Talat Mahmood

[1]

Talat Mahmood
طلعت محمود
तलत महमूद
Background information
Also known as The King of Ghazals, also Shahenshah-e-Ghazal
Born (1924-02-24)24 February 1924
Lucknow, United Provinces, British India
Died 9 May 1998(1998-05-09) (aged 74)
Mumbai, India
Genres Playback singing
Occupation(s) Singer, actor
Instruments Vocalist
Years active 1939–1986
Website http://www.talatmahmood.net/

Talat Mahmood (Hindi: तलत महमूद, Urdu: طلعت محمود‎) (February 1924 – 9 May 1998) is considered one of the greatest male Indian singers. A born singer with an intuitive sense of beauty, charm and grace; a legendary Indian playback singer who created his own new style of ghazal singing which was to be followd afterwards. Although he tried his luck as a film actor, but he could not succeed a great deal in acting.

Talat received Padma Bhushan in 1992, in recognition of his artistic contributions in the spheres of cinematic and ghazal music.[2] He had a unique, elegant and subtle style of singing. He was a very gifted singer in every sense, particularly famous for singing soft and sombre semi-classical ghazals, but the film songs which he sang have always been considered critically neat, flawless and outstanding. Despite the fact that Talat's typical genre was Ghazal, he was a remarkably brilliant film singer who sang innumerable popular film songs which are still enthusiastically cherished by music-loving audiences in the Indian Subcontinent.

Romantic and tragic were the moods, he seems to have liked most, and it was he who helped a great deal in shaping the style and method of modern ghazal singing. Therefore he is often credited, and not unjustly, as the real founder of modern ghazal. During the 1950s and 60s, Talat used to be the first choice of the highbrow literary and artistic community in the Indian subcontinent, particularly Urdu-speaking community. Even, his cancelled songs were popular among them. No other film singer, with the exception of Manna Dey, had such an intellectually refined and learned audience at the time. His voice, containing variedly distinct waves at a certain pitch and a certain point, has often been described as one of the softest male voices of the Indian subcontinent, not only this, but his voice and style of singing are always considered among the most soulful ever heard.

Early life

Talat Mahmood was born in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, to Manzoor Mahmood. Talat showed his musical leanings from a very young age and would enjoy sitting through all-night music soirees listening patiently to some of the biggest names in classical Indian music then.

Coming from a conservative Muslim background, singing was not encouraged. Talat had to choose between working in films and staying at home. Despite his parental objection he opted for the former, though his family accepted the fact only about a decade later when he gained respect in the industry.

Singing career

Talat Mahmood (early photo)

Talat apprenticed classical music under Pandit S.C.R. Bhat at Marris College of Music, Lucknow (presently Bhatkhande Music Institute) some time in late-30s. He started his career purely as a ghazal singer in 1939. Talat Mahmood began his singing career at the age of 16 in 1939 when he began singing the Ghazals of Daag, Mir, Jigar etc. on All India Radio, Lucknow. His voice had a quality distinct from all the other singers. HMV was quick to notice this and offered Talat his first disc in 1941 Sab din ek samaan nahin tha, Bun jaoon ga kya se kya main, Iska to kuch dhyan nahin tha.

His reputation as a ghazal singer was not limited to his hometown of Lucknow, but it reached the city that proved to shape his destiny – Calcutta. The then famous ghazal singers were Ustad Barkat Ali Khan, K.L. Saigal and M.A. Rauf. The classical songs he sang were " Sapnon Ki Suhaani Duniyaa Ko " for film Shikast and " Laage Tose Naina " for Chaandi Ki Deewar.

In 1944 came the hit Tasveer teri dil mera behela nah sake gi. Its popularity was so phenomenal and unrivalled that even today it remains one of the top selling non-film discs. This disc brought Talat the fame throughout India and soon he was beckoned by the Calcutta film industry. Talat made cameo appearances and starred in about 16 movies, for both the Calcutta (film hub of the 1940s) and Bombay Film Industry. The three movies in which he starred were regional hits in Calcutta. Initially, in Calcutta, he recorded a lot of Bangla songs (basic album) under the assumed name of "Tapankumar". Several of his Bangla numbers were super hits in Bengal and are still aired on All India Radio old song reminisces. He sang to the tune of eminent music directors like Kamal Dasgupta [" Du'ti paakhi du'ti teere... "], Sudhin Dasgupta [" Ei rimjhimjhim barosha... "], Rabin Chattopadhyayaa [ " Chander eto aalo... " ], Hemanta Mukhopadhayay [ " E Jodi aakash hoy... " ] and V. Balsara [ " Tumi sundar jodi nahi... " ] during the 50s and early 60s.

In 1949 Talat moved to Bombay, to sing for the Hindi film industry. His name and fame had already preceded him and soon he was flooded with offers. His big break came with the song Ae dil mujhe aisi jagha le chal jahan koi na ho composed by music director Anil Biswas for the soundtrack of the movie Arzoo. The song proved to be extremely popular.

Legacy and significance

Talat Mehmood was the real founder of modern ghazal. So, his influence upon other contemporary and succeeding ghazal singers has historically been broad and profound. It was he who paved the way for such legendary ghazal singers as Mehdi Hassan and Jagjit Singh who followed him. Hence he will always be held in high esteem for his contributions to transform and revitalize the whole art and form of ghazal singing. But as far as the art of singing in general is concerned, Talat's influence can hardly be overstated. Since various techniques of style and delivery first introduced by him, are so assimilated in modern singing methods that countless singers practice them without even knowing the name of the originator of those techniques.

