Name	Pyaasa
Caption	Film poster
Director	Guru Dutt
Producer	Guru Dutt
Writer	Abrar Alvi
Starring	Guru DuttMala SinhaWaheeda RehmanJohnny WalkerRehman
Music	S. D. Burman
Lyricist	Sahir Ludhiyanvi
Cinematography	V.K. Murthy
Editing	Y. G. Chawhan
Released	February 19, 1957
Runtime	146 min.
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Pyaasa (Hindi: प्यासा; Urdu: پیاسا; English: Thirsty) is a 1957 Indian film produced and directed by Guru Dutt. The film tells the story of struggling poet, Vijay (Guru Dutt), trying to make his works known in post-independence India. Gulabo (Waheeda Rehman in her first major leading role in Hindi cinema), a prostitute with a heart of gold, eventually helps him get his poems published. The music was composed by S.D. Burman.

With the commercial success of thrillers like Baazi, Jaal, Aar Paar and C.I.D. as well as comedies like Mr. & Mrs. '55, Guru Dutt and his studio were financially secure and established. From 1957, he could now make movies he really wanted to make, including Pyaasa. In 2002, Pyaasa was ranked at #160 on the Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll of all-time greatest films. In 2005, Pyaasa was rated as one of the 100 best films of all time by Time Magazine, which called it "the soulfully romantic of the lot." Indiatimes Movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.

Plot

Vijay (Guru Dutt) is an unsuccessful poet whose works are not taken seriously by publishers or his brothers (who sell his poems as waste paper). Unable to bear their taunting that he is a good-for-nothing, he stays away from home and is often out on the streets. He encounters a good-hearted prostitute named Gulabo (Waheeda Rehman), who is enamoured with his poetry and falls in love with him. He also encounters his ex-girlfriend Meena (Mala Sinha) from college and finds out that she is married to a big publisher Mr. Ghosh (Rehman) for financial security, who hires him as a servant to find out more about him and Meena. A dead beggar to whom Vijay gave his coat and whom he tries to save unsuccessfully from the path of a running train is mistaken for Vijay. Gulabo goes to Ghosh and gets his poems published. Ghosh does so feeling he can exploit the poems and make a killing. But Vijay is alive and in hospital after the train mishap.

Ghosh and Shyam, Vijay's close friend, refuse to recognise him and he is committed to a mental asylum since he insists he is Vijay and is thought to be mad. Vijay's brothers too are bought off by Ghosh not to recognize him and a memorial is held for the dead poet. Vijay with the help of his friend Abdul Sattar (Johnny Walker) escapes from the mental asylum and reaches the memorial service where he denounces this corrupt and materialistic world. Seeing that Vijay is alive his friend and brothers take side with a rival publisher for more money and declare this is Vijay. At a function to honour him, Vijay becomes sick of all the hypocrisy in the world around him and declares he is not Vijay. He then leaves with Gulabo to start a new life.

Production

In the original ending Guru Dutt wanted to show that Vijay left all alone but on the distributors' insistence the ending was changed. The film was originally titled Pyaas (thirst), but Guru Dutt later changed it to Pyaasa to better describe the film.

The role of Shyam was originally to be played by Guru Dutt's real life friend, Johny Walker but was then assigned to one of Guru Dutt's assistant directors. Guru Dutt wanted to film red light area scenes on locations in Kolkata (then Calcutta) but the crew was attacked by a group of pimps. Guru Dutt however recreated sets on the basis of photos taken at Kolkata.

It is also surmised that the story is based on the life of film's lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi who had failed affair with poet and writer Amrita Pritam during their college days.

Cast

Guru Dutt - Vijay

Mala Sinha - Meena

Waheeda Rehman - Gulabo

Rehman - Mr. Ghosh

Johnny Walker - Abdul Sattar

Memorable quotes

Vijay: Apne shauk ke liye pyaar karti hai aur apne aaram ke liye pyar bechti hai.

[For the sake of her hobby she gives her love, and for the sake of her comfort she sells her love.]

Vijay: To phir main yahan kya kar raha hun. Main kyon zinda hun, Gulabo?

[What am I doing here? Why am I alive, Gulabo?]

Vijay: These smiling flowers, these fragrant gardens, this world filled... with glorious colors. The nectar intoxicates bees. What little have I to add to this splendor... a few tears, a few sighs.

Vijay: ...I'm not that Vijay

Songs

The movie boasts one of the best performances of S.D. Burman, Sahir Ludhianvi, Geeta Dutt and Mohammed Rafi to produce one of the most lyrical Hindi musicals. Pyaasa marked the last collaboration of the long-lasting team of composer S D Burman and lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi.

Jaane kya tune kahi by Geeta Dutt

Hum aapki aankhon mein by Geeta Dutt, Mohammed Rafi

Jane who kaise log by Hemant Kumar

Sar jo tera chakraye by Mohammed Rafi

Aaj sanam mohe ang lagalo by Geeta Dutt

Jinhen naaz hai by Mohammed Rafi

Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai by Mohammed Rafi

In 2004, the soundtrack for Pyaasa was chosen as one of "The Best Music in Film" by Sight & Sound, the British Film Institute magazine.

The film then and now

The film is based on a book written by author and poet Chandra Shekhar 'Prem', from Himachal Pradesh. It was partly based on his life story. He was a struggling poet in the 1950s at the time and took the book to Bollywood. He sold the story and its rights for Rs.500, so was never given any credit for his work. He went on to publish many books in Hindi and Urdu he was never recognised as the true author of this work. He died in 2002.

There was a debate between writer Abrar Alvi and Guru Dutt on film’s ending. Abrar wanted the protagonist to accept and compromise with the prevailing material social reality; Guru Dutt insisted otherwise.

Song Sar jo tera chakraye composed by S.D Burman was actually based on tune composed by his son R.D Burman.

Pyaasa was to be made with actresses, Nargis Dutt and Madhubala in the roles Mala Sinha and Waheeda Rehman played eventually. But the two actresses couldn't decide which role they wanted to play and Guru Dutt eventually opted for two then new actresses, Mala and Waheeda.

Guru Dutt wanted Dilip Kumar to play the leading role in the movie, which the tragedy king declined. Guru Dutt himself played and movie went on to become one of the most commercially successful movies of the year.

The popular song "Hum aapki aankhon mein" was added to the movie on behest of distributors to bring some relief in rather pessimist film. It was never planned in original cut.

After a slow opening, Pyaasa went on to be a major commercial success of the year. This gave Guru Dutt the confidence to make a repeat on a grand scale. However, Kaagaz Ke Phool went on to be a commercial disaster. Ironically, the movie picked up a cult following world over in 1980s much after Guru Dutt died.

Waheeda Rahman's role in Pyaasa was based on a real life character. Abrar Alvi and his friends were visiting Bombay and they decided to visit the red light area. Alvi got talking to a girl who called herself Gulabo. According to Alvi " As I left, she thanked me in a broken voice, saying that it was the first time that she had been treated with respect, in a place where she heard only abuses. I used-her exact words in the film" Guru Dutt and his movies, including Pyaasa, have a large cult following in France and Germany. It was a huge commercial success during its 1984 French Premiere, ironically something Guru Dutt never witnessed during his lifetime. Since then, the movie has been screened to huge mass appeal world over, like the recent screening at The 9th International Festival of Asian Cinema held in Vesoul, in February 2003,

Is a Time top 100 movie of all times

Is a Time readers choice top 10 movie of all times Film was later remade in Telugu as Mallepoovu (1975)

References

(Source: ‘Ten Years with Guru Dutt – Abrar Alvi’s Journey’ an authorized biography by Sathya Saran, Pages 71 and 72)

‘Sar jo tera chakraye’ by Rafi Guru Dutt chanced to see a maalishwala (masseur). The checked ‘lungi’ (loose garment tied around waist), the jaunty cap, and banian, the paraphernalia of glass bottles of oil . . all of it seemed so right for the characterization. And so the role came to life. As did the song ‘Sar jo tera chakraye’. Guru Dutt had picked up a bunch of 78 rpm records of English songs during his visit to England. There was one tune he liked a lot, and he decided to graft it on to Pyaasa. It was from the film Harry Black and the Tiger, which, though Guru Dutt did not know it then, would be released later in India. S. D. Burman, who was composing the music for the film, was asked to copy the song note for note. Of course, Dada Burman was very upset by the instruction. He came to me and said, “What is this that Guru is asking of me, public mujhe marega. Please explain to him, he listens to you, let me put in a little of my own tune into the song . . . change it a bit . . .’ But Guru was adamant– the tune would have to be copied hundred percent in the mukhda at least. ‘Let him do what he wants in the antara,’ he decreed and Burman Dada had to be content with that. However, the music director waved his baton effectively enough to blend the tune with his own melody in such a manner that no one really noticed the surgery, and the song remains a hit even today. ‘In fact, later, when the producer of Harry Black and the Tiger visited India, he heard the song and not only failed to recognize the tune, but commended Dada on it’ Abrar laughs.

