Talat Mahmood

Talat Mahmood, also known as the King of Ghazals was born on February 24^th, 1924, in Lucknow, India. He was one of six children. He displayed musical ability at a very young age. His voice had a very unique and distinctive quality from other singers. In 1944, his all time great hit “Tasveer teri dil mera behela na sakegi” was released, taking the airwaves by storm, which remains up to today one of the greatest non-film hits.

He was considered a handsome man and this prompted movie producers to try him as an actor. He excelled at it but decided to give it up to pursue his music career. He was a playback singer lending his enchanting velvet voice to many hits of the Bollywood Film Industry for actors like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Sunil Dutt among others. He also sang in the 13 hit movies he acted in alongside top actresses like Nutan, Mala Sinha, Suraiya, Shyama along with many others.

He sang thousands of songs over the 4 decades he has been entertaining his worldwide audience. Talat Mahmood has toured extensively worldwide and has even visited the shores of Trinidad and Tobago on two occasions, July 1968 and May 1982 delivering excellent performances each and every time. On his first visit he was accompanied by female singer, Pramila, and the highly acclaimed musicians Enoch Daniels, Van Shipley and Arun Andhikari. On his second visit he was accompanied by the full orchestra of Music Directors Shankar Jaikishan and very eminent singers Usha Timothy, Sharda, Anwar and others.

In his private life, he was considered a person of a quiet nature; an unassuming and soft spoken individual. In 1992, the Indian Government honoured him, as he was the recipient of the Padma Bhushan Award. On May 9^th, 1998, this great Legend passed away, and is still fondly remembered for his exotic style of singing, and so we at Hindisongstt, would like to pay special tribute to this Master of Ghazals. For the many fans of this Musical Genius the late Talat Mahmood we have added Audio/Video  Samples for your enjoyment. (Copyright Nisha Sharma 2023).