Talat Mehmood can safely be placed among the greatest male singers of the Indian subcontinent together with the singers like K. L. Saigal, Muhammad Rafi, Mehdi Hassan, Manna Dey, K. J. Yesudas, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, Kishore Kumar, Jagjit Singh, Ghulam Ali, and Mukesh. Because of his soft and silky voice, subtly intricate and detailed method, correct pronunciation, infallible striking of the notes that are being tried, very sound knowledge of Indian music, the habit of striking the right note at the right moment without missing a single bit of a beat, Talat conquered the souls of countless people throughout the globe, wherever Urdu and Hindi are spoken and understood. He is immensely popular among the maturer audiences, particularly Urdu-speaking audiences having literary or artistic background, especially in Pakistan.

Talat was a member of the famous male singers' troika of the 1950s who had their respective separate fan-followings throughout the globe, wherever Urdu and Hindi could be understood, the other two were Muhammad Rafi and Mukesh.This famous troika was the most popular group of the film singers of the 1950s in the entire sub-continent, who enjoyed the largest audience ever existed during any period of sub-continent's cinematic history. Talat exerted a profound influence upon the ghazal singing of his time with his immensely melodious voice and artistic craftsmanship, particularly suitable for typical semi-classical ghazal singing. He was born to be a ghazal singer. With his majestic style and brilliant diction he conquered not only the hearts of innumerable cultivated listeners, but also of the common puplic of his time which did not possess any understanding of the subtleties he employed in his method and craft of interpretation. He is said to have been the favorite singer of the older and maturer audience of his time, and this type of audience still listen to him more than any other ghazal singer except Shahenshahan-e-Ghazal Mehdi Hassan and Jagjit Singh. So, in a sense, he is still a member of another kind of troika, to be more precise, one of the three most influential ghazal singers of all time, all of whom have been called Shahenshahan-e-ghazal.

Talat profoundly influenced a whole generation of young ghazal singers who immediately succeeded him; including legendary ghazal singers such as; Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, and Suresh Wadkar, for that reason alone, his influence upon ghazal, as a distinct genre of singing, cannot be overestimated.

Acting career

G. M. Durrani was a model to many playback singers who followed then. The soulful renditions of Durrani were to be reminded of by Talat's singing as well.

Besides being a gifted singer, Mahmood was quite handsome as well. He acted in over a dozen films with top actresses of the time like Nutan, Mala Sinha, Suraiya and others. Later he decided to give up acting to concentrate on singing.

Talat acted in the following Hindi films :

Film Name Year Opposite
Rajlaxmi 1945 Kananbala
Tum Aur Main 1947 Kanandevi
Samapti 1949 Bharti Devi
Araam 1951 Madhubala, Dev Anand
Thokar 1953 Shammi Kapoor
Dil-e-Nadaan 1953 Shyama, Peace Kanwal
Daak Babu 1954 Nadira
Waris 1954 Suraiya, Nadira
Raftaar 1955 Nadira
Diwali ki Raat 1956 Roopmala, Shashikala
Ek Gaon ki Kahani 1957 Mala Sinha
Lala Rukh 1958 Shyama
Maalik 1958 Suraiya
Sone ki Chidiya 1958 Nutan

The advent of rock-n-roll in the late 1960s sidelined singers 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 Mohammad Rafi and Mukesh. 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 blue mood 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 Shareek-e-Safar", a duet sung with Miss Hemlata, from the movie "Wali-e-Azam" composed by Chitragupt and written by Ahmed Wasi.

However, Talat who was the first Indian singer to go on foreign concert tours in 1956 to East Africa found eager fans awaiting his arrival in other foreign countries. Jam packed audience in the United States, the UK, West Indies and other countries awaited his arrival enthusiastically. He performed in famous Royal Albert Hall in London, Madison Square Garden in the States and Jean Pierre Complex in the West Indies. He continued singing in the packed auditoriums until 1991 when he toured Holland. Talat sang about 800 songs in his long career. His songs are still popular among the music lovers as they were in the days these were released.

Family

Talat married a Bengali Christian girl from Calcutta, who also acted in films and was a great fan of his, Latika Mullick, later named Nasreen on 20th February 1951 and had two children Khalid born in 1953 and Sabina born in 1959.

Personality

People, who were close to Talat, describe his nature as a quiet one. He is often remarked as a decent man, and his velvety and silky voice also reflected that decency and sense of calmness. Music directors, who worked with him, claimed that while listening to him, one would develop the feeling that Talat was a soft-hearted man. Dilip Kumar termed Talat as "a perfect gentleman". He was a fine gentleman who always had time and respect for his admirers.

Available work

Talat sang approximately 800 songs spread over 4 decades spanning between the 40s and 80s. Some of the most popular work of Talat is available even today with the following titles:

Even though Talat sang hundreds of hits, some of his most memorable songs from Indian cinema are:

References

  1. ↑ http://www.talatmahmood.net/family_album.htm
  2. ↑ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.

Talat Mahmood has sung a for a Malayalam movie 'Dweep'. Kadale Neela Kadale.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.