External links

Urbain Bizot, Thirst and Mourning

"Pyaasa:Time Magazine All Time 100 Movies"

Category:Hindi-language films Category:1957 films Category:Films directed by Guru Dutt Category:Compositions by Sachin Dev Burman Category:Screenplays by Abrar Alvi Category:Films based on novels Category:Films set in Kolkata

Name	Geeta Dutt
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhury
Born	November 23, 1930
Origin	Faridpur, Bangladesh
Died	July 20, 1972
Instrument	Vocalist
Genre	playback singing
Occupation	Singer
Years active	1946–1971
Spouse	Guru Dutt (1953 - 1964) (His Death)

Geetā Dutt (, born Geetā Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri) (23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972) was an Indian playback singer in Hindi movies in the 1950s and 60s, and also a singer of modern Bengali songs.

Early life

Geeta Dutt was born in 1930 into a rich zamindār's family as Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri in Faridpur, (then in Bengal, India; now in Banglādesh). In 1942, her parents shifted to an apartment in Dādar, Bombay (now Mumbai) when she was twelve. There, composer/music director Hanumān Prasād once overheard her singing casually, and, feeling impressed, he offered to impart her training in singing. He launched her in a chorus song in Bhakta Prahlād (1946), where she sang only two lines. But her rendering of those two lines stood out. The following year, she got a major assignment as a playback singer for Do Bhāi, and her renderings in that movie brought Geeta to the forefront as a top playback singer.

Career

Here is an essay that Nasir Ali, a veteran music lover wrote about Geeta Roy:

Even when we restrict ourselves to Geeta Roy of the Nineteen Forties we cannot but marvel at her transformation from the unknown child to the idol of the millions when she had not even crossed her teens.

We do know that she belonged to the rich Zamindar family of Debendranath Ghosh Roy Chowdhary and was one of the ten children born to Amiya Devi on November 23, 1930 at Faridpur in Central Bengal. Leaving their titled land and other property, the family had to shift to Calcutta in early Forties and in 1942 they shifted to Bombay (now Mumbai). The reasons for this are circumstantial and not too far to seek. Bengal had been a great nationalist centre during the British Raj. It was divided into West Bengal and the East Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905. The two parts were again reunited in 1911 and the separate states of Bihar and Orissa were also created with the capital being shifted to Delhi. Bengal came to be finally partitioned in 1947 when Pakistan was also created. The eastern portion of Bengal which was dominantly Muslim was created as East Pakistan and that in 1971 came to be liberated as the Bangla Desh. Faridpur is the paragna of the Adilpur (or Idilpur) Village where Geeta Roy was born, and is part of that portion of Bengal.

The early Forties were the worst time for the world in general and India in particular. The Japanese were trying to make inroads to India and in fact by 1942 had occupied Burma. The British India Government adopted the "scorched earth" policy beginning at Chittagong to stop the food supplies to the Japanese. In 1943, there was a horrendous famine in Bengal when more than 3.5 million died. The dead were being removed to the rural areas to keep the cities clean. With the Japanese at the doors, it was quite likely that people began to flee from rural lands and areas much earlier and made their way to the cities. Calcutta (now Kolkata) was the capital of undivided Bengal at that time. Perhaps this might have been reason for Geeta Roy's family migrating to Calcutta just before millions of refugees began pouring into the cities, especially, Calcutta. Other prominent migrants included Kazi Abdul Wadud, the educationist and writer, Humayun Kabir who was a politician, educationist and writer; Poet Sunil Gangopadhyay, and many other eminent people from Faridpur.

It seems that even Calcutta could not guarantee peace and security. Bombay was fast rising as the most promising city of India, some even calling it "Sone ki Chidiya", "the Golden Bird" or the El Dorado. By 1943, the cracking up of system in the New Theatres too became evident. In fact, this was the fate of all studio-system giving rise to independent movie makers who went on to make their own film-studios. Many artistes, too, were looking westwards to Bombay which was cosmopolitan in nature. Bombay it was that became the melting pot of the many talents that came from different parts of India, notably from the Punjab, the United Province (UP) and Bengal. The folk-tunes of UP and Rajasthan, the Rabindra Sangeet of Bengal and the Heer and the Bhangra-based songs of Punjab with a liberal dose of rhythmic dholak were all welcome. Even K.C. Dey the famous visually-impaired singer and actor had to shift to Bombay in 1942 temporarily. So what the family of Geeta Roy did was the dictate of the circumstances. Fortunately for them, they could afford to buy a flat in Dadar which was the hub of the filmy activities. Geeta was just twelve year old then.

Thereafter, for the next three-four years the young Geeta would pursue her studies just like any normal girl. The Bengali High School she attended was fortunate: for even after attaining name and fame Geeta Roy or Geeta Dutt would never fail to attend the Durga Pooja held in the school every year right up to 1971 since she was no more in 1972! As a girl, fortunately for her, she would have come across people of diverse communities and this must have brushed her Hindi language considerably. But singing was her first love and it is said that it was at Faridpur itself that she used to receive training in elementary music from a family relative named Harendranath Nandi. She picked up folk songs and music and also picked up songs from the gramophone records and films at her native place. What happened at Dadar, strikes a parallel in the career of both Geeta Roy and Lata Mangeshkar: While it was Ghulam Haider the noted music director who had heard Lata singing in the train to herself, in Geeta's case it was music director Pandit Hanuman Prasad who, while walking in the street below, heard her singing in the balcony of her flat. Both of them were thus discovered and groomed by music directors in the early part of their career. But for Geeta, it was earlier: 1946!

It was in the year 1946 that Geeta Roy sang for Pandit Hanuman Prasad in a mythological movie, Bhakt Prahlad. The lines AB JAANI RE PEHCHAANI RE; and SUNO SUNO VINTEE HAMAARI were to transform her life from an unknown school girl to that of an established playback singer. The other two songs of her with chorus were: SUNO SUNO HARI KI LEELA and JAAG UTHE HAMM JAAG UTHE.

There were some other 1946 releases where she showed her calibre as the female playback singer. For Hanuman Prasad who had four releases in 1946, Geeta sang a couple of songs in Raseeli and Nai Maa. In Raseeli her songs were: NAINON KI PYALI SE HOTON KI MADIRA and NEHA LAGAKE MUKH MOD GAYAA, while Nai Maa had the lullaby or ‘Lori' number: AAJAA RI NINDIYA AAJAA. She sang this lori song with established playback singer Parul Ghosh.

As early as 1946 she sang for the phenomenal music director, Master Ghulam Haider, in the film Bairam Khan which was a Mehtab (future Mrs. Sohrab Modi) starrer. Wali Sahaab penned the song JAB CHAAND JAWAAN HOGAA TAB CHAANDNI RAATON MEIN JANNAT KA SAMAA HOGAA. In this song, Geeta Roy accompanied the most popular female playback singer of those times, Shamshad Begum. The two others who gave them company were Naseem Begum and Munawwar Sultana who went on to become big names in Pakistani playback singing. It must have been during this time that her friendship with her "Aapa" and senior singer Shamshad Begum started. Till date, Shamshad remembers Geeta as one of the finest artists she worked with.

Geeta also sang a solo in Circus King: PREETI KISI KO NA CHHODE which was composed by the duo of Abhyankar Joshi and Nageshwar Rao. Some claim that this song was probably her first released song.

Kashmir Ki Kali had YEH KISNE MERI HASRATON MEIN AAG composed by Master Vithal who was the hero of the movie. Another song in this film was a duet with a male voice, probably Master Vithal himself: HAAY IS PYAAR NE DEEWAANA.

In Rastaa, we have Geeta singing NAYEE BAHAAREN AAYEEN composed by Zafar Khursheed. This reminds us of Pankaj Mullick's famous song AAYEE BAHAAR AHA AHA AHA because Geeta too has that same refrain and the music is fast-paced as in that song.

Milan, we remember as the Dilip Kumar starrer and the first Hindi film of actor Abhi Bhattacharya that was released in 1946. It had music by Anil Biswas the legendary Bengali music director. Geeta Roy has two songs, one being a memorable number: CHHANN MEIN BAJEGI BANSURIYA. The other song was TUMHE SAAJAN MANAAYEN TUM ROOTH JAANAA. In fact she had also recorded two songs for Milan's Bengali version, Nauka Doobi. The audios of these are not easily traceable.

During the next year also, Geeta Roy had a very busy recording schedules. Geeta Roy recorded songs for B. Vasudev who was the music director of the 1947 flick, Neel Kamal - a Madhubala and Raj Kapoor starrer. Following were her songs:

BOL BOL BAALAM BEDARDI TERI KYAA MARZI RE- with Rajkumari and chorus.

MAA NE BHEJA DHOR CHARANE- with Rajkumari and chorus.

AANKH JO DEKHE HAI DHOKA KHAYE HAI- with Mukesh and Rajkumari.

JAWANI AGAR HOOK DIL KI DABAYE- with Rajkumari and chorus.

BRIJ MEIN DHOOM MACHA JA - with Rajkumari and Bhatker.

Bhookh was an Agha-Narmada-Shaikh Mukhtar starrer, where Geeta Roy recorded a duet song with Shamshad Begum: YEH HASEENON KE MELE ALBELE. Another song AANKH MEIN RAHE KYOON ASHQ was her solo song. So also IS JAGG MEIN GHARIBON KA NA KOI THIKAANA. Music was scored by Anil Biswas.

