Golden Era of Bollywood: Talat Mahmood - A Great Fan of K L Saigal

Like most of the singers of the 40s and 50s Talat Mahmood was also influenced by singing superstar Kundanlal Saigal. He would sing Saigal songs for hours on his harmonium, he never tried to emulate his style. Later, at a function when he sang a ghazal of Mirza Ghalib, Nuktacheen Hai Gham-e-Dil, that had also been sung by Saigal, he got an offer to sing on AIR Lucknow. After listening to his voice, PK Sen of HMV offered him a one-year contract for 30 rupees. Talat left for Calcutta and recorded his first song in 1941, Sab din ek saman nahi tha, penned by Fayyaz Hashmi and composed by Kamal Dasgupta.
Pankaj Mullick who was also present there liked his voice, and he invited Talat to join New Theatres. Talat couldn't have accepted the offer since he was bound by the HMV contract, and also recorded private geet and ghazals for HMV.

His first encounter with Saigal happened when Saigal was recording a song for the film, My Sister, Do naina matware tihare hum per zulam karein, composed by Pankaj Mullick. Talat was spellbound seeing his idol singing. In his own words, "Lag raha tha jaise noor ki barrish ho rahi hai (It felt as if there was a shower of bright light)."

Talat made his debut in PC Barua's film Rajlaxmi in 1945 and sang two songs in the movie. And, one song, Jago musafir jago, was picturised on him. Thereafter, Talat also performed in two films, Samapti and Swayamsiddha, as an actor-singer. During his stay in Calcutta, he recorded several popular songs in Bangla with the pseudo name Tapan Kumar and his debut rendition in Bangla, Duti pakhi duti teere majhe naadi bohe dhire dhire, broke all the records.

In 1949, Talat moved to Bombay to try his luck in Hindi films. Initially, many composers told him that he had a tremolo in his voice but composers wanted to change his singing style. It was Anil da who told Talat that this tremble in his voice was his strength, his USP. He composed a ghazal for Talat in film, Aarzoo (1950), Aye dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal, penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri. This was the beginning of the Talat Mahmood era.

Naushad took Talat for Dilip Kumar in Babul and he sang hits like Khushi ke saath duniya mein, Husnwalon ko na dil do, and duets with Shamshad Begum, Duniya badal gayee meri duniya badal gayee and Milte hi nazar dil hua deewana kisi ka.

In 1951, Anil da recorded Talat's classic number, Shukriya hai pyaar tera. Talat made his debut with SD Burman with the song, Aye zindagi ke rahi in Bahar, followed by Burman Da's Buzhdil, Ek Nazar, Sazaa.and the best was to come in Taxi Driver 1954, Jayen To Jayen Kahan. In Devdas 1955, he sang heart-rendring numbers, Kis ko khabar thi kisko yakeein tha and Mitwa lagi re ye kaisi anbujh aag. Even in Sujata, he was reluctant to take Talat to sing his evergreen number, Jalate hain jiske liye in Sujata.

By the mid-1950s, Talat became the most sought after playback singer. He was every composer's first choice, giving playback for Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor, Sunil Dutt, Shashi Kapoor and Bharat Bhushan, as also for Guru Dutt in his debut film Baaz as an actor: Mujhe Dekho Hasrat ki Tasveer hoon main composed by OP Nayyar. Later, he also sang his immortal number, Pyaar par bas to nahin hai for Nayyar in Sone Ki Chidiya.

Talat sang for Khayyam Saab his masterpiece ghazal in film Footpath, Shaam-e-Gham ki Kasam, and a beautiful romantic number in the film, Lala Rukh is worth mentioning.

Talat Mehmood passed away after a cardiac arrest on 9th May 1998.