|
DID
YOU KNOW THAT ......
.......... Music Director Naushad says in INDIAN EXPRESS 20.9.81
:"I have a very high opinion of Talat Mahmood. He has a fine style.
When he sings ghazals it is in his own unique inimitable sweet style.
Sweetness is indispensable to a proper singing of the ghazal. Besides,
he has mastery over the language. He knows which words to emphasize
and
which not to. You will never hear any lines misread from Talat Mahmood's
lips !"
.......... Radio singer Suman Hemmadey's ( later Suman Kalyanpur ) first
film song was a duet with Talat Mahmood in "Darwaza".
A rank newcomer, her career
hit the big league when Talat agreed to sing the duet with her, making
the film industry sit up and take notice of her.
.......... Talat Mahmood and Dilip Kumar would meet regularly for a game
of badminton at Bandra Gymkhana during the sixties. Dilip Kumar
and his entire family of brothers and sisters were very close to Talat
and his wife and they would meet often.
.......... Doordarshan's documentary on Talat Mahmood "Sham
e Gham Ki Qasam" was to have been the first color documentary
by Doordarshan after television went color in early 80's, but it got delayed by a few
months and was
released a little later than scheduled. Viewers loved "Sham e
Gham Ki Qasam" and Doordarshan was flooded with requests for
repeat telecasts of this show. Even today it is shown on TV due to
a public demand for it ! This documentary
on Talat was of one and half hour duration and it's budget could rival that of a
small budget commercial film ! This was Doordarshan's first
color documentary on any playback singer !
.......... On
Talat's US Concert Tour, Talat's popularity prompted famous New York
television host Joe Franklin to invite Talat on his hugely popular
programme "The Joe Franklin Show" watched by over 25 million
Americans. He introduced
Talat to American audiences as "The Frank Sinatra Of
India !"
.......... Bombellis restaurant on Breach Candy was a one time favorite haunt of Talat and his
close friends music directors Madan Mohan and Jaikishan (Shankar-Jaikishan).
Being bachelors, they would compete to see who had the largest following
of girls by counting how many came to ask each one for autographs !
Talat usually won hands down, as being a singer and star he was a more
recognizable face, much to the 'dismay, annoyance and chagrin' of Madan and Jaikishan !
Talat would never stop pulling Jaikishan's and Madan's leg over this !
.......... Talat first met music director Madan Mohan when Madan came to
live in Lucknow for a while. Their love for ghazals made them good friends. In a
friendly gesture, Madan promised Talat that once he went back to
Bombay and signed on films as a music director he would definitely use
Talat's voice. Madan was true to his promise and Talat and Madan
teamed up for many hits in many films including Jahan Ara, Madhosh, Ashiana, Haqeeqat
and others. They enjoyed a close bond of friendship throughout their
lives.
........... In 1961 the Maharashtra State
Government instituted the first ever Marathi Film Awards. The very first
"Best Marathi Playback Singer" Award by the Maharashtra State Government
went to Talat Mahmood for his Marathi hit song "Yash hey amrit jhale"
from the film 'Putra Wah Wah Asa'. Lata Mangeshkar was the first singing
collegue to call early in the morning and congratulate Talat
profusely when the news broke. Such was the love and respect all singers
shared with each other!
.......... Talat loved cars and driving. His line up of cars through the
years included Morris Minor, Hillman, Ambassador, Maruti Van, Maruti
1000, Cielo (fully Automatic version). He would enjoy long drives out of Bombay with
his family.
.......... Talat's favorite foreign singers were Nat 'King' Cole, Pat Boone,
Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Connie Francis. His favorite stars were
Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Rock Hudson, John Wayne, Richard Burton and Sean Connery.
He immensely enjoyed the antics of Laurel & Hardy and Charlie
Chaplin and possessed a good collection of 8mm movies of the two ! On a concert
tour, Talat would relax by reading novels of authors like Arthur Hailey,
Harold Robbins, Jacqueline Susann, Ian Flemming and James Hadley Chase.
He
was very fascinated by the 'UFO' or Unidentified Flying Objects theory
and loved reading about them ! He was a regular subscriber to Newsweek,
Time and Life magazines. Well informed on World events, Talat
could hold his own in any discussion on World matters.
.......... Asked by 'The Metropolis' 27.2.93 : You sang many duets
with Lata, Geeta, Asha. How would you compare them ? Talat replied -
" Lata was musically far ahead of the rest. She was a
perfectionist, working hard on each song. Geeta was very good at
catching the mood of a song, she could do it spontaneously. Asha, I
would say, had the maximum variety. She could sing any kind of song
effortlessly. Singing duets with them was always a challenge - each singer tried to outdo
the other. It was great fun ! "
.......... Producer-Director-Studio Owner Mehboob Khan of 'Mother India'
fame, would always put his finger on Talat's throat and tell him "
Khuda ka noor tumhare gale mein hai ! "
.......... Talat loved sweets and no meal was complete without a sweet
dish. His favorite sweets were things like rasgoola, kheer, phirni,
gaajar ka halwa,
pastries, imported chocolates, etc.
.......... Among the many gifts Talat received through his lifetime was a beautiful Persian carpet presented to him by
King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan who was a great fan of Talat's.