Chitragupt was the music director of the 1947 release, Jadui Ratan (Magic Gem). It had her following songs:

NAYANON MEIN AANA,MERE MAN MEIN SAMANA with Radha Govind.

MERA NANHA SA DIL PIYA LOOT LIYO RE with Radha Govind.

WOH RUT BADAL GAYI,WOH TARANA BADAL GAYA –her Solo song.

Sajjad Hussain who was known for his eccentricity, such as chiding Lata Mangeshkar by saying that his was not a Naushad tune "Aap ko Aur Mehnat Karni Padegi." or calling Talat Mehmood as "Ghalat Mehmood" and who even accused Madan Mohan of plagiarism, had unflagging confidence in Geeta Roy when he gave her five solo songs to sing in the movie called Kasam. The songs were:

WOH JISSKO MITA BAITHE.

DAMAN KO HAATH SE WOH CHUDA KAR CHALE GAYE.SUNA JA KOI GEET AE DIL SUNA JA.

AE DIL BATA KISKO KAROON PYAR.

YA RAB HAMARI AAH MEIN.

Some unconfirmed sources mention that this film never got released.

Again in the film Mere Bhagwan, Sajjad Hussain gave some four songs to Geeta Roy. Two of them were:

O SHYAM MEERA KE GIRIDHARI and chorus.

MUJHE BAWRI BAWRI LOG KAHEIN.

The second song is particularly sweet and in typical "Sajjad style".

Pehli Pehchan had the musical score of Bulo C. Rani/Hansraj Behl. The former composed MAIN HOON PHOOLON KI RANI,KAANTON MEIN RAHNEWALI. The latter composed MUSKURATE HO KYON, ITRATE HO KYON where Geeta sang along with A.R. Ojha. The same year in Tohfa we have a sad number of Geeta: WOH DIL GAYAA DIL KE SAHAARE CHALE GAYE composed by M.A. Rauf. A touching number this!

Some other movies of 1947, where Geeta Roy recorded her songs were:

OH RAAJA MOHE APNI BANA LE RE in Filmistan's Leela which had music by C. Ramchandra. There was a duet song of hers with Binapani also: MERI AANKHEN CHHAM CHHAM..KYA ISIKA NAAM.

Again, Filmistan's Shehnai had C. Ramchandra as the music director. It was a Nasir Khan-Rehana starrer. There was a comedy song: JAWAANI KI RAIL CHALI JAAYE RE which is filmed on the protagonists performing a stage-show in a fair. Along with Geeta Roy, there were Lata Mangeshkar and Chitalkar (C.Ramchandra) and chorus singing the song. In another song, CHADTI JAWAANI MEIN JHOOLO MERI RAANI, Geeta Roy sang along with Chitalkar and Binapani. This song was very popular in those days.

In Geet Govind (1947) Geeta Roy and G.M. Durrani featured in two trios with Abha for songs composed by Gyan Dutt: CHAMKAT DAMKAT DAMINI, and VIYOGAN DEEPSHIKHA SI JARE.

In Utho Jaago it was Aziz Khan who provided the music. Geeta Roy sang HANS HANS KE under his musical direction.

Gaon (Village) was also a 1947 movie the musical score for which was provided by Khemchand Prakash. There was a Geeta Roy-Mukesh duet which went: WATAN KI MAATI HAATH MEIN LEKAR.

Geeta Roy's voice had captured the imagination of a new music director known as S.D. Burman who had himself come to Bombay in 1944 and despite two odd films had not found his niche. S.D. Burman gave her six out of the nine songs, i.e. four solos and two duets, for the forthcoming film, Do Bhai. Along with her love of music, Geeta continued to pursue her matriculation exams and the next year 1947 brought her double happiness: one of having passed her exams and the other of striking gold with her songs in Do Bhai which was released in 1947.

The Geeta Roy's songs of Do Bhai are:

YAAD KAROGE YAAD KAROGE IK DIN HAMKO YAAD KAROGE;

AAJ PREET KA NAATA TOOT GAYAA (with G.M. Durrani);

HAMEIN CHHOD KE PIYAA KIS DES GAYE.

MERE PIYAA TOH BASE PARDES.

YAAD RAKHNA, YAAD RAKHNA.

MERA SUNDAR SAPNA BEET GAYAA.

The success of the music of Do Bhai (especially the song "Mera sundar sapna beet gaya") catapulted Geeta to the top bracket of female playback singers.

Dil Ki Rani was another movie of the year 1947 the music of which was composed by S.D. Burman. Geeta sang: AAYENGE AAYENG RE; KYOON BALAM HAMSE ROOTH GAYE; BIGDI HUWI TAQDEER MERI AAKE BANA DE; AAHA MERE MOHAN NE MUJHKO BULAAYA for this Madhubala-Raj Kapoor starrer. There was also her duet song with two male voices: O DUNIYA KE REHNEWAALE BATAA. (This was the tandem of another solo in the movie sung by Raj Kapoor himself).

S.D. Burman would remember to give Geeta Roy an opportunity to sing a Bangla song KHELA BHANGAR KHELA too in 1950 for the movie Samar. She would continue to sing in Bengali movies till the secondd half of 1960s. The team of S.D. Burman and Geeta Roy-Dutt would produce some 70 memorable songs – the last one being a comedy number, MAIN TERE PYAAR MEIN KYAA KYAA NA BANAA DILBAR, filmed on Shobha Khote and Mehmood in the 1964 flick, Ziddi. Manna Dey was her co-singer. Unfortunately, not much information is available regarding a couple of Geeta Roy's numbers under his musical direction for the 1947 film, Chittor Vijay, which had Madhubala and Raj Kapoor in the lead. Surendra and Wasti were the supporting actors in the said film. One of these songs HO RANGEELA HO RASEELA RAKHI KA DIN AAYA RE is a Shamshad-Geeta Duet.

It is surprising that a few critics have tried to draw a parallel between her life and that of K.L. Saigal. I think it is unfair to both since the parallel is presumably based on the fact that both succumbed to the cirrhosis of liver resulting from excessive drinking. Yes, they both died in their early Forties. But unlike Saigal Saab, Geeta Roy never needed any "Kaali Paanch" for recording her songs. Her bouts of drinking were the result of her depression resulting from a personal tragedy and not some habit or lack of self-confidence. K.L. Saigal was the legendary actor-singer. Geeta Roy was not an actress though she did act opposite Pradeep Kumar in a 1967 Bangla flick, Badhu Bharan, which did not do well. Guru Dutt, who was smitten by her during the Baazi (1951) days and who married her in 1953, had announced India's first cinemascope movie called "Gauri" to launch her as a heroine in 1957. That was shelved after a few days of shooting. I don't know why I get this uncanny feeling that it was "Gauri" that was made into Kaaghaz Ke Phool (1959) in which Waheeda Rehman had the plum heroine's role that was meant for Geeta Roy! Remember the story? The married director Suresh (played by Guru Dutt) falls head over heels in love with the debutante actress, Shanti (played by Waheeda Rehman) and this shatters the conjugal and professional life of Suresh.

When we glance at Geeta Roy's early life in perspective, we find a sort of a parallel between her story and that of the singing legend Mohammed Rafi: In the latter's case, he used to hear a faqir chanting hymns in his village; in the former's case she would for hours on end hear the boat-men singing the boat-songs on the mighty Padma River of the lower Ganga. The effect was the same in both their cases. Both were mesmerised by what they heard, and this deeply ingrained the love of song and music in their willing hearts. Both belonged to the land of rivers: One to the land of five rivers, Punjab, and the other to the land of Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers that have many tributaries. One travelled from Lahore that was to become a part of West Pakistan; while the other travelled from her birth-place, Faridpur, which was to become a part of East Pakistan. Of course, in 1971 East Pakistan achieved liberation to become Bangla Desh. Thus both had to travel hundreds of miles to Bombay in the early Forties, where Lady Fortune was waiting to receive them with open arms.

As early as 1946 itself Geeta Roy sang with Mohammed Rafi in Man Sarovar: JAI HIND....SUNO HIND KI KAHAANIYAAN. This was a lovely patriotic song, a trailer for the 150 plus songs to come in the coming years. Music was by Shankar Rao Vyas. .

Sajan (1947) had very good songs the music of which was rendered by C. Ramchandra. Geeta Roy's songs among those are:

HAMM BANJAARE SANGG HAMAARE DHOOM MACHAALE DUNYA...

This is a more like gypsy song. Geeta Roy's voice is distinct in this song (which also has Mohammed Rafi, Lalita Deulkar, C.Ramchandra and chorus).

SAMBHAL SAMBHAL KE JAIYO O BANJAARE DELHI DUUR HAI....

This is a patriotic song where the names of the Indian States and even the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru as "Jawaahar", figure.

The other duets of Geeta-Rafi in the 'Forties' we shall broach presently. Of course Mohammed Rafi and Geet Roy-Dutt went on to sing together over the next decades, and they have no less than 162 hit duets to their credit. This is the maximum number of duets that Geeta Roy has sung with any singer.

