Showing posts with label geeta dutt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geeta dutt. Show all posts

Tuesday 20 July 2021

Unheard Story of Geeta Dutt- The words sang ten years ago became true.

 


We all remember the song "Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya" with this song Geeta Dutt became famous That was in 1947 with the release of 'Do Bhai' music was given by S D Burman. 1947-1949 saw Geeta Roy rule as the number one female playback singer in the Hindi film industry as she moved from strength to strength. She married Guru Dutt in 1953 whom she fell in love with during the recording of the songs of' Baazi'(1951).

In 1957 Guru Dutt started a film 'Gauri' in Hindi and Bengali with her as the heroine. This film was supposed to be shot in the new cinemascope technology. It is said that a lot of expensive types of equipment were ordered from abroad and the shooting began with a lot of expectations from Geeta DuttThe shooting of the film began and a few reels were shot. Based on the available information, at least one song sung and acted by Geeta was recorded. To much dismay of Geeta, Guru Dutt decided to scrap the film. It was a case of shattered dreams for Geeta who had pinned her hopes on this film. The words "Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya" sung by her almost ten years ago had become true.


Geeta Dutt In Gauri


Since the film was supposed to be a musical, it is said that two songs were recorded for the film but were never released on discs. it was the legendary S D Burman (whom Geeta used to call "Kaka" (Uncle) with affection). Geeta Dutt is reported to have recorded a song "BANSHI SHUNE AAR KAJ NAI SE JE DAKATIA BANSHI" for the film Gauri. The record version was probably never published. This is confirmed from a 1958 Bengali magazine article by Colin Paul. Later S.D. Burman himself recorded the song in his own voice at around 1960/1961 and it was a hit. The song has lyrics by Gouri Prasanna Majumdar and music by S D Burman himself. The same tune was later used for Shakti SamantaĆ¢€™s film Anuraag (1972) where Lata Mangeshkar sang the song "Neend Churaye Chain Churaye Daka Dale Teri Bansi" for Moushumi Chatterjee making her debut in Hindi films. The film Gauri got shelved and the original tunes were probably never heard by anyone. The shelving of the film Gauri had a severe impact on Geeta as a person. A truly spirited woman she was, she continued to sing memorable songs as if nothing had happened, but for sure she was hurt deep inside in her heart.
Those days Guru Dutt was in love with Waheeda Rehman, their family life was in trouble. Guru Dutt broke with Geeta Dutt for the sake of Waheeda Rehman. Waheeda never reciprocated her love to Guru Dutt since he was a married man with children. Moreover, she respected him as a Great artist and nothing else. At this juncture, it is hard to imagine Guru Dutt’s state of mind. He was caught between two situations. Breaking up with his wife and not getting attention from Waheeda. Finally, Guru Dutt found the easy way out. He apparently committed suicide on October 10th, 1964


After Guru Dutt's untimely death in the year 1964, Geeta Dutt suffered a lot of financial, health related and personal problems. She was practically left with no money (being made insolvent from Guru Dutt Films due to the debacle of the film "Sailaab" earlier) and three children to support. The days of her career as a leading playback singer were over and she was not getting many singing assignments. Between the years 1964 and 1967, she sang less than a couple of dozen songs, mostly in obscure and/or low-budget films. Going by the rule of the film industry, one and all had deserted her. Even those people whom she had helped building their careers had conveniently forgotten her. The composers for whom she sang several hit songs turned back towards her. She was forced to do stage shows and radio jingles and even those were not a great success. It was a sad story to see a top playback singer being treated like this by the film and music fraternity.
It is reported that she decided to venture into other areas of films and music. She was to compose the music for a film under the moniker "Pyaasi" and it is said that she even recorded a song in her own voice. We do not have any information if any records of songs she composed were released or not. This was the time, when she decided to try her hand at acting one more time, this time in her mother tongue Bengali.




Cover of Badhu Baran's Booklet


Geeta Dutt got a role in a Bengali film titled Badhu Baran in the year 1967. The film was directed by Dilip Naag. The film introduced Rakhee (who later became Rakhee Gulzar and went on to become a popular actress in Hindi films) to the film world. The film was made by D.S. Productions 

The film had an impressive star cast in Pradeep Kumar paired with Geeta Dutt. Based on the available information, the film did not do too well at the box office. A good amount of interest was among the music and film lovers who watched this film to see their favorite singer Geeta Roy acting in a film. The film ran for about 5 or 6 weeks or so in Kolkata.


