Talat Mahmood
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Talat Mahmood
Remembering Talat Mahmood
By avijit ghosh
In his quivering voice you could hear the rustle of silk and the muffled sound of a broken heart. Few singers could put the listener in a blue mood like Talat Mahmood, who passed away on May 9 exactly 10 years ago. And thanks to a website created by his son Khalid that gets about 150,000 hits every week from Indians and Pakistanis all over the world — “and a few Israelis”, Khalid adds — his memory is fresh as ever.
“Talat saab came from Lucknow and his Urdu pronunciation was perfect. He could exactly reproduce a song the way a composer had conjured up in his mind. He was an original singer whose distinctive voice was near impossible to duplicate,” recalls master class music director Khayyam.
One of the veteran music composer’s memorable compositions — Shaam-i-gham ki kasam (film: Footpath) — was sung by Talat, also known as king of ghazals. Khayyam recalls that in that memorable song he had experimented with the orchestration by not using any rhythm instrument like tabla.
“We used a piano, guitar and solo vox, a basic version of the synthesizer used in those days. Recording the number took plenty of time. But Talat saab ke mathe pe shikan nahin aaye,” he says.
Senior lyricist Naqsh Lyallpuri remembers a recording with the singer. The song was Zindagi kis mod pe laye mujhe, from the film Diwali ki Raat. Snehal Bhatkar was the music director. Says Lyallpuri, “We had only two musicians at the rehearsal. They were playing the tabla and the sitar. But the producer liked his singing so much that he said, there is no need for any other instrument. We recorded the song with just those two instruments.”
Lyallpuri remembers Talat as an extremely soft spoken man. Which Khayyam affirms. “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.”
To honour his father’s memory, Khalid Mahmood set up a website, talatmahmood.net, just a few months after the singer’s death in 1998 at the age of 74. Apart from the huge number hits every day, he also gets about 200-300 emails every week.
“The choice for me was between doing a book and setting up a website. I settled for the latter because it is more accessible,” says Khalid.
Talat recorded his first track way back in 1941 and sang around 750 songs in 12 languages. He also acted in over a dozen films such as Dil-i-Nadan, Lala Rukh and Ek Gaon Ki Kahani.
Few know that the singer-actor aroused mass hysteria when he arrived in Trinidad in West Indies on a concert tour in 1968. Fans thronged the roads from the airport to the city. The local group, West Indies Steel Band, composed a Calypso track in his honour. They sang, “Talat Mahmood we are proud and glad, to have a personality like you here in Trinidad.”
Talat is long gone. But as long as the human heart knows how to fall in love and emerge with ache, his velvet voice will live on. — Dawn/Times of India news service
Talat in Pakistan
Although Talat Mahmood was a popular vocalist in the United India, after Partition, some of his family members migrated to Pakistan. Talat stayed back as there was no reason for the successful singer-actor to sacrifice his established career in India for a budding one in the then newly formed Pakistan. He, however, visited his relatives in Pakistan twice during the ’60s and sung a handful of ghazals and geets besides two film songs, Kuch hua hasil na ab tak and Mushkil nikla dil ka sambhalna for Fazal Karim Fazli’s film Chiragh Jalta Raha which was the launching pad of legendary film actor Mohammad Ali.
Talat sang over 750 songs in all — both geets and ghazals — during his 40-year career but acted in only a dozen films. He first faced the camera in Rajlaxmi (1945) where his dashing looks and impressive acting ability was noted by cinegoers and directors alike. Although he was the sole hero of Ek Gaon Ki Kahani (1957) opposite the beautiful Mala Sinha, was paired with Nautan in Sonay Ki Chiriya (1958), was also cast opposite Nadira in Raftaar (1955) and shared the screen with the great singing actress Surraiya in Waris (1954) and Maalik (1958), he gave up his successful acting career to concentrate on singing.
In the ’50s, Talat’s popularity rivaled that of Mohammad Rafi and Mukesh and he was more liked because of his perfect Urdu diction. His fame around the world can be gauged by the fact that during one of his US tours, he was invited to the vastly popular The Joe Franklin Show and introduced as the Frank Sinatra of India!
Talat was also only the second Indian singer after Lata Mangeshkar to be invited to perform at the world renowned Royal Albert Hall in 1979. In Pakistan, he had a huge fan following with many budding singers still rendering his numbers. The King of Ghazal was presented a shield by the Gramophone Company of Pakistan with his own geet Khuda woh waqt na laye inscribed on it.
