Talat Mahmood
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"Padma Bhushan" Talat Mahmood, born February 24, 1924, died May 9, 1998, was a popular singer and actor of Indian films. Born in Lucknow, Talat was known as the King of Ghazals. His voice was unique for India in that it was silky smooth. Indian listeners were used to deep baritones and his voice was a totally new experience. He was one amongst six children. Talat showed musical talent at an early age and started singing on radio (All India Radio, a government-owned monopoly) at the age of 16. Later, for a short period of time Talat studied music at the Morris School of Music. This famous school also produced such alumni as fellow-singer Mukesh and the music-composer Roshan. Veteran music-composer Anil Biswas also taught music for a while here.
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[edit] Early days
In 1944 came the hit "Tasveer teri dil mera behela na sakegi". The song was an overnight sensation. And just like Frank Sinatra in the USA, the Indian movie industry wanted to leverage this singing success into movie box-office success. He made cameo appearances and starred in about 16 movies, for both the Calcutta Film Industry (hub of the 1940s) and Bollywood. The 3 movies that he starred-in in Calcutta were regional hits. But the real fame and fortune lay in Bollywood. His big break came with the song "Ae dil mujhe aisi jagha le chal jahan koi na ho" composed by music-composer Anil Biswas for the soundtrack of the movie "Arzoo". The song was a smash-hit and ensured the box-office success of the movie. Movie producers world over know a gold-mine when they see one. And so they saw one in Talat Mahmood's voice. And this set in motion his Bollywood career, just like the singer-actors in Hollywood.
[edit] Singing Career
Talat was a niche singer, and an excellent one at that. His focus was "ghazals" and light romantic ballads, for which he had no peers. However, his super smooth crooning style simply did not lend itself to a wider variety of popular songs and up-tempo numbers.
[edit] Movie Career
Talat was very handsome and an excellent singer, but no great shakes as an actor. Women were his biggest fans. But the movie producers just did not care what kind of movies they produced, as long as Talat was acting in them, singing his songs and the money was coming in. Most were light-weight fluffies produced on a shoe-string budget. And quickies at that. However, they did feature some very pretty actresses to encourage the males to come into the movie houses. And the music was always top-notch.
[edit] Decline
The advent of rock-n-roll in the late fifties sent the careers of crooners like Frank Sinatra and Perry Como into a nose-dive. When this musical tidal-wave hit India, the same thing happened to crooners like Talat. As long as he was top box-office draw, the movie producers insisted on including his songs in their movies. Talat's velvety vocals posed a special challenge to the music-composers, most of whom leaned towards the deep baritones of Mohd. Rafi and Mukesh. When Talat's movies started flopping, there were no incentives any more to utilize his voice. The resultant demise of his movie career led to the decline of his singing career. At the same time, the social changes and happiness brought about by increasing prosperity in India meant that weepy "ghazals" and heart-rending ballads were not popular any more. Talat continued to record good songs, but less in number. His last soundtrack recording, in 1985, is the song "Mere Shreek-e-Safar", a duet sung with Miss Hemlata, from the movie "Wali-e-Azam" composed by Chitragupta and written by Ahmed Wasi. Talat sang about 800 songs in his long career.
[edit] External links
- http://www.talatmahmood.net/ - A Comprehensive website on Talat Mahmood created by his son Khalid Mahmood.