Elegant Geeta ji in Badhu Baran

The music of the film was composed by the legendary and brilliant composer Kamal Dasgupta. It is a pity that the composer chose to have Geeta sing just one song for this film. The song she sang is "Amar alor o shishu o andhar ja"This turned out to be Geeta Dutt's last recording in a Bengali film 
Song of  Badhu Baran 1967

She tried to resume her singing career. But Asha Bhonsle had already overtaken her. Geeta Dutt started drowning her woes in alcohol. Her health kept failing as she drank more and more alcoholic drinks..ultimately she died on July 20th 1972 due to cirrhosis of the liver at the tender age of 42.
Geeta Dutt was a brilliant playback singer of Hindi films, strikingly beautiful with dreamy almond eyes, who left us nearly 50 years ago. Despite possessing a rich voice, her career was heavily marred by bad luck and an unhappy marriage.
The last recorded song of Geeta Dutt was a duet with Talat Mahmood in the 1972 film Midnight which went unnoticed. In this film she sang a solo also.
Song of Midnight 1972










Tuesday 21 July 2020

The Story Behind the Song'Tadbeer Se Bigdi Hui Taqdeer Bana Le'


This super hit song from the Navketan's Baazi(1951) was written by Sahir Ludhianvi was a Ghazal to be picturized as per the situation but Dada Burman felt that in this situation Ghazal will not suit so he effortlessly turned it into a club song and changed the situation. 
This song was sung by Geeta Roy(Dutt) You would be surprised to note that Guru Dutt who was the director of the film fell in love with Geeta Roy during the recording of this song.
The mahurat of Baazi took place in 1950, the mahurat shot was taken on the sequence of this song. Everybody present there appreciated the song and its picturization. When the film was released, it became a super-duper hit, this song became so popular that audiences came repeatedly to watch just this song. 
This was the first shot of the career as a director for Guru Dutt obviously wanted to use his skills as a choreographer, learned at no less an institution than Uday Shankar’ for the mahurat shot. It was a delicately balanced scene. A long shot on the gangster’s moll, who was to seduce the hero. Yet she was obviously half in love with the debonair, dashingly handsome young man, and even as she sang to him to lure him along, she wished to warn him of the dangers lurking around.
An NRI musician Sadanand Warrier says that it was surprising that Dada who had no affection and knowledge of western music could use chromatic notes in the interlude of the song. Even the 'Hey Hey Hey Hey' is essentially chromatic movement.
In an interview, Dada Burman said that he deliberately used the phrase 'Hey Hey Hey Hey' to capture the feelings of being truly liberated as portrayed by the young woman. This song became a rage, it is said the people liked this song so much that cine-goers used to see the movie only for this song, many would walk out after the song ends.
S D Burman once said in Filmfare that.once he was fishing in Calcutta and was not able to catch a single fish, he set patiently for the whole day but couldn't catch any. Thoroughly disappointedly he was calling it a bad day, suddenly a boy of 10 years jumped into the pond and started singing his this Baazi song not knowing the composer of the song sitting there. That made his day It was the biggest catch of his life.
Song of Baazi 1951



Wednesday 3 October 2018

Non Film Songs Of Great Singers


Preference in music is so subjective. What I like, might not be liked by you. I like some songs due to their lyrics, some due to the singer, some due to the music, One could dislike these very songs because they don't like the lyrics, or the beats, or the singer. Similarly many of us like Film songs but many of us who like Non-film songs.
Regarding the Non Film songs, we must know that much before Films started Talking and singing, the Non-Film Songs were famous in many forms. Bhajans and Classical songs were the most popular Non-Film Songs during silent films. The first recorded song was in 1902 which was manufactured in Germany and shipped to India in April 1903. It was sung by Gauhar Jaan 
In 1930, All India Radio started and in 1931 the films started talking. However, records of film songs were in general not made those days, though the first film song record came in 1932. Till about 1939-40, records of film songs were not made from every film. So, people continued to enjoy the NON FILM SONGS by famous singers. This trend of making records of NFS was so popular that most Film singers started their careers by recording NFS. Examples are Talat Mehmood, Hemant Kumar, S D Burman, Lata, Asha, Mukesh, Rafi etc.
 In this Blog I have taken many of those Non-film songs of great singers of their time.

