Talat Mahmood: Velvety Voice of Everlasting Enchantment

A good voice is an invaluable endowment. It adds an endearing element to the personality without having to be a singer. However Basanta Chowdhury besides being a good actor with good looks also stood out for his mellifluous voice.  That added to the cinematic content of the movie Deep Jeley Jai.
Talat Mahmood the singer had a special gift being endowed with a velvety voice makhmali awaz in his native Urdu. It created songs of everlasting enchantment. For one of his kind one does not have to do much to sing to endearment - just sing on! He did not have the baritone of Mohammad Rafi or the melancholy voice of Mukesh or the naturally groomed voice of Hemanta or the mastery of Manna Dey.  He was Talat with his velvety voice.
His followers in effusion of appreciation call him "The Shahenshah of Ghazal". Indeed he came to fame with his exquisite ghazal "Tasbir teri dil mera bahela na sakegi" for All India Radio in 1944. Talat Mahmood started his music career in 1939 at the age of 16 singing the ghazals of   Daag, Mir, and Jigar etc. on All India Radio, Lucknow.  His fame spread to Calcutta and he came to the city. Onwards, he recorded a number of Bengali songs under the name "Tapan Kumar".
In 1949 he moved to Bombay. Music director Anil Biswas gave him a big break. Soon he became the good looking singer of blue mood. For Anil Biswas he sang that celebrated blue mood song for the film Arzoo- "Aye dil mujhe aisi jagha le chal jaha koi na ho". And indeed "Meri yad me tum aansoo na bahana na jiko jalana mujhe bhul jana" for the film Madhosh 1951 composed by Madan Mohan and for S.D. Burman he poured out pain in the song "Jaye to jaye kaha samjhega kaun ihan dard bhari dil ki juban" for the film Taxi Driver in 1954. For Shammi Kapoor film Thokar (1954) he sang "Aye gaame dil kya karu wehsate dil kya karu" composed by Sardar Malik. And last but not the least for the film Dekh Kabira Roya (1957) he sang "Humse aya na gaya tumse bulaya na gaya fasla pyar me dono ka mitaya na gaya" composed by Madan Mohan.
Talat Mahmoud's ghazals are exquisite presentation of this genre of music. A southern movie Parchain had a lovely ghazal by Talat Mahmood composed by Chitalkar Ramchandra - "Mohabbat hi jo na samjhe woh jaalim pyar kya jane". The film Footpath (1953) had a wonderful ghazal "Sham--e-gum ki qasam" sung by Talat Mahmood and composed by Khayyam. For Madan Mohan Talat Mahmood was again the choice singing "Main pagal mera manwa pagal pagal mere pritre" for the movie Aashiana (1952). Talat Mahmood and Suraiya sang a duet "Dil-e-Nadan tera hua kya hai" for the film Mirza Ghalib (1954). He sang "Main dil hun ek armaan bhara tu aake mujhe pehchan jara" for the film Anhonee (1952) composed by Roshan. For Salil Chowdhury Talat sang "Aansoo samajh ke kiu mujhe tumne ankh se gira dia" for the film Chayya (1961).
Talat Mahmood sang two evergreen love songs - "Jalte hain jiske teri aankhon ki diye dhund laya hun wohi geet teri liye" for the film Sujata (1959). The music was by S.D. Burman. The other song is from the film Chayya (1961) - "Itna mujhse pyar bara ke main ek badal awara". It is a duet with Lata and the music is by Salil Chowdhury.
Talat Mahmood sang a number of popular ballad. Foremost among them is "Ayegi akela jayegi akela do dinki jindagi hai do dinki mela". The ballad is from the film Dost (1954) and the music is by Hans Raj Behl. Life begins with the lesson smile in the face of adversity so sing " Hai sab se madhur who geet jinhe hum dard ke surme gaate hain. Talat sang with his usual flair and the film was Patita (1953) and the music was by Shankar-Jaikishen.
Talat's Bengali was good so he sang a number of popular Bengali songs with all the nuances of Bengali ethos and diction. "Aandho raate jodi ghum bhenge jai mone pore more priyo" is a natural choice. The music was by Nirmal Bhattacharya (1948). "Tumi Sundar Jodi nahi hoa" is also a gem the music was by V. Balsara. Talat Mahmood was in Dacca in 1960 and recorded two songs for Rajdhanir Bukey- "Amar aye gaan hariye geche" and "Dur akasher tara".
Talat Mahmood acted in 13 Hindi films. The first three films were against Kanan Bala and Bharati Devi.
Talat Mahmood was not only a good singer with good looks he was also a fine gentleman. In the retiring life he used to frequent the house of Dilip Kumar. Both were fond of Urdu Sher Shairi and ghazals. The camaraderie was natural.  He and Dilip were of the same age junior to the thespian by 2 years.
Talat Mahmood was born on 24 February 1924 in Lucknow in a conservative Moslem family and died on May 9, 1998 at the age of 74. Talat Mahmoud's songs have a distinctive quality not suited to the humdrum of business of living. They put his listeners in a cocoon of blissful ease that comes with the velvety voice of his songs. One can verily retire to one's world with Talat crooning away his melody of everlasting enchantment.   

The writer is a film and music buff.