Talat Mehmood – a tribute to him on his 23rd death anniversary.

Talat Mehmood (1924 – 1988), a versatile legendary singer with a lovely silky voice, was a prominent artist during the Golden Era of Indian Music. He was the very first original filmy Ghazal singer.  He was handsome, always soft spoken and very well dressed and maintained a charming personality at all times.  It was unfortunate that his career didn’t flourish as well it should have. While he was still in his forties, the sun of his vocation had already started to set!  He faced numerous unpleasant incidents which prompted him to voluntarily retire from filmy dunia, at the young age of 44.

Lucknow born, Talat Mehmood started his career as a singer on Calcutta Radio. His non filmi songs started becoming popular. One of his songs: “Tasvir teri dil mera behla na sakegi” is still popular among music lovers.  Composer Anil Biswas, who had given the break to singer Mukesh, noticed great potential in him and sent him a message to come to Bombay and join film industry.  Talat Mehmood recorded his first filmi song for film “Arzoo”; “Hai dil mujeh aisi jaga le chal jahan koi na ho”.  This song was filmed on Dilip Kumar and it became very popular. His voice suited the Thespian so well that other composers also started to record Talat Mehmood’s voice on Dilip Kumar. He was then branded as the voice of Dilip Kumar. No denial. Both had much similarities and importantly both were soft spoken.

Talat Mehmood sang for Dilip Kumar in quite a number of his earlier films which followed after “Arzoo”.  They were: “Tarana” “Daag” “Babul” “Shikast” “Sangdil” “Footpath” “Devdas”.  All the solo songs from these movies were soft and sad songs, as if these were tailor made for the tragedy king! Dilip Kumar himself also preferred to have Talat’s voice on him. 

Besides Dilip Kumar, he had also sung for almost all major artists of that era.  Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor, Ashok Kumar, Bharat Bhushan, Suresh, Sunil Dutt, Chandra Shekher, and even comedian actor Agha, and renowned producer-director V Shantaram, had their share of lovely songs in his voice to their credit.

His song from the film “Taxi Driver” was chosen by “Filmfare” as the best song of the year, which also made SD Burman win best Music Director’s award in 1954.  He won the National Award for his song in “Mirza Ghalib”.  Government of India has also conferred on him the civilian award of Padma Bhushan.

Being a charming personality, he was also offered to act in films as hero. He acted in films like “Dil e Nadan” “Aaram” “Sone ki Chidya” “Ek Gaon ki Kahani” and couple of other films.  All songs which he had sung on screen proved classics. Who can forget 

“Raat ne kya kya khwab dikhaye” 

” Zindgi dene wale suu’n”

 “Tu bata de ke tuje pyar karu ya,na karu”

These are just few among many.

He was the amongst the first artists from Bollywood to make overseas trips for his concerts. In 1960 he and his counterpart and friend C H Atma, both visited East Africa. Other artists followed later.

The sixties decade brought about some changes in the Bollywood World.  Black and white movies gave way to colour films. Soft, Sober and Sensible Indian music gave way to Western, loud and fast music.  Most of the composers adjusted themselves and joined the bandwagon. Composer Anil Biswas, the mentor of Talat Mehmood, retired from film music and made New Delhi his new home.  In addition to this, Talat Mehmood faced several unpleasant incidents that broke his heart and made him to retire from film industry.

Naushad did not compromise with the trend and continued to promote and stick to pure Indian music. The association of Naushad and Talat Mehmood was, however, short-lived and died before the release of their first venture “Babul”. During the rehearsal of one of the songs of “Babul” Talat Mehmood smoked in front of his tutor, Naushad, who considered that as a sign of disrespect.  Naushad didn’t approach him for any further recordings for many years.  Who knows? if this incident hadn’t happened, then their relationship might have flourished and Dilip Kumar might have got some more velvety songs on his credit in the voice of Talat Mehmood!

Many years later, either the matter was forgiven or forgotten, Naushad recorded a chorus song for “Love and God” with him. This was a patch and a sign of unity between them. Then followed another duet song he sang with Mohammed Rafi, for the film “Aadmi.” 

Talat Mehmood was then supposed to give playback to Manoj Kumar. Manoj Kumar demanded to substitute Talat Mehmood for either Mukesh or Mahendra Kapoor, his favourite singers. Naushad had no choice left when the producer asked him to do so and he reluctantly, re-recorded the song in the voice of Mahendra Kapoor. This was with a condition that the disc would remain in Talat Mehmood’s voice. Obviously, this agreement didn’t prove to be a win-win. 

Let me go bit off-topic and say little about Manoj Kumar: 

He always wanted his favourite singers to sing for him. He wasn’t happy when composers recorded songs with Mohammed Rafi for him. He only abided to composer’s decisions when they strongly rejected his demands and he was left with zero options. “Do Badan” and “Patther ke Sanam” were the films.

Back to Talat Saab:

Composer Chitragupta recorded that popular song with Talat Mehmood for the film “Bhabhi”  “Chal ood ja re panchi, ke abh yeh desh hua begana” Its disc was also cut.  However, when the picture was released, Talat Mehmood got the shock of his life when the same song was filmed in the movie in Mohammed Rafi’s voice. Neither of the singers knew about the re-recording.  Knowing the nature of Mohammed Rafi, he would have never sung the song had he known this.  Both legendary singers had the greatest of respect for each other. When the Mohammed Rafi passed away, Talat Mehmood was one of the first ones to arrive at the residence of his late counterpart and friend. He couldn’t stop his tears and cried like a baby sitting by the deceased. So did Kishore Kumar.

Like Dilip Kumar, Sunil Dutt also preferred to be given Talat Mehmood’s voice, but the composers thought otherwise. When a composer thought likewise, actors thought otherwise. All these fateful incidents broke his heart and he voluntarily retired. He did remain active, though, travelling abroad performing at his popular concerts and fulfilling his passion for travelling and photographing.

Sadly, the final years of his life were not that comfortable for him as he became a victim of Parkinson’s disease. He left for his final *ghar* on 9th May 1998 at the age of 74.

I recall one of his songs…

“Aey mere dil kahin aur chal, gham ki dunia se dil bhar gaya, dhundh le aab koi ghar* naya”

May his soul rest in peace. Ameen.

A K Bagha

Mwanza (Tanzania)

9/5/2021