A Rare Non Film Song recorded in 1914,Song-Kaho guinyya kaise kate saari raat (Baby Amirjan NFS)(1914) Singer-Amirbai Karnataki

D V Paluskar was a Hindustani classical vocalist. He was considered a child prodigy. He cut his first disc in 1944.. He was a master at presenting an attractive and comprehensive picture of a raga in a very short duration. Besides pure classical music, he was also a great Bhajan singer. 


K L Saigal The immortal Singer K L Saigal rendered 185 songs which include 142 film songs and 43 non-film songs. His non-film songs comprise bhajansghazals and hori

                               Mein Jo Dinan Ki Thhori Hori Geet by KL Saigal


Pankaj Mullick, worked as music director to artists like K.L. SaigalS.D. BurmanHemanta MukherjeeGeeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle. He acted with famous film actors like K L Saigal, P.C. Barua and Kanan Devi. Along with Nitin Bose His voice best suited for philosophical and sentimental songs. He sang many such genresmaster madan of songs both filmy and non-filmy.

                                           Na Kar Itna Pyar... Pankhaj Mallick


Master Madan was a child prodigy, unfortunately, he died at the age of 15. The child prodigy started singing at the tender age of three and quickly became a craze all over India. His astonishingly mature voice left a deep impression on the listeners. Anyone with even a passing interest in music is familiar with these two Sagar Nizami's ghazals,

Yun naa reh reh kar hamein tarsaaiye


Hairat se tak rahaa hei jahane wafa mujhe

Noorjehan was the female singing superstar in the 40s. She shifted to Pakistan during the partition. She may have sung many NFS in Pakistan but in India, she sang only a few one of those is given here.

Jogan ki jholi bhar de o shah madeene waale

C.H. Atma  His evergreen song is 'Preetam Aan Milo', which he sang in 1945 for a private album. In 1955, the same song was sung by Geeta Dutt for the film, Mr. & Mrs. '55 for composer O. P. Nayyar, who was a great fan of his singing.[2] His voice was quite similar to K. L. Saigal. But he had his own unique style which he implied to become one of the fewest singers to become extensively popular both in film and non-film music. 



Begum Akhtar  a well known Indian singer of GhazalDadra, and Thumrigenres of Hindustani classical music. She was given the title of Mallika-e-Ghazal .She was among the early female singers to give a public concert. Her first public performance was at the age of fifteen.She has nearly four hundred songs to her credit. She was a regular performer on All India Radio. She usually composed her own ghazals and most of her compositions were raag based.Her ghazal ‘ae mohabbat tere anjaam pe ronaa aayaa’ and Begum Akhtar are inseparable. 


Geeta Dutt -It was in the year 1946 that Geeta Roy sang for Pandit Hanuman Prasad in a mythological movie, Bhakt Prahlad. In 1947 S D Burman took her for Do Bhai. The success of the music of Do Bhai (especially the song "Mera sundar sapna beet gaya") catapulted Geeta to the top bracket of female playback singers. 


Talat Mahmood   was a very gifted singer in every sense. He was particularly famous for singing soft and sombre semi-classical and non-classical ghazals, 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. 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


Manna Dey, He debuted in the film Tamanna in 1942. After the song "Upar Gagan Bishal" composed by S D Burman he saw success and went on to record more than 4,000 songs. The first song which was broadcasted on the inaugural day of Vividh Bharati was ‘naach re mayuraa’ (1957)which was sung by Manna Dey. The song was penned by Pandit Narendra Sharma especially for the occasion and set to music by Anil Biswas


