Fading Memories…. Unforgettable Songs: February, 2018

Talat Mahmood’s Duet Combinations with Rare Co-singers

For most of the lovers of Hindi Film Music, Talat Mahmood is remembered almost every day through his 800 + songs. So, we need to devise an apt expression to remember him in the month (24^th February, 1924) of his birth anniversary.

We have taken up refreshing our memory of some of the duets that seem to be receding from our memory. Last year, when we penned down such duets, we had had a panorama of such duets with a wide spectrum of co-singers. The great bulk of his duets obviously remain with Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle and to some extent with Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum. His duets with other singers like Suraiya, Mubarak Begum or Sudha Malhotra or Madhubala Zaveri are relatively few in numbers. So is the case with his duets with other male co-singers. In some of cases like, Rajkumari, Surinder Kaur, Sulochana Kadam, Meena Kapoor, Nirmala Devi or Amirbai Karanataki the song was only one of its kind. Talat Mahmood’s duets with other male singers also range from very popular to quite obscure songs. His presence in Triads / Triads + songs also remains noteworthy.

(L to R) Meena Kapoor- Geetadutt- Talat Mahmood-VanShipley

For the present episode we will focus on Talat Mahmood’s duets with co-singers who can be considered as ‘rare’ combinations.

Purwai Pawan Laharaye – Tum Aur Main (1947) – with Syperwa Sarkar – Robin Chaterjee – Zakir Hussain

One can find Talat Mahmood – Superwa Sarkar duets in a couple of more films, till 1949. The music directors of these films are from Bengal. Was this the hangover effect of Talat Mahmood’s Calcutta days?

Dil Mera Tera Diwana – Apni Izzat (1952) – with Madhubala Zaveri – Hansraj Bah – Pt. Phani,

Madhubala Zaveri has around 110 songs, spread over a span of 1951 to 1958, in 55 Hindilms plus 27 Marathi and 3 Gujarati films. Incidentally, her debut song – Tum Kaun Ho Rajkumari Ye Chanda Sa Mukhda Idhar To Karo (Rajput, 1951) in Hindi films was under the baton of Hansraj Behl, a duet with Talat Mahmood. She was just 16 years old at that time.

Ghir Ghir Aaye Badarwa Kaare – Daak Babu (1954) – with Mubarak Begum – Dhaniram – Prem Dhawan

Talat Mahmood – Mubark Begum Duets is a good study in the very contrasting qualities of voice. Though not ‘many’ in numbers, there are a few very evergreen songs to the credit of this duo, but that is perhaps a subject of an independent post in the future.

BTW, the song would have been portrayed on screen by Talat Mahmood himself as well.

We find two versions of the song on YT. This one has Mubarak Begum accompanying Talat Mahmood.

And this version has Talat Mahmood almost in solo mode.

Jab Yahaan Se Jaaunga Main Aur Kya Le jaaunga – Hatimtai Ki Beti (1955) – with S. Balbir – A R Quereshi – Shewan Rizvi

Talat Mahmood does not have many really joyous boisterous songs to his credit. But, whichever few such songs one gets to listen, he does not dissatisfy his fans.

Ek Bar To Mil Lo Gale Bichchad Hum Chale, Na Koi Fariyad Rahe – Andheri Nagri Chopat Raja (1955) – with Sudha Malhotra – Avinash Vyas – Bharat Vyas

Sudha Malhotra is one of many playback singer stars who got overshadowed by the full-moon glory of Lata Mangeshkar sisters.

Main Hun Alibaba – Char Chand – with Asha Premlata – (Shaukat Dehlvi) Nashaad – A Karim

We find one more of a light-toned, dance song, which may not be very difficult to recall by the core Talat Mahmood fans- even if they do not recollect who his co-singer was.

Tum Pe Quaraban Dil Tum Pe Sadake Nazar – Sakhi Lutera (1959) – with Usha Balsavar – B N Bali – Aziz Ghazi

The ‘rare’ co-singer, ‘rare’ music director, an obscure forgotten film and light-hearted tune would possibly make up an ideal recipe for the delicious dish to get deep into the recesses of the memory.

Mere Shareek-E-Sahar – Wali-E-Azam (1965) – with Hemlata – Chitragupta – Ahmed Wasi

Several indications mention this as possibly the last film song that Talat Mahmood recorded. It seems that the shoe-string budget of the film has landed the music director and the co-singer with Talat Mahmood’s the then recently found popularity with ‘Jahanara’.

An interesting aside:

The official Talat Mahmood site has a handwritten note which Talat Mahmood had written down on a letterhead of Chitragupta at the time of recording the song.

No article on Talat Mahmood would be complete without mention of his Non-Fim Songs.

Wo Jo Roothhen To Manaana Chaahiye – NFS(1969) – with Mukesh – Murli Manohar Swaroop -Jigar Muradabadi/ Mirza Ghalib,

Talat Mahmood and Mukesh have collaborated in several triads / triads + songs in films like Pagle, Biwi Aur Makan, Love and God etc. However, we find their duets only in the NFS domain.

The wholly Talat Mahmood devoted site – talatamahmood.net – has mentioned a few more duets of Talat Mahmood that we would have loved to cover in this episode. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a soft to link audio link of these songs:

Ab Mushkil Ha Phir Se Milana Bhul Jao To Achha Hai – Saaya – with Ashima Banerjee – Ram Ganguli – Verma Malik
Auron Ke Liye – Taxi 555 – with an unidentified female singer – Sardar Malik

Talat Mahmood and Mohammad Rafi have several duets – and most of them very popular then and remembered now. So their duets cannot really be listed under ‘rare’ tag. But every rule has an exception. And we have one here, a Talat – Rafi duet, which is relatively less remembered, that helps us to comply with out other tradition of end our episodes with a Mohammad Rafi Song.

Bhar De Jholi Allah Naam – Laila Majnu (1953) – Mohammad Rafi – Ghulam Mohammad – Shakeel Badayuni

The song perhaps epitomizes two distinct phases of Shammi Kapoor’s career. His pre-Tumsa Nahin Dekha phase hadTalat Mahmood was his default playback singer. Here, the initial part of the songs, mostly by the fakirs on the screen is in the voice of Mohammad Rafi. When Shammi Kapoor gets to sing the second interlude, it is Talat Mahmood who takes over @ Jaan-e-tamanna jalwa Dikha De…

We will continue remembering Unforgettable Songs that seem to Fading away from our Memories every second Sunday of the month……..

Disclaimer: All images are sourced from net. All copyrights of the respective image remain with the original owner of the image.

Author: ASHOK M VAISHNAV

In July 2011, I opted to retire from my active career as a practicing management professional. In the 38 years that I pursued this career, I had opportunity to work in diverse capacities, in small-to-medium-to-large engineering companies. Whether I was setting up Greenfield projects or Brownfield projects, nurturing the new start-ups or accelerating the stabilized unit to a next phase growth, I had many more occasions to take the paths uncharted. The life then was so challenging! One of the biggest casualty in that phase was my disregards towards my hobbies - Be with The Family, Enjoy Music form Films of 1940s to mid-1970s period, write on whatever I liked to read, pursue amateur photography and indulge in solving the chess problems. So I commenced my Second Innings to focus on this area of my life as the primary occupation. At the end of four years, I am now quite a regular blogger. I have been able to build a few very strong pen-relationships. I maintain contact with 38-years of my First Innings as freelance trainer and process facilitator. And yet, The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. View all posts by ASHOK M VAISHNAV