In 1948 came Chunariya which had music by Hansraj Behl. PHOOL KO BHOOL KE LE BAITHA KHAAR...TERAA KANTO SE HAI PYAAR PYAAR, which was the duet of Geeta Roy and Mohammed Rafi. This is a philosophical song emphasising that all that glitters is not gold. It has beautiful Alaaps as well by Geeta Roy and Rafi Sahaab. Incidentally, the music in Chunariya put Hansraj Behl among the leading music directors of the day. There was a fun song of Geeta Roy too in this movie: O MOTOR WAALE BABU. Playback singer Asha Bhonsle was introduced in Chunariya in a trio song featuring her with Geeta and Zohrajan Amabalawali. Asha had a couple of lines to sing in this song "Sawan aaya re".

Music director Aziz Khan (sometimes known as Aziz Hindi also) and Khayyam (Sharmaji of the MD Duo Sharmaji-Varmaji then ) too could not escape the charm of the sweet voice of Geeta Roy. Khayyam recorded seven out of twelve songs of Heer Ranjha. Geeta Roy had no less than six songs, some of them duets, in this 1948 flick. They are:

DIL BUJHAA JAATAA HAI NAASHAAD HUAA JAATA HAI :

The song is a sad one in memory of the lover who has left his beloved behind. This song seems to be a very different one from the usual style of Geeta Roy and is slightly at a higher pitch. She sounds different - but excellent.

KAFAS KEE QAID MEN HAMKO HAI YAADEN ASHIYAAN BAAQI- (with G.M. Durrani):

This one is also a sentimental number of Geeta Roy sung with G.M. Durrani and pertains to the separation of the protagonists remembering the good old days. The use of both Kafas and Qaid seems to be repetitive.

UD PUD JAANIYA,GHYOON KHAND KHANIYA:

If you want to hear Geeta Roy singing a Punjabi song, the third one is an excellent treat. Its indeed surprising that Punjabi Music Directors like Sardul Kwatra didn't use the Punjabi lilt she shows in this song in the Punjabi film industry in spite of used her talents extensively in the later years.

DIL YOON YOON KARTA HAI (Duet with a male voice):

Geeta Roy at her impish, most romantic in the fourth song. It is strange that Ghulam Haider did not utilise her more. Did he miss this song? Amazing 'Harkatein' too by her!

TERI ZAAT HAI AKBARI SARVARI (duet with male voice):

This song is a Muslim devotional song of complaint. Geeta Roy has sung in her usual style.

TERI MERI DOSTI KAHANI BAN GAYI:

This is a fun song, celebrating newly-found romance. Here also, Geeta Roy is in her elements.

Thus in Heer Ranjha we have a mixture of genres, sad song, romantic song, devotional song and a regional song too, i.e. Punjabi. It clearly showcases the range and variety in Geeta's singing.

For Ghulam Haider she also sang in the very famous Dilip Kumar-Kamini Kaushal starrer, Shaheed: AAJA BEDARDI BAALMA KOI RO RO PUKAARE. It was for this movie that Lata Mangeshkar was rejected by the producer of the movie. Ghulam Haider picked up another newcomer, Surinder Kaur whose songs became very famous in that period. But Ghulam Haider took it as a challenge to hone the skills of Lata Mangeshkar and offered her a big break to his "discovery" in Majboor (1948). Geeta Roy sang again for Ghulam Haider in this movie too and the song was MAIN TO REH GAYI AAJ AKELI RE. She sang two duets with Lata Mangeshkar: GORI SAKHIYON SE ANKHIYAAN CHURA RAHI RE and HAR SHAY PE JAWAANI HAI.

In the 1948 flick, Padmini, again under the baton of Ghulam Haider, we have several Geeta Roy songs. Her duet with Ashok Kumar SAPERA BEEN BAJAAYO RE was immensely popular. With G.M. Durrani she sang HARI CHUNARIYA WAALI KA DIL ATKA. Then we had Geeta Roy singing AAJA AAJA O BIDESI BAALMA and MORA JIYAA NAHIN BAS MEIN. Lyrics were by Wali Sahaab. There was another song of hers too: MORE ANGNA KAAG NAA BOLE in Padmini.

A movie called Chanda Ki Chandni was also released in 1948. It had these songs of Geeta Roy: ULFAT KE DARD KA KABHI MAZAA LO and OH JAADUGAR KAAHE .

Huwa Savera, also of 1948, had this Geeta Roy song: MORE MANN MEIN SAMAAYA HAI PYAAR. Music was by Gyan Dutt and lyrics were by Bhagwati Prasad Vajpayi. The song is sung with a rustic flavour. In this period Gyan Dutt sahab, whose muse Khursheed was no longer available used her talents extensively. Probably only Bulo C Rani used her talents more in this period though.

Geeta Roy has many other songs in 1948 which we are not discussing in details here. Some of them are:

In Meri Kahani she had a duet with Surendra: WAADA KARKE KISISE NA AANA. She also recorded RO RO KE SUNAATE for K.Datta in this movie. BULBUL KO MILA PHOOL was her other duet with Surendra in this film.

In Filmistan's Actress the music was composed by Shyam Sunder. Geeta Roy had two duet songs with Shamshad Begum: ANKHON ANKHON MEIN and O GORI TERI BANKA CHHAILA.

Another Geeta Roy- Shamshad Begum duet figured in Anjuman which was a Nargis Arts production starring Nargis. Music was by Bulo C. Rani. The song was: PYAARI TERA MERA MERA TERA PYAAR.

The pair of Geeta Roy and Shamshad Begum had another song to sing, this time in Suhag Raat (1948): MERE DIL KI DHADKANO MEIN SAKHI KAUN AA SAMAYA. It is said that Pandit Nehru was so impressed with a few lines of the song that he had called the lyricist-producer Kidar Sharma. The lines that had entranced Panditji were : Aankhon mein aankhain daal tune mujhko kya pilaaya, Jis taare par nazar padi wo tara ladkhadaya. This movie also had a lovely Geeta Roy and Rajkumar duet: BAAJE MORI PAAYAL THUNNAK THUNNAK. Geeta Roy duet with Rajkumari was: RUMJUHUM MATWAALE BAADAL CHHAA GAAYE. Snehal Bhatkar was the debutant music director for this film which was also the debut vehicle of the effervescent Geeta Bali for whom Geeta ji was to sing many gems later.

Chandralekha had NACHE GHODA BEECH BAZAR which was a duet song of Geeta Roy with an unknown male voice. Music was by S. Rajweshwar Rao. Although this movie had all other songs by Uma Devi, it was this song which caught the public's fancy.

Nirupa Roy was the heroine of the bi-lingual (Gujarati/Hindi) film Gunsundari and earned fame in this role. Geeta Roy recorded NANADIYA MAARE under the baton of Bulo C. Rani in this movie. (Geeta ji sang for the gujrati version too).

Another 1948 movie was Toote Taare for which Shaukat Dehelvi "Naashad" provided the music. Geeta Roy sang two duets with Mukesh: RAAJA MOHE LE CHAL TU DELHI KI SAIR KO and REHTE HO AB TO HAR GHADI. She also had a solo song NAZAR SE MILI HAI NAZAR PEHLE HO.. PEHLE PEHLE.

In Chand Sitare Geeta Roy sang the solo : AAJA MERE BAALMA KAISI SUHAANI RAAT HAI. Premnath was the music director.

Anjana was an early Bharat Bhushan film. The music was by D.C. Dutt. The song SOORAJ JAAGA DHARTI JAAGI and SAB NAGRI DHOONDH PHIRI NAINA NA PAAYE SANWARIYA were the duets of Geeta Dutt and Shankar Das Gupta in the movie.

Geeta Roy and G.M. Durrani were used by Hanuman Prasad in the year 1948, for the comedy song in Hip Hip Hurray: DUBEY JI KO PAKWAN MILA. Lyrics were written by Sahir Ludhianvi. There was another song of Geet Roy with Shamshad Begum and S. Balbir: JAWAANI HAMM GUZAAREN.

The film Aap Beeti had Pramila, who was the first Miss India (1947), as one of the star-cast. Haribhai Mistry as the music director took Geeta Roy and Rajkumari to sing: MORE SAIYAAN BHAYE KOTWAAL.

For Jeene Do, the music was composed by Shaukat Dehelvi who later became more popularly known as "Naashad". The movie had this beautiful Geeta Roy's song: SUN SUN RI BULBUL DEEWAANI.

The Rehana starrer, Khidki, had Geeta Roy singing along with Lata Mangeshkar and Chitalkar. This song was: TERE BINA SOONA SOONA. The music director of this P.L. Santoshi directed movie was of course C.Ramchandra himself.

To put it briefly, in 1948 she had recorded songs for such stalwarts music directors as Master Ghulam Haider, Hansraj Behl, Bulo C. Rani, Shyam Sundar, K.Datta, Shaukat Dehelvi or Naashad, Chitragupt, Khayyam, Gyan Dutt. S. Rajeshwar Rao, R.A. Painjankar, S.D. Batish, Aziz Khan, Mukund Masurekar, Hanuman Prasad, and C. Ramchandra. It is also important to note here that Geeta ji sang nearly 75 songs in her first two years as singer, a record which probably still holds today and is an indicator of her popularity during that period.

