| Biography | Asa Singh Mastana (19261999) was a Punjabi musician and singer, best known for lending his voice to the hit Bollywood film Heer, and singing jugni and Heer-genre of folk songs, which recount the tales of Heer Ranjha by poet Waris Shah. He became popular in the 1940s, and by the mid-1960s, when state-run All India Radio started promoting folk musicians, this made him, along with Surinder Kaur and Kuldeep Manak singers of cult status.
His well-known songs, among others, are "Balle Ni Panjaab Diye Sher Bachiye", "Doli Charhdeyan Marian Heer Cheekaan" and "Kali Teri Gut", which have served as templates for later Punjabi musicians. His great work also expands to singing sad songs like "Jadon Meri Arthi Utha Ke Chalan Ge" to famous song "Main Jatt Yamla Pagla Deewana" dramatized on Dharmendra. He was mostly paired with Surinder Kaur or Prakash Kaur for singing many old folk songs of Punjab.
In 1985, he was awarded the Padma Shri, by Government of India. |