What a singer, Asha Khadilkar is! Not perfectly in tune all the time, perhaps, but highly appealing, nonetheless. She so often touches the shrutis right that one forgets her temporary lapses otherwise. Along with the great Vasantrao Deshpande she has enthralled the audience with her mesmeric renditions of Marathi Natyasangeet. The emotion that she projects and her modulations with effortless ease set her apart as a performer nonpareil on stage and lend credence to the proposition that the Maharashtrians are avenues ahead of the rest of India when it comes to vocal music. When Vasantrao Deshpande sings, he holds the audience in thrall with his beautiful rendition of this poetic, dramatic genre of music that Marathi Natyasangeet is.

Over three and a half decades ago, my friend Bireshwar Kumar who was an accomplished Kathak dancer and a disciple of Bandana Sen at that,