This BLOG is about the Past of Hindi Films Specially Black and White Cinema We will refresh your memories by bringing out forgotten or unseen songs and clippings of film scenes We will try to give you as much information as we gather from our research.
This Blog was started as a one-man’s passion for film history but has now become an addiction for many music lovers who are equally passionate about Hindi films
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. His voice had a quality distinct from all the other singers. HMV was quick to notice this and offered Talat his first disc in 1941 Sab din ek samaan nahin tha, Bun jaoon ga kya se kya main, Iska to kuch dhyan nahin tha.
His reputation as a ghazal singer was not limited to his hometown of Lucknow, but it reached the city that proved to shape his destiny – Calcutta. He acted in 3 Bengali films before coming to Bombay in 1949. His big break came with the song Ae dil mujhe aisi jagha le chal jahan koi na ho composed by music director Anil Biswas, his mentor in Bombay, for the soundtrack of the film Arzoo (1950 film).
In this blog, I have selected a few unheard and rare songs of Talat Mahmood of the 40s
Talat's first-ever recording of 1941
TALAT MAHMOOD - Sab din ek samaan nahin tha NON FILM GHAZAL
The writer of this immortal song was Prem Dhawan. It was composed by Anil Biswas and sung by Talat Mehmood and Lata Mangeshkar. Anil Biswas composed the tune of this song in just 15 minutes while riding in a car. There was a rumor that the lyrics had been bought from Sahir Ludhianvi for Rs 5/-, as Sahir was in need of money, and Prem Dhawan had helped him. It is very sad that Prem Dhawan was always underrated. He was multitalented, he was a composer beside lyricist and as well as a Choreographer.and also acted in a few films. He wrote songs like Mera Rag De Basanti Chola, Ae Watan Ai Watan from Shaheed, and many more songs. He won the National Film Award for Best Lyrics in 1971 for the film, Nanak Dukhiya Sub Sansar
This song was picturized on Dilip Kumar and Madhubala for the film Tarana released in 1951. This was the first film of Dilip Kumar and Madhubala together. Regarding this song, Shikha Biswas Vohra, daughter of music director Anil Biswas said in an interview that how her father composed this song. Prem Dhawan and her father were good friends, they were booked for two films Tarana and Arman in 1950. One day Prem Dhawan gave him few lines of this song and asked him to make the tune while going to meet the famous Punjabi singer Surinder Kaur On reaching.the destination Anil Biswas asked Prem Dhawan to go to meet the singer and he sat on the parapet and started humming the tune. By the time Prem Dhawan returned, the tune was ready. Interestingly the song was a sad song but Anil Biswas used the major scale and another point to highlight that he used three different tunes for the three Antaras. A very rare occurrence and only a genius like Anil Biswas could do that. Madan Mohan also did the same in many songs later.in the 60s.If we look technically the use of Teevra 'Ma'gives it the feeling of Raga Yaman Kalyan. This is probably one of the greatest duets of Bollywood. Everything is perfect, lyrics, music, singing, and picturization on two of the greatest actors Dilip Kumar and Madhubala.
Talat Mahmood, the legendry singer of the Golden Era died on 8th May 1998 has given many Immortal songs to us.Although his peak barely spanned a decade, he has produced some of Bollywood's most treasured songs. This accomplishment has earned him a place in our hearts and souls for all time to come. Talat’s impeccable command over Urdu was the flavor of the films. Top music directors of that time were giving him songs. The first song he sang for Dilip Kumar was "Milte Hi Ankhe Dil Hua Deewana Kisi Ka" a duet from Babul 1950. He gave playback to all the big stars of that era such as Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, and Sunil Dutt His big break came with the song Ae dil mujhe aisi jagha le chal jahan koi na ho composed by music director Anil Biswas for the soundtrack of the movie Arzoo. The song proved to be extremely popular. After Babul, he sang for Dilip Kumar in the 1951 film Tarana, the song "Seene Mei Sulagte Hai Arman" became super hit. The same year another song from Madhosh " Meri Yaad Mein Na Tum Aanso Bahana" also became hit.His voice was now being appreciated by all, most of the music directors were now giving him a chance. In 1952 he sang in 26 films, the songs of Daag and Anhonee became super hit. He sang for the first time for Raj Kapoor, this song" Mein Dil Hoon Ek Arman Bhara" is an immortal song. Though he sang for Dev Anand in 1951 film Nadaan,"Aa Teri Tasvir Bana Loon"but the 1953 song "Andhe Jahan Ke Hum Hain" became hit. The same year "Sham-E-Gham ki qassam" for Footpath and "Zindagi dene wale sun" for Dil E Nadaan were a massive hit. In 1954 he again sang for Dev Anand in Taxi Driver, the song "Jayen to jayen kahan" became immortal and one of his greatest hits. Talat sang approximately 800 songs spread over 4 decades spanning between the 40s and 80s Here I am posting a few of his immortal songs
Talat Mahmood , I adore his songs.I can listen to him over and over and over again without ever getting bored. But I love almost anyything Talat sang.In this blog I have taken those songs which are solo and sad songs. His control, evocative voice, and pauses won him the admiration of fans across the Indian subcontinent.
