative efforts such as Aao Huzoor Tumko and Kajra Mohabbat Wala (Kismat), Deewana Hua Baadal (Kashmir Ki Kali) and Uden Jab Jab Zulfen Teri (Naya Daur) were reimagining what Hindi film songs could be. Lata was still India's Sur Samragyi (Empress of Melody), and justifiably so. But Asha, just like Bansi in Saaz, had staked her claim, and there was more to come.

What Asha Bhosle said

Bhosle once said that in her initial days as a singer, her voice would be mistaken for her elder sister's – a reason she forwards for changing her style of singing. "I began to change my style of singing. I started watching English films to learn Western songs and observe how they were sung. I also learnt how to sing qawwali and ghazal," she said in an interview. The idea was simple: Lata was recognised as Bollywood's flawless voice. Asha decided to bring in a deviant spin.

Pancham's punch and Umrao Jaan

It started in the mid-sixties, after the rise of Rahul Dev Burman – Pancham to fans and the industry. His songs represented the new sound of Bollywood music – rooted in Indian melody but western in beat and spirit. There was funk, jazz, rock n' roll galore and full-scale orchestra. Asha's voice blended with RD's pulsating musical arrangements seamlessly. It was a collaboration that would find its way well into the seventies. Their top hits together – Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyaar Tera, Piya Tu Ab To Aaja, Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko and Dum Maro Dum, among countless others – emerged as hits of the season and went onto become Bollywood classics.

She would also find other grooves – melancholy and serene love – in Pancham's music that was in sync with the changing times. Songs like Roj Roj Aankhon Taley (Jeeva), Do lafzon Ki Hai Dil Ki Kahaani (The Great Gambler) and the National Award-winning Mera Kuch Saamaan (Ijaazat) gave her an identity as an artiste who could effortlessly shift to deeper notes with RD Burman wielding the baton.

Fans, critics and industry watchers alike have spotted a likeness between Pancham and Himan of Saaz (played by Zakir Hussain). And operating within the framework of fiction, Paranjpye also takes the liberty of weaving in a love triangle – Himan loves Bansi, while her niece Kuhu (Ayesh Dharker) is infatuated by Himan.

Despite the proven versatility and immense success she rode over nearly two decades, Asha's hour to finally shred her tag as 'Lata Mangeshkar's undeniably talented sister' would come only in 1981. That was when Umrao Jaan happened. The Muzaffar Ali film, with Rekha playing a 19th-century Lucknow courtesan, demanded a voice educated in classical music that could, at the same time, bring alive the protagonist's pain masked in glamour. If Rekha lived Ali's vision on screen, Asha gave Khayyam's music set to Shahryar's lyrics a sort of calm that resonates. Bhosle would win her first National Award for her song in the film, Dil Cheez Kya Hai for an effort the industry as well as fans never associated with her before.

Indeed, Umrao Jaan showed the world an exceptional side of Asha Bhosle's talent. Just as Disco 82 (Khud-Daar, 1982), a peppy dancefloor departure toasting the spirit of disco, had Lata Mangeshkar having fun in the recording studio. The Mangeshkar sisters will continue to remind of the bond they share with their music before anything. Everything other emotion – bitter or tender – is open to interpretation in a Bollywood screenplay.

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