“Jalte hain jiske liye”, “Ye hawa ye raat ye chandni”, “Phir wohi shaam wohi gham”….the golden melodies rendered by the Silken smooth voice with a slight quiver….the voice which could bring out the subtle nuances of varying emotions in a song…and drench us with it…. belongs to the Ghazal king Talat Mahmood.
Born in Lucknow, Talat went on to become one of the greatest singers who contributed to the Hindi film music.
Talat Mahmood learned classical music under Sri. S.C.R.Bhat. He started his singing career as Ghazal singer in All India Radio in 1939 at a tender age of 16. This, despite the fact that he came from a conservative Muslim family.
HMV offered him his first album in 1941. His hit in 1944 “Tasvir teri dil mera behela..” become so popular that soon he was called by the Calcutta film industry. He acted in both Calcutta and in bollywood. He also recorded a lot of Bengali film songs under the name “Tapan Kumar”
In 1949, Talat Mahmood moved to Bombay. He went on to record several hits like Zindagi dene wale sun - Dil-e-Nadaan (1953), Jayen to jayen kahan - Taxi Driver (1954), Tasveer banata hoon - Baradari (1955), Dil-E-Nadaan tujhe hua kya hai - Mirza Ghalib (1954), Aansoo samajh ke kyon mujhe - Chhaya (1961), to name a few. His good looks led to his acting in over a dozen hindi films with the top actresses of the time.
It’s bollywood’s good fortune to have him sing some of the greatest ghazals which have remained etched in our memory even today.
Talat sang about 800 songs in his long career. His songs are still popular among the music lovers of hindi film music.
Hats off to Sri Talat Mahmood.