Coming to 1949, Geeta Roy had recorded a duet with Mukesh under the baton of Hansraj Behl for Raat Ki Raani (1949) which was a Shyam and Munawwar Sultana starrer, but the same song for some reason was re-recorded with the voices of Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar.

Geeta Roy recorded AAYA MERA SAJAN AAYA in Zevraat for Hansraj Behl.

Hansraj Behl was the music director in Chakori where Geeta Roy sang: NAINON MEIN JHOOLA DALAA KAJAL KI DOR KAA.

In 1949 there were several Rafi-Geeta duets:

One movie was Karvat which had music by Hansraj Behl and lyrics by S.K. Deepak. The song GAYAA ANDHERAA HUWAA SAVERAA JAAG UTHE INSAAN celebrates freedom from slavery and independence, and writing of new chapter. There's heavy beat of drums involved and the stanzas have variety of tunes. There are several voices also singing along with Mohammed Rafi and Geeta Roy.

Besides these, in Karvat we have a Geeta-Asha duet: O BAADAL GHIR AAYE. She has duet song with S.D. Batish and the song goes: MAIN ANGOOR KI BEL. A solo of Geeta Roy is: OH CHANDAA BAADAL MEIN MUKH LE CHHIPAA.

The movie, Naach, has a typical Husnlal-Bhagatram music beginning with a harmonium piece. The song KYOON KARTA MAAN JAWAANI KA TU EK BULBULAA PAANI KA has Geeta Roy singing along with Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. This is a philosophical song about the transitory nature of youth and life.

Another song in Naach again has Mohammed Rafi, Geeta Roy and Lata Mangeshkar. This is a sad song in which the stanzas are sung by Mohammed Rafi while the girls go on singing the 'Mukhda' LABB PE FARIYAAD HAI DIL BARBAAD HAI in refrain after every stanza.

Geeta Roy has another duet with Lata and chorus in Naach: CHAK CHAK CHALE HAMAARI RAIL YEH HAI AAG PAANI KA KHEL.

Hamari Manzil that was released in 1949 also had music by Husnlal-Bhagatram. In fact 1948-49 was their peak period. It was also Suraiya's best period under the musical duo. We have two songs of Mohammed Rafi and Geeta Roy with other male voices:

ANDHERE SE NAA DAR (KAANTE BANENGE KALIYAAN KAANTON SE KHELTA JA) penned by Rajinder Krishan. This philosophical song, which encourages us to face the vicissitudes of life, begins with Rafi Sahaab voice, followed by Geeta Roy and then other male voices.

BADLA HUWAA DUNYA MEIN ULFAT KA FASAANA HAI, penned by Qamar Jalalabadi. This is rendered by S.D. Batish, Geeta Roy, and Mohammed Rafi. This is a comedy song, satirising the modern Laila Majnu and Shireen Farhad: KYAA PYAAR KARE KOI RAASHAN KA ZAMAANA HAI, VOH AUR ZAMAANA THAAH YEH AUR ZAMAANA HAI.

There was a Geeta Roy's solo too: NAINON SE NAIN MILAAKE.

Bansuria was another Husnlal-Bhagatram's musical venture where Geeta Roy sang AAJA AAJA KE JIYA MORA TARAS GAYA.

Amar Kahani (1949) too had Husnlal Bhagatram as the music directors. Rajinder Krishan was the lyrics writer. Two songs of Geeta Roy stand out: YEH KAISI DILLAGI HAI and CHHOTI SI EK BAGIYAA MEIN which ends with a high note.

DO DIL JISKE PAAS SIPAHIYA in Sawan Bhadon and AREY JAANE WALE IDHAR DEKHTA JAA in Rakhi were some other songs that Geeta Roy sang under the baton of Husnlal Bhagatram.

Some of the other Geeta Roy songs of 1949 are:

In Veer Ghatotkach Geeta Roy sings PIYAA KAAHE DER LAGAAYE under the musical composition of S.N. Tripathi. Lyrics were by Moti.

In Jeet the music director was Shyam Babu Pathak and the lyricist was the multi-talented, Prem Dhawan. Geeta Roy had this song SUNO SUNO BANWAARI MORI lip-synched by legendary actress Durga Khote. She also sang a duet with Vinod, "KAAM KARO BHAI KAAM KARO JAG MEIN APNA NAAM KARO", a tandem of the Suraiyya solo.

JIYA KA DIYA PIYA TIM TIM HOWE was a duet song of Geeta Roy with Shamshad Begum in Sunhere Din which had music by Gyan Dutt. The same movie had her song with Sulochna Kadam: UMANGON KE DIN

Darogaji was produced by Jaddan Bai, the mother of Nargis. Bulo C. Rani composed as many as 12 songs for Geeta Roy. A couple of her songs were: LE JA LE JA LE JA BABU YEH MERI NISHANI and MORI TUJH SE ULAJH GAYI ANKHIYAAN. Nargis was among the top class heroines whose career was rising very fast. Jaddan Bai was a big name then. Selection of Geeta Roy for all the home production's songs, ten of which were filmed on Nargis, amply demonstrates the abundant capability, popularity and the trust that this female playback singer enjoyed among the film fraternity while she was still in her teens.

Sipahiya (1949) starred Madhubala and with her was Amirbai Karnataki who, as we know was also a playback singer of repute. There was a song of Geeta Roy there which she sang with Lata Mangeshkar. That song was: CHALO GHUNGHAT MEIN GUIYAAN CHHUPA KE. C. Ramchandra was the music director.

Roshni had C.Ramchandra as the music director and PEHAN CHUNARIYA KAALI was a duet of Geeta Roy which she sang with him who was also known as Chitalkar.

Kaneez (1949) had three music directors: Ghulam Haider, Hansraj Behl and O.P. Nayyar. The last-named had only been introduced here and was responsible for the background score. JIYA MORA HAALE DOLE HO was Geeta Roy's song filmed on the buxom Kuldip Kaur in Kaneez. Another delightful song was PAAKE NAZARON KA ISHAARAA.

Ghulam Mohammed provided music for Dil Ki Basti. She had the following songs:

OH PARDESIYA O RASIYA with Zohra Bai.

YEH HI HAI DIL KI BASTI with G M Durrani.

NAZUK DIL HAI TOD NAA DENA with G M Durrani.

KOI PUKARE PIYA PIYA in Paras where Ghulam Mohammed was the music director.

In Nazare, Bulo C. Rani was the composer. Geeta Roy sang two songs: MERE MAN MEIN DOL and MILTE HO USIKO with G.M. Durrani. She sang two more songs with G.M. Durrani in the same movie but was accompanied by Shamshad Begum: DUNIYA KI ANDHERI RAAT MEIN and BAHAR AAYI CHAMAN.

In Bhul Bhulaiyan, Geeta sang AKHIYON SE NEEND CHURAAKE for Bulo C. Rani.

MERI KASHTI KO MUHABBAT KA KINAARA MIL GAYA was her song in Kamal which had music by S.D. Burman once again. A duet of hers with Surendra was KEHNE KO HAIN TAYYAR.

S.D. Burman again took Geeta Roy for the famous Dilip-Kamini starrer, Shabnam. Her solo sound-track song was MERA DIL TADPA KE KAHAAN CHALAA. A duet version with Shamshad Begum of this superhit song also featured in the film. She also sang a duet with Mukesh: QISMAT MEIN BICHHADNA THA. Shabnam happened to be S.D. Burman's most successful movie by then.

In 1949 Geeta Roy sang along with manna dey for the first time for movie called Ram Vivah. The song was: DHANYA DHANYA HEY AVADHPURI. Music was composed by Shankarrao Vyas,

Not that Geeta Roy did not sing under the baton of Naushad in the Nineteen Forties. She did so for the movie called Dillagi (1949). One of the most popular songs in the movie was the Suraiya - Shyam duet: TUU MERA CHAAND MAIN TERI CHAANDNI. Not many are aware that there is a shorter tandem version too of this song which was rendered by Geeta Roy for the supporting actress Shyama. However, no records were cut for this number. The only other song that she has sung for him is in Mehboob Khan's Son of India (1962): Mujhe Huzoor Tumse Pyaar Hai. It is interesting to note that this Geeta Roy's voice was used in Portugal for a TV ad on "ZAPP" which is a wireless internet company. Evidently, when the Portuguese gave up Goa in 1961 they had not forgotten Geeta Roy-Dutt and her sweet voice.

Geeta Roy is credited with close to 1500 songs, including some in the regional languages such as Bangla, Gujarati, and Punjabi. We already noted her songs she sang between 1946 and 1949. To recapitulate besides her solos she sang the following number of songs with her main co-singers in the Forties and the next decades:

With Mohammed Rafi: 9 songs in the Forties out of the total 162 songs with him.

With G.M. Durrani: 12 songs in the Forties out of the total 33 songs with him.

With Lata Mangeshkar: 9 songs in the Forties out of the total 37 songs with her that include some trios featuring Mohammed Rafi or Hemant Kumar and others.

With Shamshad Begum: 11 songs in the Forties out of the total 20 songs with her.

With Rajkumari: 9 songs in the Forties out of the total 10 songs with her.

With Zohrabai Ambalewali: 2 songs in the Forties out of the 5 songs with her.