Another preserved gift was a beautiful white marble statue of a woman presented
to him by the Maharani of Rajpipla. King Birender of Nepal gifted Talat with
a beautiful ornate 'bell'.
.......... Talat was very fond of electronic gadgets and was always the
first to buy them the moment they hit the market - things like video
player, electric shaver, the first Phillips cassette player, electric
toothbrush, the Walkman, 8mm camera and Projector etc.
.......... Talat was to perform at a public concert in Khatmandu, Nepal,
which was to be attended by King Birender and his family. Knowing that
the King wrote poetry, Talat procured a book of poems written by the
King, composed a tune for it and sang it as a surprise item at the
concert, much to the
delight of King Birender and his family !
......... World renowned classical flautist Hari Prasad
Chaurasia's very first film recording was for Talat Mahmood's hit song 'Phir
wohi shaam wohi gham....' from the film JAHAN ARA. Hari Prasad Chaurasia
cherishes memories of this first recording even today !
.......... During the 80's ghazal "boom" when every bathroom
singer felt he could sing ghazals and
cut discs by the dozens,
music companies had got into the cheap publicity gimmick of generously "gifting" these singers gold / platinum/
double platinum/ triple platinums, ( even for sales as paltry as 500
copies ! ) to stimulate album sales. The popular women's
magazine SAVVY - Feb. '86, calling Talat "The God of Ghazals"
asked him this question: 'What do you think of all these gold and
platinum discs these singers have been getting?' To which Talat
replied : " It's very amusing. At every twist and turn they seem
to be getting discs. Even Elvis Presley ( Guinness Book's world
record holder ) would have got a complex !!! ".
.......... In his lifetime, Talat Mahmood had completed two Umrah's to
the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The first time with his wife
Nasreen and the second time with his son Khalid and daughter Sabina
.......... Raju Bharatan, well known journalist and human encyclopedia
on cricket and music, writing an article in Times of India -
17.12.89, paying tribute to India's finest "touch artiste supreme" - cricketing legend Mushtaq Ali,
headlined his article with : "MUSHTAQ IS TO CRICKET WHAT TALAT IS
TO GHAZALS !"
.......... The extremely popular group ' West Indies Steel Band' created
a song to welcome Talat to Trinidad for his 1968 West Indies Concert
Tour: "Talat Mahmood we are proud
and glad - to have a personality like you here in Trinidad". This
song, composed in Calypso style, was played over and over on the radio, at the airport and in all music shops in
West Indies to welcome the immensely popular, loved and admired singing
star Talat Mahmood to their country !
......... In the wake of the record breaking 58,000 attendance at Talat
Mahmood's concert at Karachi in 1961, Pakistan's 'Mallika E
Tarannum' Noorjehan, called up Talat from Lahore requesting him to join
her in a concert at Lahore. Talat politely refused and expressed to her
his inability to do the concert as he had to get back
to Bombay for his scheduled film recordings and other engagements. Feeling that maybe Talat's
refusal was on account of her not offering him the correct remuneration, she then
offered to send him a blank
cheque, to fill in any amount he desired ! But Talat once again very politely
refused her offer ! Talat and Noorjehan met once again many years
later, in 1982, when Noorjehan, as guest of
honour, came down to Bombay to attend the "Mortal Men Immortal
Melodies" concert where all the major names in Indian music
performed. Meeting Talat warmly she said to him "Talat bhai,
aap ki awaaz mein wohi kashish ab bhi hai !"
......... Talat Mahmood the singing legend of India passed
away on 9th May 1998 and across the other side of the world in America
singing legend Frank Sinatra passed away on 14th May 1998. The worlds
two largest democracies had lost their greatest ever singing stars in
the space of a week. Talat Mahmood was usually introduced to American
audiences by television and radio hosts in USA during his concert tours of
America as the Frank Sinatra of India!
.......... In 1954 Ameen Sayani's BINACA GEETMALA
kicked off the first and most awaitedly listened to hit parade radio
program in the Indian sub-continent and in the very first year itself
the song to reach the count down pinnacle NUMBER ONE was Talat Mahmood's
gigantic super hit
Jaayen To Jaayen Kahan from the film 'TAXI DRIVER' !
...........
During 50's HMV wanted to copy the
West (where one hit English song was sung by many singers) and create
VERSION RECORDINGS of popular Hindi songs. Since Talat Mahmood was the
most popular singer in those days they persuaded him to do the first
recording 'Chal ud ja re panchi' which Mohd Rafi had sung for film 'BHABHI'.
Similarly, HMV wanted Rafi to sing a Mukesh hit and Hemant Kumar to
record a Talat hit. But this idea of singing other singers songs was not
going down very well with the singers and they got together to finally
decide against going ahead with this VERSION RECORDINGS idea of HMV.
Seeing the singers opposition, HMV decided to drop this idea of VERSION
RECORDINGS entirely after that. But by this time 'Chal ud ja re panchi' sung
by Talat was already in the market, releasing as 'Version Recording
FT21027 Twin/Black Label 78 RPM'. That is how one can hear the 'BHABHI'
film song "Chal udja re panchi" in the voices of both singers - Mohd
Rafi (from the film) and Talat Mahmood (from the version recorded by
HMV) !!!
|