This song was written by Majrooh Sultanpuri and composed by S D Burman, was picturised on Sunil Dutt and Nutan for the film Sujata 1959. It is a “phone” song, where Sunil Dutt rings up Nutan and sings this song on phone. Well, there were very few phones in 1959 ( exactly sixty years ago) and singing a song on phone was not good for one’s telephone bills those days unless one was doing it for very important reasons. Bimal Roy, the producer-director of the film wanted this song to be sung by Mohammad Rafi but Burman Da was not in favour, then the name of Manna Dey was suggested but Burman Da was looking for someone else. SD Burman was always very particular about the voice of his singer to be matched with his composition. For this song, he asked Rafi, Manna Dey to sing back the tune to him over the phone. He was not satisfied with the texture he wanted for this song. It is said that it was Jaidev who was his assistant in that film suggested the name of Talat Mahmood for this song. Burman Da agreed and asked Talat to sing the tune over the Telephone. On listening to the tune on the phone Burman da immediately decided that this song will be sung by Talat only. And indeed, the soft silken voice of Talat sounds so wonderful in this song that made the song immortal The beauty of this song is not only: its music, its words but also its picturization, Talat’s incomparable singing, Nutan’s acting—and, though often overlooked, also Sunil Dutt’s acting. Watch in the first verse, for instance, the earnestness in his face as he sings: as if he’s trying to be absolutely word-perfect, not one note out of place, focusing on his song and yet also addressing that girl he loves, who’s listening at the other end of the line. Then, as the song progresses, he begins to relax—not just physically stretching out, but also smiling more easily, letting himself feel more comfortable, more confident that she’s liking his song…
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.
Talat Mahmood (24 February 1924 – 9 May 1998) is considered one of the greatest singers of Bollywood. He was particularly famous for singing soft and sombre semi-classical and non-classical ghazals, but the film songs sung by him are also considered critically flawless and outstanding. He can be described as the real founder of modern semi-classical and non-classical ghazal. Talat Mehmood was the real founder of modern semi-classical and non-classical ghazal. So, his influence upon other contemporary and succeeding ghazal singers has been broad and profound. It was he who paved the way for such legendary ghazal singers like Mehdi Hassan and Jagjit Singh. Besides being a gifted singer, Talar was quite handsome as well. He acted in over a dozen films with top actresses of the time like Nutan, Mala Sinha, Suraiya and others. He could be considered the Top Singing Star of Black & White Era. Later he decided to give up acting to concentrate on singing. In this Blog I have selected the songs he sang for the Major Heroes of Bollywood
This film was released in 1953. The film was a flop but the film earned critical acclaims for Dilip Kumar's Performance. Dilip Kumar in an interview said "My scene of breaking down after my elder brother Bani passes away remains my all type favourite scenes"
The film stars Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, and Anwar Hussain. The music of the film is by Timir Baran and Khayyam. The highlight of the film is One of the finest Ghazals "Sham e Gham Ki Kasam by Talat Mahmood.
Tired of being poor, Noshu(Dilip Kumar), a newspaperman, abandons his scruples and starts to make money as a black marketeer. He gains his fortune but ruins his brother's life causing him to lose his job, his home and his wife whilst simultaneously losing his own self-respect and that of his former neighbours and his girl. Tormented by his conscience, he writes an expose′ of the illegal trade, but cannot prevent his own brother becoming a victim when an epidemic rages unchecked because criminals have stockpiled all the medicine.
Meena Kumari performs very convincingly matching Dilip Kumar’s intensity in every scene. She never appears vulgar during her bathing scene. Romesh Thapar is restrained and Achla Sachdev tries hard to appear heartless. Anwar Hussain does not impress too much. The other actors are just adequate.
A taut screenplay and meaningful dialogues penned by Zia Sarhadi make “Footpath” a truly memorable film. Sarhadi showed a lot of promise and eye for detail. The sequences shot indoors as well as in the black-marketing den shot in natural light sans cinematic jugglery by N. Raiaram is really convincing. Songs of Footpath
Mirza Ghalib is the topmost poet whose poems are used as songs in Hindi films.His poems, his lifestyle, his behaviour everything is a great inspiration. He continues to be one of the best and oft-quoted writers in history. Bollywood has paid a tribute to this legendary poet through a film named Mirza Ghalib (1954) in which Bharat Bhushan plays Ghalib and Suraiya plays his courtesan lover, Chaudvin. The musical score of the film was composed by Ghulam Mohammed and his compositions of Ghalib's famous ghazals are likely to remain everlasting favourites On the 221st Birth Anniversary, I have made a collection of Bollywood Songs on Ghalib Shayari. In 1954 a film on Mirza Ghalib was made by Sohrab Modi. The film won (1) the President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film and (2) the President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Hindi in the 2nd National Film Awards for 1954. Suraiya's singing (of Mirza Ghalib's ghazals) and her acting was specially applauded by the Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, who remarked to her " You have brought back Ghalib to life", in a special screening of the film in Rashtrapati Bhawan.
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 Paluskarwas a Hindustani classicalvocalist. 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 bhajans, ghazals and hori.
Mein Jo Dinan Ki Thhori Hori Geet by KL Saigal
Pankaj Mullick,worked as music director to artists like K.L. Saigal, S.D. Burman, Hemanta Mukherjee, Geeta 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. Shemay have sung many NFSin 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 Ghazal, Dadra, 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 singer, music directorand film producer, who sang in Bengali, Hindi and other Indian languages. He is also the greatest artist of Rabindra Sangeet. In 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 Lahore, Pakistan, 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 Konkani, Assamese, Bhojpuri, Odia, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili. Apart from Indian languages, he also sang songs in many foreign languages including English, Farsi, Arabic, Sinhalese, Creole 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”