Hemant Kumar - an Indian playback singermusic directorand film producer, who sang in BengaliHindi and other Indian languages. He is also the greatest artist of Rabindra SangeetIn 1947, Hemanta recorded a non-film song called "Ganyer badhu"  that had music and lyrics by Salil Chowdhury..This song generated an unforeseen popularity for Hemanta 
Hemant Kumar sang nearly 60 NFS of which three-fourth were released in the 40s and 50s. Most of his NFSs of 40s and 50s were composed by music directors like Kamal Dasgupta, Durga Sen, Ravi 
The two most popular NFSs of Hemant Kumar in terms of frequency of them being played on the radio in the 60s were (i) ‘aanchal se kyon baandh liyaa mujhe pardesi kaa pyaar’ and (ii) ‘bhala thhaa kitnaa apnaa bachpan’. 

aanchal se kyon baandh liyaa mujhe pardesi kaa pyaar


Paa kar bhi tumhen ham paa na sakey

Meena Kumari -We all know about her acting but we are not aware of her singing and poetic side.she wrote shayari in the pseudo name of Naaz.Meena Kumari was also a playback singer. She sung as a child artist for films like Bahen till 1945.She sang 3 songs for the film  Duniya Ek Sarai (1946),five songs for Piya Ghar Aaja (1947),6 songs for Bichchade Balam (1948) even ONE song for Pakeezah (1972). However, this song was not used in the film and was later released in the album Pakeezah-Rang Barang (1977).
Poetry was in her blood. Her father Ali Baksh was an Urdu poet and attached with Parsi theatre. Her mother, Iqbal Bano was actually a stage artist,In 1970, an LP was released,The title of the LP – ‘I Write, I Recite’. This LP has nine ghazals written and sung by herself. 

Chaand tanha hai aasmaan tanha 

Malika Pukhraj -  a highly popular Ghazal and folk singer.Sometime in the late 30s, the glamour of films brought her to Bombay (Mumbai) to act in films. However, after doing a couple of day’s shooting for a film, she could not adjust to the atmosphere of film shooting. So she left the film half-way and fled to Lahore feigning illness. 
Like Begum Akhtar, in the later years, Malika Pukhraj mainly concentrated on singing ghazals based on semi-classical music. She also sang and recorded folk songs in Dogri, her native language.She was among the greatest singers of India in the 1940s, and after Partition of India in 1947, she migrated to LahorePakistan, where she received much more fame, through her radio performances

Abhi to main jawaan hoon

Mukesh - is considered to be one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the Hindi film industry.The first song that he sang for a Hindi film was "Dil Jalta Hai To Jalne De".He also sang many non film songs.It is more than 100.

Baharon Se Keh Do ... Mere Ghar Na Aayein


                            Jiyenge Magar Muskura Na Sakenge Ki Ab Zindagi Main...

Mohammed Rafi -one of the greatest singers of the Indian sub continent..Rafi was notable for his voice and versatility; his songs ranged from fast peppy numbers to patriotic songs, sad numbers to highly romantic songs, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans to classical songs. He has sung in many regional Indian languages including KonkaniAssameseBhojpuriOdiaPunjabiBengaliMarathiSindhiKannadaGujaratiTamilTeluguMagahiMaithili. Apart from Indian languages, he also sang songs in many foreign languages including EnglishFarsiArabicSinhaleseCreole and Dutch.He recorded many private albums in various genres and languages, many of which are noted as all-time classics today.

                                                 Tum Aao Rumjhum Karti


                                            Ek Hi Baat Zamane Ki- Mohd Rafi Ghazal


Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar had sung many ghazals in Hindi films especially under the baton of Madan Mohan. During 1960-70, Lata Mangeshkar had sung some beautiful non-filmy ghazals. In 1969, a LP of her non-filmy ghazals of Mirza Ghalib composed by her brother Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar was released.Similarly LP of Lata was released in 70s of Meera Bhajan The album's name is actually known as "Chala Wahi Des".Another immortal NFS is "Ae mere watan ke logon” 

                                                    Lata ji Sings Mirza Ghalib...

Ghiri ghataayen aasmaan par( Lata NFS)(1969)









Thursday 23 November 2017

Geeta Dutt- One of the greatest singers of the 20th Century.