With Mukesh: 6 songs in the Forties out of about 19 songs with him. The four Gujarati songs don't figure in this list.

With Asha Bhonsle: 2 songs in the Forties out of 35 songs with her.

With Manna Dey: 1 song in the Forties out of 26 songs with him besides 5 regional songs.

With S.D. Batish: 3 songs in the Forties out of 6 songs, one being an unreleased number.

With Sulochna Kadam: 4 songs in the Forties out of the 7 with her.

With Khayyam: 3 songs in the Forties only.

With Binapani Mukherjee: 2 songs in the Forties and 1 in 1950 only.

With Hamida Banu: 1 song in the Forties out of only 4 songs with her.

With Chitalkar: 6 songs in the Forties out of some 9 songs with him.

With Shankar Das Gupta: 2 in the Forties out of 8 songs with him, including one with Arun Kumar and one with Yashodhara.

With Surendra: 3 in the Forties out of the total 5 songs with him.

There are no songs in Forties of her other co-singers who sang duets with her only from the beginning of the Fifties. They are Talat Mehmood (26 songs plus one non-filmy); Hemant Kumar (31 or 32 songs and 3 Bengali songs); Kishore Kumar (13 songs plus two Bengali songs); Suman Kalyanpur (6 songs): Mahendra Kapoor (12 songs plus two Bhojpuri numbers); Mubarak Begum (just 1 song); Suraiya (just 1 song); Sudha Malhotra (7 songs);Meena Kapoor (5 songs and 1 non-filmi); Krishna Goyal (5 songs); Khan Mastana (2 songs); S. Balbir (10 songs that include other singers as well); and Nutan (1 song).

The list is not exhaustive. Neither is it meant to be. It must be mentioned here that earlier, the names of the playback singers were not even mentioned on the gramophone records. Only the names of the characters that lip-synched the songs used to be mentioned. There were also the cases when the name of just one playback singer was mentioned despite the fact that the song was a duet, and so on. Additionally, the old records were destroyed to make way for the new ones and the selection in this was quite arbitrary or even haphazard. Thus a margin of error, on the lesser side, is more than possible in attributing the total number of songs to any playback singers who began their singing career in the Nineteen Forties.

During her singing career, Geeta Roy gave her voice and emotions to many eminent lyricists of the film industry. These include: Akhtar Romani, Ali Sardar Zafari, Anjaan, Anjum Jaipuri, Anjum Pilibhiti, Arzoo Lucknowi,Asad Bhopali, Avinash Vyas,Azeez Kashmiri, B D Mishra, B M Sharma, B P Bhargav, B R Sharma, Balwant Kapoor, Bandhu, Bekal Amrutsari, Bhagwati Prasad Vajpaye, Bharat Vyas, Bismil Peshwari, D N Madhok, Devendra, Farooque Qaiser, Feroze Jallandari, G S Nepali, G S Potdaar, Ghaafil Harnalvhi, Gulshan Bawra, Gulzar, Hairat Sitapuri, Hamid Hydrabadi, Harsh, Hasrat Jaipuri, Hasrat Lucknavi, Himmat Rai Sharma, I C Kapoor, Indeevar, J Abhayankar, Jaidev, Jan Nisar Akhtar, K L Pardesi, K Manohar, K Razdan, Kaif Irfani, Kaifi Azmi, Kameel Rasheed, Kapil Kumar, Kavi Pradeep, Kedar Sharma, Khalish Lucknowi, Khawar Jamaan, Khumar Barambkavi, Kuldeep Singh Chand, M A Taj, M L Khanna, Madhukar Rajasthani, Madhusudan Bhagalpuri, Mahendra Pran, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Manmohan Sabeer, Manohar Khanna, Meerabai, Moti B A, Mulk Raj Bhakri, Munishi Sham, Munshi Sagar Hussain, Nakshab Jarachavi, Narendra Sharma, Nawaz, Nazeem Panipati, Neelkant Tiwari, Noor Devasi, Nyay Sharma, Om Prakash, P L Santoshi, Praful Desai, Pratap, Prem Dhawan, Premi, Pt Gaafil, Pt Indra, Pt Madhur, Pt Mukhram Sharma, Qamar Jalalabadi, R C Pandey, Rafiq, Raja Mehndi Ali Khan, Rajendra Krishan, Rajesh Kumar, Ram Moorthy, Ramesh Gupta, Ramesh Pandey, Ramesh Shastri, Randheer, S Raazi-ud-Din, S H Bihari, S K Deepak, S P Kalla, S R Saj, S Ratan, S. Kashyap, Saajan Bihari, Saba Afghani, Safdar Aah Sitapuri, Sagar Badayuni, Sahir Ludhianvi, Sajan Bihari, Saliq Lakhnavi, Shailendra, Shaili Shailendra, Shakeel Badayuni, Shakeel Nomani, Shams Azeemabaadi, Sharshar Sailani, Shewan Rizvi, Shola Kahaamavi, Shyam Hindi, Surdas, Suresh Tripathi, Taaba Jhansvi, Tajdar Taj, Tanvir Naqvi, Tejnath Jhar, Uddhav Kumar, Verma Malik, Vidyapati, Vinay Kumar, Vishwamitra Adil, Vrajendra Goud, Waheed Qureshi, Wali Sahab, Yogesh Gaud, Zia Sarhadi

Naturally, when Geeta Roy put life into the lyrics of so many eminent lyricists, her list of music directors is equally long or longer too. Included among these melody makers are: Amal Mukherjee, Anal Chattopadhyay, Anil Bagchi, A R Qureshi, Ali Akbar Khan, Aadil – Ahmed, Amal Mukherjee, Anil Biswas, Arunkumar Mukherjee, Avinash Vyas, Aziz khan,B N Bali, B S Kalla, Basant Prakash, Bhola Shrestha, Binod Chattopadhyay, Bipin Babul, Bipin Dutta, Bulo C Rani, C Arjun, C Ramachandra, Chick Chocklet (A.X. Vaz), Chitragupt, Daan Singh, Datta Davjekar, Dattaram Gadekar, Datta Korgaonkar (K Dutta), Dattaram, Devraj, Dhaniram, D Dileep (Dileep Dholakia), D C Dutt, E.Shankar Shastri & B. S. Kalla, G K Venkatesh, G N Joshi, G S Kohli, Ganpat Rao, Ghantasala, Ghulam Haider, Ghulam Mohammed, Gunjan (G M Durrani), Gyan Dutt, Hafeez Khan, Hansraj Behl,Hanuman Prasad, Hemant kumar, Hiren Bose, Husnalal Bhagatram, Inayat Ali, Iqbal, Iqbal Qureshi, Jagmohan "Sursaagar," Jag phool kaushik, Jaidev, Jamal Sen, Jimmy, Kalyanji Anandji, Kanu Ghosh, Kanu Roy, Khaiyyam, Khemchand Prakash, Khurshid Anwar, Krishna Dayal, Kumar, Lachhiram Tamar, M A Rouf, Madan Mohan, Manna Dey, Manohar, Mohan Sharma, Mukul Roy, Nachiketa Ghosh, Narayan, N Dutta, Naashad "Shaukat Dehelvi," Naushad Ali, Neenu Majumdar, Nikhil Ghosh, Nirmal Chakraborty, Nissar Bazmi, O P Nayyar, P Nageshwar rao, Pandit Govindram, Pandit Harbanslal, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pankaj Mullik, Pardesi, Premnath, R Sudarshanam (with Dhaniram), Rajhans, Ram Ganguly, Ram Prasad, Ramesh Naidu, Ratnadeep Hemaraj, Ravi, Robin Banerjee, Robin Chatterjee, Roshan Lal, S D Batish, S D Burman, S K Pal, S Madan, S Mohinder, S N Tripathi, S Rajeshwara Rao, Sailesh Mukherjee, Sajjad Husain, Salil Choudhary, Sanmukh Babu, Sardar Malik, Sardul Kwatra, Shankar Jaikishen, Shankar Lal, Sharmaji Vermaji [khaiyyaam and rahman verma] Shivram Krishna, Shyam Babu Pathak, Shyam Sunder, Shyam Sharma, Snehal Bhatkar (B Vasudev), Sonik, Subir Sen, Sudipta, Sudhin Dasgupta, Sudhirlal Chakraborty, Suhrid Kar, Suresh Talwar, Sushant Banerjee, Swapan Jagmohan, Timir Baran and S K Pal, Usha Khanna, V. Balsara, Vasant Desai, Vasant Ramchandra, Vinod, Vishwanathan-Ramamurthy, and Zafar khursheed.

Leaving the matter to the expert statisticians and annotationists as far as the names of all the lyricists and music directors and the total number of songs of Geeta Roy are concerned, but nevertheless, by looking at the above lists of the artistes, it becomes abundantly manifest that Geeta Roy emerges as one of the greatest female playback singers of Bollywood.

