Photo Courtesy: wikipedia.org
Today is birth centenary year of Gazal king Talat Mehmood, whom we remember every time when we listen any Gazal . Talat Saab ki ek acchi gazal hai“Jisne dil ko ansoo bakhshe” jo sham ke samay suni jati hai, to maja aur ata hai. Talat was most popular male song and Gazal singer of his time.
He was born to Manjoor Mahmood Lucknow on 24 Feb 1924, in high middle class family. Music Director Naushad once saw Talat singing gazals in local college programme and was so pleased that he asked Talat to come over to Bombay to sing in films. Naushad once said “I have very high opinion about Talat. He has Silk style, when he sings gazals, It is in his own unique inimitable style. Sweetness is indispensable for gazal singing.” Suman Kalyanpur’s first film song was a duet with Talat Saab for film Darwaja. Doordarshan made a documentary on Talat “sham-E -gam ki Kasam”. Its duration was one and half hour and was in colour, first of its kind made on any indian singer. Veteran Indian film music director Mohammed Zahur Khayyam is reportedly quoted as saying, “He was a perfect gentleman. With him there was no loose talk. He was always well-dressed: his shoes shining and his trousers perfectly creased.“
Talat was very jolly and down to earth person, he along with Madan Mohan and Jay Kishan used to sit in Bombelis resturant at Breach Candy, when they were bachelors. Talat made US concert tour, then his popularity prompted New York TV host Joe Franklin to invite Talat on his popular show. It was watched by 25 million americans. He introduced talat to american audience as “FRANK SINATRA OF INDIA”.
Enoch daniel, well known orchestrion and music composer remembers with gratitude how Talat had helped him when he was newcomer. After East Africa concert tour, Talat introduced Daniel to GM of HMV resulting daniel get first DISC published.
Talat’s favourite singers were Pat Boone, Elvis Prisley, Conny Francis. His favourite stars were Garry Cooper, Clark Gable, Sean Connery and authors Harold Robins, Aurther Hailey and Ian Flemming. Talat married a Bengali Christian girl from Calcutta, who also acted in films and was a great fan of his, Latika Mullick, later named Nasreen, on 20 February 1951 and had two children Khalid born in 1953 and Sabina born in 1959.
His famous songs were “Milte hi ankhen, dil hua diwana kisika. jalte hai jiske liye, teri ankhonke diye. E mere dil kahi aur chal, gam ki duniya se dil bhar gaya“. Talat Mahmood received the Padma Bhushan award in 1992, in recognition of his artistic contributions in the spheres of cinematic and ghazal music.
Talat was fond of eating sweets like Gajar ka Halwa, Kheer, Firni, Rasgoolas. King Jahir Shah of Afganisthan presented Talat costly persian carpet during his tour there. Marble statue of woman was gifted by Maharani of Rajpipla.
Talat sang approximately 750 songs in 12 languages spread over 4 decades spanning between the 1940s and 1980s. He recorded his first song back in 1941. Such a jolly person was called “Shahenshah -E-Gazal”. He said Good Bye to this world on 9th May 1998.
