Asa Singh Mastana: A singer and musician

Asa Singh Mastana: A singer and musician

Asa Singh Mastana (1927-1999) was born on 22 August 1927, in the village of Sheikhupur, Punjab to Sardar Pritam Singh and Bibi Amrit Kaur. He was interested in singing since childhood. As a traditional singer and musician, Asa Singh Mastana was immensely popular was a traditional Punjabi musician and singer. He became popular in his time.  He had an almost cult following after the 1960s when state-run All India Radio began promoting folk musicians.  Other famous Punjabi singers of his time were Surinder Kaur, Parkash Kaur and Kuldeep Manak. 

Mastana lent his voice to the hit Bollywood film, "Heer''. His gained fame due to his main style of singing of ‘Jugni’ and ‘Heer’ genre of folk songs.  He got his basic music training from Pandit Durga Prasad though he did not need a tutor for long! Singing being a god-gifted quality for Mastana, he had a good eye for lyrics and poetry. His sharp mind and clear vision helped him in acquiring the required skill in the field of music.

Mastana was one of the few singers who were educationally qualified at that time. He was a Graduate in Arts.  His first song ‘Thandiye Hawaye Kihde Paase Tu Aayi Ae’, was released on the radio after the partition in 1949.  He even worked in the Reserve Bank of India in Delhi till his retirement as an office.

He was given the title ‘Mastana’ by one of his teachers when he was in 6th Grade only! The story goes as such— One day he was doing a lot of mischief in school to which his teacher called out saying “Oye Asya, tu badi mastaniya kr reha hai. (O Asa, you are doing a lot of mischiefs)”. From that day onwards, he came to be known as ‘Mastana’ which is basically a person who has fun in life, in Punjabi.

In all the years that he was active, most of the time he sang with the famous singer and songwriter, Nightingale of Punjab, Surinder Kaur. In the 40 years they sang together, the pair has given us many evergreen Punjabi songs. He even sang with Prakash Kaur for some time.

Mastana did not only do live performances with Surinder Kaur but even recorded studio albums. Sadly the duo broke up and sang separately in the last few years of Mastana’s life, which he repented.  The language of his songs was pure and family-friendly for which requests are being made on the radio even in today’s date.

An interesting incident occurred once he and Surinder Kaur had performed at a college event. After the event ended and the people paid them their fees, Mastana said, “At least give me money to get a taxi so I can go home”. After this, they handed him a 100 rupee note. When Surinder Kaur and Mastana got out of the college, he told Kaur, “Drop me at the local bus stand. I’ll take a bus home from there. I’ll buy alcohol with this money”. 

Asa Singh Mastana was a gem for Punjabi Music. His songs "Muteyare Jana Door Pea", "sadhke sadhke jandiye muteyare ni", "Peke Jaan Waliye", etc are equally famous even today.  

Mastana was awarded the ‘Padma Shri’ award in 1985 besides winning the Sangeet Natya Academy award in 1986.

Some of his well-known songs, "Balle Ni Panjaab Diye Sher Bachiye", "Doli Charhdeyan Marian Heer Cheekaan" and "Kali Teri Gut", served as templates for later Punjabi musicians. His sad song like "Jadon Meri Arthi Utha Ke Chalan Ge" also gained lot of popularity.