We can imagine the impact of Geeta Roy on the music lovers during 1946-1949 and right up to our own days. Let's dwell on just one of the songs of Geeta Roy in Do Bhai. One thing is certain! Just as the lone novel, Wurthering Heights, has ensured Emile Bronte's name for ever in the Hall of Fame of literary geniuses, similarly Geeta Roy's songs in Do Bhai are enough to perpetuate the memory of her singing genius and ensuring her name among the great playback singers of the sub-continent of India and Pakistan and elsewhere. Only the most hardened hearts would remain unmoved by her rendition of MERAA SUNDAR SAPNA BEET GAYAA. It was simply amazing to find such pathos, such sweetness, such emotions in a young girl of sixteen years. It is rendered in the style of someone who has been weeping and crying and while suppressing the rising pain of the heart she has been made to sing and announce to the world her sad tale of woes and suffering. What makes the song more poignant is that it sounds as if Geeta Roy with all her tragic emotions is predicting about herself: MERI PREM KAHAANI KHATM HOYEE MERE JEEVAN KA SANGEET GAYAA..., AANKHEN ASUWAN MEIN DOOB GAYEEN HANSNE KA ZAMAANAA BEET GAYAA..... IS JEEVAN KO AB AAG LAGE..MUJHE CHHOD KE JEEVAN MEETH GAYAA...MAIN PREM MEIN SAB KUCHH HAAR GAYEE...BEDARD ZAMAANA JEET GAYA.... MERA SUNDAR SAPNA BEET GAAYA. Sigh! Listen to how she renders various lines of the song, stressing on the E syllables. If one takes into consideration the raw youth of Geeta Roy and her unrestrained melody and pathos, it appears to me that this song is more powerful than the one she was to sing a decade later under the same music director in Pyaasa (1957): AAJ SAJAN MOHE ANG LAGAA LO...or WAQT NE KIYAA KYAA HASEEN SITAM in Kaaghaz Ke Phool (1959). It's no wonder then that S.D. Burman gave her six of the nine songs to sing for Do Bhai. As early as 1947, she had more than fulfilled the criteria that came to be set up later by Anil Biswas for an attractive voice, namely, clarity, "huskiness, sex and bass". The "Bangal Ka Jadoo" had arrived! Little wonder then, that Asha Bhonsle was greatly influenced by the sex appeal in Geeta Roy's voice, and it is this voice she made the most of and which became her identity in later part of her career once she came out of the shadows of Lata Mangeshkar. No doubt, the amazing renditions zoomed Geeta Roy's career. The sterling fact also remains that after Do Bhai S.D. Burman too never looked back – thanks to his conviction and choice of Geeta Roy for the movie.

During her early career, Geeta Roy was one female who faced the stiffest competition in the field of playback singing. Imagine the ruling queeen Noor Jahan on one hand. Then take the chocolate charmer Suraiya on the other. Then the established female singers such as Parul Ghosh, Lalita Dewulkar, Amirbai Karnataki, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Shamshad Begum to name just a few. At that juncture, Lata Mangeshkar could not be even conceived as a competition at all what with her rejections at recording studios for "shrill" voice. The Filmistan that had rejected Lata Mangeshkar in Shaheed (1948) could not reject Geeta Roy after striking a deal with S.D. Burman that they would retain her only after hearing the result of her recorded song. The song was HAMEIN CHHOD PIYA KIS DESH GAYE. She got six out of the nine songs in Do Bhai as we saw earlier. Certainly she had not much of a musical training as others to boast of. What was her forte? Geeta's was the most original singing voice. Besides, she made no efforts to adapt her style of singing to the established icons such as Noor Jahan as Lata Mangeshkar did. Nor even to the celebrated "Roy“ Jhutika Roy, known as the "Modern Meera".

Unfortunately, Geeta Roy came to be slotted as the singer of weepy songs and Bhajans for no fault of her own. This was reinforced by her songs in Jogan (1950) which was a high-profile movie starring Dilip Kumar and Nargis and which had an unusual love story ever. Geeta Roy had such haunting songs as MAT JA MAT JA JOGI; AY RI MAIN TOH PREM DIWAANI; and GHUNGAT KE PATT KHOL RE, among others that were filmed on Nargis. These were the hot favourites on the ubiquitous radio and I distinctly remember hearing them time and again as a child in the Fifties and it's from those memories only that I could muster courage to write about Geeta.

Surely, the seriousness and melancholy were there in Geeta Roy even when she had stepped into her teens. One would easily distinguish them if one were to peep into her solemn eyes. These came to be reflected in her songs. But her heart concealed the surging tides of youth and ebullience and these too are found in abundance in her songs. So when things settled down in the Fifties, Geeta Roy was to prove to the world how bubbly, how naughty, how sexy and cool her voice could be! This is what O.P. Nayyar made the most of her voice in his lilting numbers in the Fifties.

She was adept in all genres and with her flair for picking up languages, she glided through from the Bangla or Gujarati or any regional languages to the Urdu-Hindi lyrics or even the Braj Bhasha with ease. But she used Bengali script for those songs as proved by her numerous booklets. The best thing was that she was confident enough of her own abilities as the singer and never caused any obstructions in the career of her rivals and competitors. She was one of the very few film personalities or singers who never indulged in petty politics. She was friendly and got along well with everyone around.

The Nineteen Forties were her most prolific period considering the average of the total number of her songs divided by the number of years. Here was a new star on the singing horizon. The tragedy of Geeta Dutt, her early death, her beautiful looks as well as her humility have all combined together to make her songs immortal for the generations to come. To think of it, Geeta Dutt could have been a numero uno female playback singer. However, the fate conspired to cheat Geeta Roy from attaining that position. How that happened, is the subject-matter of the decades following the Nineteen Forties.

Geetaji, you sang MUJHE JAA.N NA KAHO MEREE JAA.N....(Anubhav - 1971) Who wouldn't call you "Jaan" after hearing you? You are the darling of the nation, nay the whole world! As we are celebrating your birth anniversary, our hearts feel heavy and dull at the thought of your physical absence. But we do know that spiritually you are present through your songs among the millions of your fans all over the globe for all times to come! http://www.geetadutt.com/impact.html.

Personal life

During Geeta's recording of songs for the movie Baazi, she met the movie's young and upcoming director, Guru Dutt. Their romance culminated in marriage on 26 May 1953. Geeta went on to sing some of her best songs in his movies while continuing to sing in various other assignments as well.

Geeta and Guru Dutt had three children: Tarun (b. 1954), Arun (b. 1956), and Ninā (b. 1962).

In 1957, Guru Dutt launched a movie, "Gauri",' with Geeta as its singing star. It was to be India's first movie in Cinemascope, but the project was shelved after only a few days of shooting. By then, their marriage was on the rocks, Guru Dutt had got romantically involved with Waheedā Rehmān, and Geeta had taken to drinking. The breakup of their marriage affected Geeta's singing career.

In 1958, S.D. Burman had developed discord with Lata Mangeshkar as a playback singer, and he attempted to work with Geeta as the main singer of his compositions rather than the upcoming Asha Bhosle, who, he felt, was relatively raw. However, out of her personal problems, Geeta would not practice her art sufficiently, and failed to meet Burman's demanding standards. (He, and O.P. Nayyar too, then started to work with Asha and helped her blossom as a singer.)

In 1964, Guru Dutt died from a combination of alcohol and an overdose of sleeping pills. (His death was widely perceived as a suicide following two earlier attempts.) Geeta then suffered a serious nervous breakdown, and also ran into financial problems. She tried to resume her singing career, cutting discs at Durgā Pujā, and giving stage shows. She also performed in a leading role in a Bengali movie, Bhadu Bharan (1967), and sang admirably for a movie, Anubhav (1971), which turned out to her final performance to the music of Kanu Roy.

Death

Geeta died of cirrhosis of the liver on 20 July 1972.

A list of notable songs

She is supposed to have sung over 1200 songs in Hindi films. In addition she has also sung songs in many Indian regional languages including Marathi, Bengali, Nepali, Maithili, Bhojpuri and Punjabi.

Some of the memorable songs sung under S.D. Burman's direction :

'Mera sundar sapna beet gaya' (Do Bhai - 1947 )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE7sM_79bp0&feature;=search

'Woh sapnewaali raat' (Pyaar - 1950 )

'Tadbir se bigdi hui taqdeer' (Baazi - 1951 )

'Aan milo aan milo' (Devdas - 1955 ) with Manna Dey

'Aaj sajan mohe ang lagalo' (Pyaasa - 1957 )

'Hum Aapke Aankhon Main' (Pyaasa - 1957 )

'Hawa dhire aana' (Sujata - 1959 )

'Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam ' (Kaagaz Ke Phool - 1959 )

Some of the memorable songs sung under O.P. Nayyar's direction :

'Zara saamne aa' (Baaz - 1953 )

'Babuji dhire chalna' (Aar Paar - 1954 )

'Thandi hawa kali ghata' (Mr. & Mrs. '55 - 1955 )

'jaane kahan mera jigar gaya ji' (Mr. & Mrs. '55 - 1955 )

'Jab badal lehraya' (Chchoomantar - 1956 )

'Mere zindagi ke humsafar' (Shrimati 420 - 1956 )

'Jaata kahan hai' (C.I.D. - 1956)

'Aye Dil Hain Mushkil' (aka 'Bombay Meri Jaan') (C.I.D. - 1956), with Mohammed Rafi

'Chor, lutere, daku'( Ustad - 1957 )