His list of fans included the late Malika-i-Tarannum Madam Noor Jehan as well as Shahenshah-i-Ghazal Mehdi Hasan who complimented the legendary singer by saying that it was through the vocals of Talat saab that he discovered the goldmine in his throat.
Seema Faruqi
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Popularity abroad
South Africa, Trinidad
By Sahar Zaman, February 24, 2024: The Times of India
The train came to a screeching halt at the Mwanza station, a beautiful port city at Lake Victoria. It was around 12 noon and 30 to 40 people entered Talat Mahmood’s compartment. He was surprised and a bit worried too. Why was he being stopped from reaching Dar es Salaam for his next show? “All that they wanted was a show to happen in their town as well. They were such huge fans of Talat but were very upset as to why our itinerary didn’t include Mwanza,” explains an excited 92-year old Nandi Duggal. He was Talat’s first concert manager for his debut world tour in 1956. The charming star obliged and gave an impromptu performance for Mwanza at their local cinema, which was packed beyond 400 seats, and people had carried their own chairs from home to accommodate the entire crowd. Talat was the first playback singer from India to start world concerts and his three-nation tour to East Africa in 1956 was a resounding success that inspired his colleagues to start touring as well. It was alleged that he started touring only because of a reduction in film offers. On the contrary, he was the biggest singing star when he kick-started world concerts. In 1968, when the world was engulfed by Beatlemania, the West Indies experienced Talat-mania. He was given a thunderous reception in Trinidad. As the door of his aircraft opened, there was an open limousine waiting for him at the red-carpeted tarmac. People lined up from the airport to his hotel, waving flags, throwing flowers and wearing badges of his name. What happened on the day of his concert at Skinner Park in San Fernando was unprecedented. It was an open-air location with a capacity of about 7,000. Talat found it difficult to enter backstage. Police on foot just couldn’t manage the rush. Mounted police had to be called in. Helicopters above had to guide the police below. The immediate impact of his
West Indies tour was that it boosted record sales at music stores across the region and kick-started a new reality TV show in Trinidad. This was called ‘Talat Mahmood Singing Competition’ in which young singers would compete in singing Hindi film songs. The same year, Talat received a letter from the heart of Times Square at 1481 Broadway Studio. He had been invited to the popular talk show called the ‘Joe Franklin Show’. He was introduced as the ‘Frank Sinatra of India’.
This comparison was re- visited when both crooning legends passed away barely five days apart in 1998. It was an amazing moment at the TV studio when an allAmerican audience watched Joe speak to a suave singer from India, while his songs in Urdu played in between their conversation.
When the state of Minnesota invited him in 1973, they officially founded the India Club in his honour. It was the same year that India was facing an acute drought. So, Talat performed and raised funds in Minnesota to help people back in India. His tours to the United Kingdom were a landmark. The highlight was performing at the esteemed Royal Albert Hall (RAH) in London in 1979. As Talat stepped on stage, being one of the first three Indians to perform at RAH, he reminisced about the audience he had met in East Africa in 1956 and how the next generation of those same families were now part of this audience in the UK.
He started the show with one of his favourites, ‘Hain sabse madhur woh geet jinhe’ from the film Patita (1953). For the next song, Talat said, “This Ghazal was released in 1944 but it still sells like hot cake.” The ghazal was ‘Tasveer teri dil mera behla na sakegi’. The audience at the RAH wanted an encore but Talat apologised. The persuasive audience eventually got their way. Amidst the whistles and claps, Talat repeated the last stanza from his song , ‘Zindagi dene wale sun’ from the film Dil-e-Nadan (1953).
Looking at the huge footfall of his shows in the 1980s, he was given special state honours. The mayors of two cities in the US – Cleveland and Euclid – conferred on him a special citation for bringing their Asian American communities together. By this time, Talat also added the Middle East countries to his tours. The absolute humility of this living legend at the age of 60 was on display when he apologised to his audience in Dubai for his concert starting late. “It’s late but I promise you that I will make sure you hear the best from me and you will feel no loss of time.” This show was at the newly launched Al-Nasr Leisureland in 1984 which was sold to capacity with about 12,000 people.
Award-winning singer Kavita Krishnamurthy fondly recalls her experience of working with him in his troupe. “I used to wonder what made him so great. Even if he missed a note, every word had so much emotion and truth.” Despite slowing down with age, he gave in to the undying demands of his global audiences and performed till at least 1994.
