Down Melody Lane..::..Article on Films, Personalities, Music Reviews and More..

There has always been something enigmatic about Talat Mahmood. His soft and soothing voice has sung many a love song always with an element of dard, an almost palpable despair. Back in the black and white era, his voice symbolized romance and one still remembers how maidens were wooed by suitors with songs like Tasveer Teri Dil Mera Behla Na Sakegi, about a quarter of a century ago.

Where is the Talat Mahmood of yesteryear? Why did he stop singing and what is he doing these days to keep himself occupied? According to him, he is not up to much, except for collecting his old discs and trying to make a list of all his songs. Over the decades, no one has kept any kind of a 'record' of them. When his health permits, he performs at concerts in India, once every two or three months. But he has also performed at London's Albert Hall, New York's Madison Square Gardens and Dubai's Al-Nasr Leisure Land, all to full houses. For the past few years, the concerts in India have been his main source of income.

A radical change in the film music and the type of singing prompted Talat Mahmood to give up playback singing. His playback voice was used mainly for Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand. But when romance went out and violence and disco-music entered, he felt that he could not cope up with the fads. It was not in keeping with his temperament; he was convinced he could not do the justice to the new demands of the film music. The change was sudden and he felt totally disoriented. His upbringing and taste in music was too deep rooted in the tradition of Ustaad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Roshanara Begum.

Talat Mahmood started singing at the age of 16, when he was a student at Aligarh University. He was an ardent fan of K. L. Saigal and often crooned his songs at the family gatherings. His first ghazal was recorded in 1939. Subsequently, when HMV was on the look-out for new singers, he was signed on by P.K. Sen to cut three more discs. He did not realize then that his first song would be so prophetic: Sab din ek samaan nahin the, ban jaaoonga kya se kya main, iska to mujhe dhyaan nahin tha ("Every day is unalike, I had no notion of what I would become one day").

In 1944, New Theatres signed Talat Mahmood. The music company based in Calcutta was rapidly reaching out to Bombay and Talat Mahmood, too, joined the bandwagon (the two prominent singers of that time were Hemant Kumar and Jagmohan). Fortunately, he had already recorded 300 songs in calcutta, many of which had been heard and appreciated. Nargis and Suraiyya had liked Tasveer Teri Dil Mera Behla Na Sakegi a great deal and the song had received a lot of publicity. The song had a lilt and the lyrics had a soothing, poetic quality, much in tune with is innate nature. He enjoyed working with Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri and Rajinder Krishan who felt what they wrote and constantly sought to better themselves. His favourite composers were Roshan, Madan Mohan and Shankar Jaikishan, with whom the song situation were discussed in detail at several sessions without any disturbance, or interference from the producer. The music came from within and normally, only one song would be recorded per week. Talat Mahmood's favourite songs range from Madan Mohan's Humse Aaya Na Gaya (Dekh Kabira Roya), S. D. Burman's Jalte Hain Jiske Liye (Sujata), Salil Choudhary's Itna Na Mujhse Tu Pyar Badha (Chhaya) to Khayyam's Shaam-e-Gham Ki Kasam (Foot-Path).

Talat Mahmood also tried his hands at acting. He acted in nine films including Dil-e0Naadan with Suraiyya, Ek Gaon Ki Kahani with Mala Sinha, Sone Ki Chidiya with Nootan and Waris with Shyama. However, the acting and dubbing were a strain on his voice and he opted out of films, deciding to continue as a playback singer. Those days, singers were better paid in Madras. Studios like Gemini and AVM treated them like kings, reimbursing every paisa that the artistes spent during their stay in Madras. In Bombay film industry, Bimal Roy was a good paymaster. To demand their share of music royalties, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohd. Rafi, Mukesh and Talat Mahmood formed a Playback Singers' Association. The office was in Mahalakshmi, the members met there frequently, and soon developed a closeness and lasting friendship. If anyone of the playback singer felt that he or she could not do justice to a particular song, another singer's name would be suggested. Lata Mangeshkar was the president of the association, Mukesh the treasurer and Talat Mahmood the secretary. As senior artistes, they used to get seven-and-a-half percent of royalties from the music companies, while new comers used to get five percent. Senior artistes wanted the sum to be raised to ten percent and it was suggested to HMV that the music company should pay 20 percent to the producer of which the producer would pay the singers ten per cent. The producers were willing as the money was not going out of their own pockets. However, HMV was not agreeable.

Today's singers are better paid and better treated and also enjoy a considerable amount of publicity and fanfare which was not the case in the days of Talat Mahmood. In the past a singer's publicity lay in the strength of his work and the dedication to his art. According to Talat the music of today is not music at all, but a lot of noise. The man who became known a s the king of ghazal, feels that the romantic period, the way it used to be, will never come back. However he has no regrets and complaints, as the industry has treated him fairly. He confesses that it was ho who could not adjust to change. Unlike him, Rafi moved along with the changing times and continued singing, Mukesh too held his own amongst the new crop.

Talat reminisces that he never won the Filmfare Award. Although Sujata's song Jate Hain Jiske Liye was a strong contender, it lost out to Mukesh's Sub Kuchh Seekha Humne, Na Seekhi Hoshiyaari. Later, the Bombay Film Journalists' Association gave him an award fro the Sujata's song. He believes that eventually his fans, his records and the creative satisfaction from his work, have been his richest awards.