Voice from the past

V Gangadhar

Not many Talat Mahmood fans with associate him with acting. After all, the mellow voice which rendered golden classics like Jalte hain jiske liye, Tasveer banata hoon tasveer nahin banti, had earned him repute as a singer.

But the incomparable Nutan always referred to Seema and Sone Ki Chidiya as her most memorable films. Both films starred Balraj Sahni and Talat Mahmood. Besides, at a Suraiya retrospective in Bombay in 1994, a much-acclaimed film was the late Sohrab Modi's Waris. This film, too, starred Talat Mahmood.

"I filled a necessary void in those days," says the soft-spoken hero of 14 films. "I was a singing hero." There were other luminaries of Hindi cinedom who had also filled that slot. Prominent among whom was that great singer Kundan Lal Saigal, oft-remembered for his tragic rendering of the role of Devdas. The incomparable Kishore Kumar is remembered for his various comic roles. Why, even the soulful Mukesh tried his hand in acting in an eminently forgettable home production.

Of course, these singers were promoted and sold as stars because of their singing ability. Something like the Elvis craze that swept the United States in the fifties and the sixties. None of those guys expected an academy award winning performance from Elvis - all they wanted was to see their favourite singer, live, on screen. Hence, Presley always had roles specially written for him. And the focus was always on his singing ability.

Which is exactly happened with Talatsaab. He was born into a highly cultured, but conservative, family in Lucknow. Music interested him to such an extent that he studied it as a subject in Lucknow's Morris College. Often, he sang for the All India Radio, Lucknow. Later, he signed on with HMV. He had to go to Calcutta in 1941 for the recording sessions, which was when he was spotted by the famous New Theatre bosses.

Talatsaab was an extremely handsome young man. Even today, despite the ravages of time, a heart attack and a paralytic stroke, there is a certain heartwarming glow about the man. "P K Sanyal of New Theatres wanted me to sign me on as an actor," Talatsaab recalled his early days in Calcutta. "I had no objections, really. But my father was a bit upset, though he came around finally."

Calcutta was the scene of hectic filming during the early 1940's. Talatsaab's first film, Raj Lakshmi, co-starred Kanan Bala and Chhabi Biswas. Released in 1945, the film did fairly well and was followed by Samapti with Bharati Devi and Tum Aur Mein with Kanan Devi. Talatsaab had never trained as an actor. He performed by instinct and picked up tips by watching his co-actors on-screen.

"I enjoyed acting," recalls Talatsaab. "And these were soft, romantic roles in films that has a number of songs. The films of this era followed the singing hero concept very closely." But the handsome actor, at 22, faced a peculiar problem. Most of his heroines like Kanan Bala and Kanan Devi were older than him and the pairing, at times, looked distinctly odd.

During the late 1940s, the focus of movie making shifted from Calcutta to Bombay. Like several other young aspirants, Talatsaab also made the change. He was warmly welcomed; his reputation had preceded him. Music director Anil Biswas gave him a break in Arzoo and his playback singing for Dilip Kumar proved to be a major highlight of the film.

During the early 1950s, Talatsaab was sought after by every leading music director. He lent his voice to every single top hero, from Dilip Kumar to Bharat Bhushan. In 1951, he made a guest appearance in the Dev Anand-Madhubala starrer, Aaram, sitting at the piano as he rendered that memorable number, Shukriya shukriya. The film was not much of a success, but the song is hummed even today.

His first role as a hero in a Bombay film, though, only came in 1953. "(A R) Kardarsaab chose me as the hero for his film, Dil-E-Nadaan," explained Talatsaab. Newcomer Peace Kanwal, the winner of a beauty contest organised by Kardar and the Kolynos toothpaste firm, was the heroine.

Dil-E-Nadaan was a soft, romantic triangle with Talat, the singer, being wooed by two women, Peace Kanwal and Shyama. The music score by Ghulam Mohammad produced everlasting hits like Zindagi denewale and Yeh raat suhani raat nahi..

Dil-E-Nadaan's music became the rage. And Talatsaab became a sought-after hero in Hindi films. Then followed Daak Babu (with Nadira), Waris, Raftar (Nadira and Naaz) and Diwali Ki Raat (Roopmala, Shashikala and Leela Mishra). In the last mentioned, the elegant Talatsaab played a taxi driver.

Well known director Satyen Bose directed him in the 1957 hit, Ek Gaon Ki Kahani (Mala Sinha). Producer S U Sunny - who had made the Dilip Kumar starrers, Babul and Udan Khatola - cast the singer-duo of Suraiya and Talat Mahmood in Maali. The innovative Khayyam scored the music for Lalla Rookh, a fantasy where Talatsaab starred with Shyama.

"I never did more than one or two films at a time," Talatsaab recalled. "I also noted the difference between filming in Bombay and filming in Calcutta. Unlike the more artistic Calcutta where movies were made at a slow pace, Bombay was commercial. Life was hectic. Everyone was in his own world and was, of course, very professional."

What kind of an impact did Talat Mahmood make as an actor? The great singer thought a while and then candidly admitted, "Listen, I was not competing with stars like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand or Ashok Kumar. But, in those days, soft, romantic films were appreciated and singing hero like me could do well." His films were not box office bonanzas. Neither were they disasters which disappeared without trace, days after their release. Three of his films - Waris, Sone Ki Chidiya and Ek Gaon Ki Kahani - were much-appreciated hits.

Talat Mahmood's major drawback was that, quite often, he held himself back in crucial romantic scenes. His self-consciousness showed. He could not essay violence and comedy. But he was adequate as an emotional actor. And he had a large female following.

From 1956, Talat Mahmood regularly went on foreign tours. The concerts - held in the UK, the US, the Gulf and even the distant West Indies - were super hits. To the extent that, in the Caribbean, Indian residents even gave up watching cricket to attend his shows.

When he sang in Kabul as the royal guest of King Zahir Shah, the women in the palace competed to get themselves photographed with him. He got a ticker tape welcome in Mauritius. The late Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt, was one of his fans. But the ultimate accolade came from Pakistan - at the packed Karachi stadium, Pakistani women came in thousands to listen to him. It was a first.

It was also a display of star quality. But as he acted in films and spent months abroad on concerts, music directors and producers had to look for other playback singers. As a result, Talatsaab lost out on some memorable films like Madhumati.

Some of the music directors felt that, having turned actor, he would not be easily available as a playback singer. As Talatsaab's son, Khalid, explained, "Also, Father would never ask for favours. Not would he undercut anyone. He was, and is, a thorough professional and a gentleman."

By the mid-1960's, film music had changed. Shammi Kapoor, with his boisterous Yahoo image, had arrived. There were fewer opportunities for a voice like Talatsaab's. But the concerts continued, so did the recording of private ghazals. The government honoured him with a Padma Bhushan and Doordarshan made a documentary on him.

Today, Talatsaab leads a retired life in his well maintained Pali Hill flat, watching TV and listening to old songs. Friends and fans are always warmly welcomed. They pour in from all parts of the country to shake hands and cherish the meeting with a singer whose voice, for decades, symbolised the agony and ecstasy of romantic love.

Photographs : Courtesy Kamat Photo Flash