Geeta Dutt born on 23rd Nov 1930 had a brief span of life. Her music career extended over a period of just 15 years.She appeared on the world of film music in 1947 and with her very first song Mera sundar sapna beet gaya” she attained unprecedented fame and popularity winning the hearts of millions of music lovers.It was S D Burman who discovered and groomed her.
  She rendered songs from her heart making them so endearingly heart rendering. When she sang "Thandi Hawaa Kaali Ghata" you can feel the cool breeze of an overcast day. When she sang "Koi Door Se Awaaz De" you can sense the feelings of a hauntingly disturbed soul celebrating the resplendence of life on one side and yet lamenting setbacks on the other. As critic Subhash K. Jha puts it aptly "Geta Dutt's voice conveys the sweetness of honey and the pain of the bee sting."
Here are my 10 favorite songs of GeetaDutt.
Song from Do Bhai (1947),


Song from Baazi – (1951)



Song from Pyaasa – (1957)




Song from Aar Paar (1954)




Song from Kaagaz Ke Phool – (1959)



Song from Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam (1962)




Song from Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam – 1962)


Song from Shart – (1954)


Song from Anubhav – (1971)




Song from Howrah Bridge – (1958)

Thursday 20 July 2017

GEETA DUTT-The Perfact Voice,Be it a Bhajan or a Western cabaret pictured on Helen


The 50s was the golden period of Geeta Dutt singing career. She sang some of her biggest hits during this period. Aaj sajan mohe ang lagalo, Thandi hawa, kali ghata, Ja Ja bewafa and her popular duets like Ankhon hi ankhon mein, Jaane kahan mera jigar gaya ji, Aan milo shyam saaware, etc -- all belong to this period.She was equally perfact in Bhajans as well as Jazzy musical songs.My Tribute to Geeta Dutt on her 45th Death Anniversary.
She made her debut in his mythological film Bhakta Prahlad.It was in 1947 that Geeta Dutt who was Geeta Roy got to fame with the musical success of Do Bhai, which was also music director SD Burman's first major breakthrough. The song "Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya."became very popular,its still remembered today.

  In the film Baazi, (starred by Dev Anand and Geeta Bali) Dev Anand employed Guru Dutt as the director of the film production, in which Geeta Roy sang an immortal and emotional number, “Tadbeer se bigadi hui”. Guru Dutt instantly fell in love with her by hearing this song.
Geeta Roy and Guru Dutt got married in 1953, though both the households had reservations of this union.Guru Dutt produced some classic films around this time and the female voice for his films was always Geeta Dutt. All her songs were massive hits. They had a happy married life initially and three children were born in quick succession (Tarun, Arun and Nina).

By 1957, their marriage had run into rough weather due to Guru Dutt’s alleged love affair with his leading actress Waheeda Rehman. 
Guru Dutt broke with Geeta Dutt for the sake of Waheeda Rehman. Waheeda never reciprocated her love to Guru Dutt since he was a married man with children. Moreover, she respected him as a Great artist and nothing else. At this juncture, it is hard to imagine Guru Dutt’s state of mind. He was caught between two situations. Breaking up with his wife and not getting attention from Waheeda. Finally, Guru Dutt found the easy way out. He apparently committed suicide on October 10th 1964
After Guru Dutt’s death, Geeta’s life was a mess. Geeta was a broken woman. She tried to resume her singing career. But Asha Bhonsle had already overtaken her.Geeta Dutt started drowning her woes in alcohol. Her health kept failing as she drank more and more alcoholic drinks..ultimately she died on July 20th 1972 due to cirrhosis of lever at a tender age of 42.
Geeta Dutt was a brilliant playback singer of Hindi films, strikingly beautiful with dreamy almond eyes, who left us nearly 45 years ago. Despite possessing a rich voice, her career was heavily marred by bad luck and an unhappy marriage.


Song from Do Bhai 1947



Song from Bawre Nain (1950)



Song from Baazi (1951)



Song from Aar Paar (1954)



Song from Shart (1954)


Song from Devdas (1955)



Song from Mr. & Mrs. 55 (1955)



Song from Bhai Bhai (1956)



Song from C. I. D. (1956)



Song from Pyaasa (1957)



Song from Sujata (1959)


Song from Kala Bazar (1960)



Song from Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962)


Meri jaan mujhe jaan na kaho

Song from Anubhav (1972)