Talat Mahmood and Salil Chowdhury

Talat - A Ladies Man !

Because of his romantic image, Talat Mahmood is the only singer with the largest female fan following in the country ! He has always been a ladies man, much adored, loved and cherished by women of all ages. They just could never get enough of him ! They packed his concerts and then waited patiently at the end for hours to take his autograph - and Talat never disappointed them. At each and every concert without fail, Talat always stayed back to shake their hands, sign their autograph books and take pictures with them. His women fans bought his records by the thousands and never missed a single film he made. But despite this huge female attention, Talat Mahmood never became involved in any kind of controversies, affairs or scandals. His name has always been mentioned with respect, love and adoration. His female co-stars have all spoken extremely highly of his dignified personality. As Dilip Kumar always says, "Talat was a perfect gentleman" 

Although he was not prolific, Talat Mehmood remains the favourite of those who prefer soft, romantic melodies. Today, on his fifth death anniversary, V. GANGADHAR takes a trip down memory lane...

Playback singer Talat Mehmood (on the harmonium) ... noted for his romantic melodies. 

EVEN THE most ardent Hindi film buffs may not remember films like "Baradari'' and "Thokar''. Or details about their music directors, Naushad and Sardar Malik. But songs from these films, "Tasveer Banata Hoon'' and "Ae Gham-e-did Kya Karoon'' are remembered and hummed to this day. Crooner Talat Mehmood, who died on this day five years ago and sang these numbers, had the unique quality of rendering such ever popular songs, which were part of unsuccessful films and composed by not-so-famous music directors. At the same time, the singer did not let down more famous music directors who, for reasons of their own, used him rather sparingly.

Every song Talat Mehmood sang for Naushad ("Babul''), Ravi ("Ek Saal'') and O. P. Nayyar ("Sone Ki Chidiya'') turned out to be super hits and are remembered to this day. "Talat Saab stood apart," observed Manohar Iyer, founder of `Keep Alive,' a Mumbai-based organisation which promotes Hindi film music in its golden period, from the 1940s to 1960s.

"There are numerous people who can sing like Mohamad Rafi, Mukesh or Kishore Kumar but hardly anyone who can recapture the softness and romantic melody of Talat Mehmood". No wonder, when melody ruled the roost in the Hindi film world, Talat Saab remained the number one singer for about seven years from 1950. He was totally identified with Dilip Kumar ("Babul'', "Daag'', "Tarana'', "Footpath'', "Sangdil'', "Shikast''), sang for Raj Kapoor ("Aashiana'', "Anhonee''), Dev Anand ("Taxi Driver''), V. Shantaram ("Parchain'', "Subah Ka Tara'') and other lesser-known heroes.

He was sought after by every music director including C. Ramchandra, Shanker-Jaikishan, Roshan, Ghulam Mohammad and Madan Mohan. This period also produced some of the most wonderful duets, pairing Talat mainly with Lata Mangeshkar and also with Asha Bhosle and Geeta Dutt. "Singing duets with Talat bhai was something special," observed Lata Mangeshkar. Around 700 songs including private recordings and ghazals in a career span of around 20 years may not be all that impressive. But quality is not judged by quantity.

Born and educated in Lucknow (Morris College), Talat Mehmood began recording for All India Radio, Lucknow, and then Calcutta. His first hit remains an evergreen hit, "Tasveer Banata Hun... Tasveer Nahin Banti''. New Theatres, Calcutta, which he joined in the early 1940s, did not provide him with much work. "Rajalakshmi'' was his first film. He recorded two songs for it. Migrating to Bombay in 1949, Talat found the response encouraging. Both Naushad and Anil Biswas claimed credit for `discovering' Talat in the 1950-releases, "Babul'' and "Arzoo'', though he sang for a 1949 film, "Rakhee'' with music score by Husanlal Bhagatram.

The next five to seven years found Talat zooming to the top with an enviable score of hits. Mohamad Rafi was establishing himself, Mukesh was just getting discovered by Raj Kapoor, and Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar were waiting in the wings.

Slim and good-looking, Talat Mehmood accepted offers to play the hero in Hindi films. Beginning with A. R. Kardar's "Dil-e-Nadan'', the singing hero acted in about 10 films which despite many hit songs, did not create an impression on the people. When I interviewed him for the first time after a concert in Ahmedabad, the singer wondered if the hero image affected his singing career. "An impression was created," he recalled, "that as a hero, I would only sing my own songs. Offers from music directors began to dry up."

From the 1960s, the direction of Hindi film music began to change. So did the attitude of successful heroes. Dilip Kumar was no longer the tragic, love-lorn hero whose personality suited the soft melodies of a Talat Mehmood. He switched over to loud roles and Naushad who composed music to most of the films, opted for Mohamad Rafi. Naushad also recorded several Talat songs for his own film, "Palki'' but had to re-record the numbers using Rafi at the insistence of the film's hero, Rajendra Kumar who had a string of silver and golden jubilees.

Finally, it was the number of hits and jubilees and identification with successful camps, which mattered, not the success of a music score.

Mukesh with much less talent, became a permanent fixture at the RK camp and was also the chosen one of successful music director, Kalyandji-Anandji. For some reason, Talat Saab could not discover and stick to such a successful camp. On the contrary, S. D. Burman who was upset at the box office failure of the critically-acclaimed Bimal Roy's "Devdas'' which had a memorable music score, wanted to replace Talat with Rafi for the next Bimalda production, "Sujata'' to render the famous number "Jalte Hain Jis Keliye''. Fortunately, Bimalda put his foot down and the Talat number became a hit.

There was no truth in the charge that he could not sing faster, jazzy numbers. Remember the foot-tapping "Andhe Jahan Se, Andhe Raatein'' from "Patita'', "Tim Tim Tim'' from "Mausi'' or "Aha Rim Jhim Taaren'' ("Usne Kaha Tha''). Perhaps, the singer could not `cultivate' people who mattered in the industry. Despite fewer films, Talat saab remained the favourite of those who preferred soft, romantic tunes. His records and later cassettes sold well, and his concerts both in India and abroad were packed.

The Afghan royal family was among his admirers. ``King Zahir Shah attended my concerts with members of his family, including women," recollected Talat Saab. "It was for the first time the royal family women patronised a concert."

Ups and downs in life did not matter to Talat Saab. In our meetings, both in Ahmedabad and Mumbai, he came out as someone who was happy with life and had warm words of praise for his fellow singers. ``There was no rat race among us," he declared. "We were all different types of singers and there was enough scope for all of us".

Our last meeting was rather painful. Victim of a stroke, the great singer could not speak. But there was no mistaking the sincerity and warmth in his eyes.