'Mera naam chin chin choo' (Howrah Bridge - 1958 )

'Kaisa jadoo balam tune dara' (12 o'clock - 1958 )

Some of the memorable songs sung under Hemant Kumar's direction

Na Jaao Saiyaan Chhuda Ke Baiyaan (Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam - 1962 )

Kaise Rokoge Aise Toofan Ko (Anandmath - 1952 ) with Talat Mehmood

Madbhari Hain Pyar Ki Palken (Fashion - 1957 )

Na Yeh Chand Hoga (Shart - 1954)

Piya Aiso Jiya mein Samaye Gayo (Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam - 1962 )

Chale Aao Chale Aao (Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam - 1962 )

Others

Mujhe Jaan Na Kaho Mer Jaan (Anubhav - 1971) Music: Kanu Roy

Some memorable Bengali songs :

'Shachimata go char juge hai' (1950)

'Ekhan-o dustar lajja' (1952)

'Ei Sundar Swarnali Sandhyay' (Hospital, 1960; Music: Amal Mukherjee)

'Katha achhe tumi aj asbe (Kanu Ghosh 1960)

'Ei Mayabi Tithi' (Shonar Horin, 1959; Music: Hemant Mukherjee)

'Tumi Je Amar' (Harano Sur, 1958; Music: Hemant Kumar)

'Nishiraat Banka Chand Aakashe' (Prithibi Aamare Chaay, 1957; Music: Nachiketa Ghosh)

'Jhanak Jhanak Kanak Kankan baaje'

References

External links

Listen some selected songs by Geeta Dutt

Category:1930 births Category:1972 deaths Category:Deaths from cirrhosis Category:Indian female singers Category:Indian actors Category:Indian film singers Category:Faridpur District Category:Bollywood playback singers Category:Bengali musicians

Name	Mohammed Rafi
Background	solo_singer
Born	December 24, 1924 Kotla Sultan Singh, Punjab, British India
Died	July 31, 1980 Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Origin	Indian
Instrument	Vocalist
Genre	Indian classical, ghazal, playback singing
Occupation	Hindi and regional playback singer
Years active	1944–1980

Mohammed Rafi (, }}; December 24, 1924 – July 31, 1980), was an Indian playback singer whose career spanned four decades. He won 5 National Awards and 6 Filmfare Awards. In 1967, he was honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

In a career spanning about 40 years, Rafi sang over 26,000 film songs. His songs ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs, sad lamentations to highly romantic numbers, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans, and from slow melancholic tunes to fast fun filled songs. He had a strong command of Hindi and Urdu and a powerful range that could accommodate this variety. He sang in many Indian languages including Hindi, Konkani, Urdu, Bhojpuri, Oriya, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, Maghi, Maithili and Assamese. He also recorded a few English, Persian, Spanish and Dutch songs.

An article in Times of India, published on July 24, 2010 sums up his voice as, "If there are 101 ways of saying "I love you" in a song, Mohammed Rafi knew them all. The awkwardness of puppy love, the friskiness of teen romance, the philosophy of unrequited love and the anguish of heartbreak - he could explore every crevice of ardour. It wasn't just love, his voice could capture the navras of life - a failed poet's melancholy, a fiery unionist's vim, a debt-ridden farmer's despair, really anybody at all.Rafi, whose career spanned nearly four decades, was a singer for every season and every reason."

Early years and background

Mohammed Rafi was born the youngest of six sons of Hajji Ali Mohammad at Kotla Sultan Singh, a village near Amritsar in Punjab (British India). Rafi, whose nickname was Pheeko, started singing by imitating chants of a fakir in his village. It was his brother-in-law Mohammed Hameed who spotted the talent in Rafi and encouraged him. Rafi learnt classical music from Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Pandit Jiwanlal Matto and Firoze Nizami.

Rafi's first public performance came at the age of 13, when he was allowed to sing at a concert featuring K. L. Saigal. In that same year, Rafi was invited by All India Radio Lahore station to sing for them. He made his professional debut in the Shyam Sunder-directed 1941 film Gul Baloch and the Bombay film, Gaon Ki Gauri, the following year.

Rafi also did brief roles in movies like Laila-Majnu (1945) and Jugnu. In Laila-Majnu, he was seen singing ‘tera jalwa’ as a part of the chorus.

Advent in Bombay

In 1944, Rafi moved to Bombay (now Mumbai),The brothers took up a ten-by-ten-feet room in the crowded downtown Bhendi Bazar area. Here poet Tanvir Naqvi introduced him to some of film producers including Abdur Rashid Kardar, Mehboob Khan and actor-director Nazeer.

In 1948, after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the team of Husanlal Bhagatram-Rajendra Krishan-Rafi had overnight created the song ‘Suno suno ae duniyawalon, Bapuji ki amar kahani…’. and "Khabar Kisi ko Nahiin, woh kidhar Dekhte (Beqasoor, 1950), etc.

Recording career

He associated with many music directors of his time, most notably Naushad. In the late 1950s and 1960s, Rafi worked with other composers of the era such as O. P. Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishan and S.D. Burman.

Association with Naushad

As per Naushad, Rafi came to him with a letter of recommendation from Naushad's father. Rafi’s first song for Naushad was "Hindustan ke hum hain" ("We belong to Hindustan") for the film Pehle Aap in 1944. The first song for the duo was the soundtrack of the movie Anmol Ghadi (1946). Before Rafi, Naushad’s favorite singer was Talat Mahmood. Once Naushad found Talat smoking during a recording. He was annoyed and hired Rafi to sing all the songs of the movie Baiju Bawra.

Rafi's association with Naushad helped the former establish himself as one of the most prominent playback singers in Hindi Cinema.

Association with S D Burman

S. D. Burman patronized Rafi as the singing voice of Dev Anand and Guru Dutt. Rafi worked with Burman in movies like Pyaasa (1957), Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Tere Ghar ke Saamne (1962), Guide (1965), Aradhana (1969), and Abhimaan (1973). S. D. Burman was also another music director besides Naushad who used Rafi prolifically to sing for most of his songs.

Association with Shankar-Jaikishan

Rafi and Shankar Jaikishan was a partnership in the Hindi film industry. Under Shankar-Jaikishan, Rafi produced some of his songs for actors like Shammi Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar. Out of six Filmfare awards, Rafi won three for S-J songs, viz., "Teri pyari pyari soorat ko", "Baharon phool barsao", and "Dil ke jharokhe mein". The song "Yahoo! Chahe koi mujhe junglee kahe" was sung by Rafi, only to be matched a fast-paced orchestra and a composition by Shankar Jaikishan. S-J made Rafi give playback for Kishore Kumar in the film Shararat ("Ajab hai daastan teri yeh zindagi"). Rafi sang a total of 341 numbers (216 solo) for Shankar-Jaikishan.

Ravi and Rafi produced several other songs, in the films China Town (1962), Kaajal (1965), and Do Badan (1966).

Association with Madan Mohan

Madan Mohan was another composer whose favorite singer was Rafi. Rafi's first solo with Madan Mohan in Ankhen (1950), "Hum ishq mein barbad hain barbad rahenge". The song "Jawaaniyan yeh mast mast" and the title song "Yun to humne lakh hansee dekhe hain, tumsa nahin dekha" of the film Tumsa Nahin Dekha. They were followed by songs like "Taareef karoon kya uski jisne tumhe banaya" from Kashmir ki Kali.

Association with Laxmikant-Pyarelal

The composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal (L-P) also patronized Rafi as one of their singers, right from their very first film, Parasmani (1963). Both Rafi and L-P won the Filmfare Awards for the song "Chahoonga main tujhe saanjh savere" from Dosti (1964). Rafi sang a total of 369 numbers (186 solo) for L-P. He sang for many male stars in Hindi films. In 1965, he was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Sri award. Rafi recorded two Hindi songs in English on 7" release in 1968. He also sang a song in Creole while on his visit to Mauritius in the late 1960s. Later, at the insistence of S. D. Burman, the two decided to reconcile and sing duets.

Guiness World Records

During his last years, Rafi was involved in a controversy over Lata Mangeshkar's introduction in to the Guinness Book of World Records. In a letter dated June 11, 1977 to the Guinness Book of World Records, Rafi had challenged the claim that Lata Mangeshkar has recorded the maximum number of songs ("not less than 25,000" according to Guinness). After receiving a reply from Guinness, in a letter dated November 20, 1979, he wrote: "I am disappointed that my request for a reassessment vis-a-vis Ms Mangeshkar's reported world record has gone unheeded.".

In an interview to BBC recorded in Nov 1977, Rafi claimed to have sung 25,000 to 26,000 songs till then. According to the available figures, Rafi has sung 4,516 Hindi film songs, 112 non-Hindi film songs, and 328 private (non-film) songs from 1945 to 1980.

At the same period Kishore Kumar's popularity increased due to the songs he sang, controversially, for the film Aradhana in Mohd Rafi`s absence during Rafi's Hajj pilgrimage in 1969. The music for Aradhana was composed by S. D. Burman, and he had used Rafi as the male playback voice for the first two recorded duets, "Baaghon Mein Bahaar Hai" and "Gunguna Rahen Hain Bhanwre". Some of Rafi's songs of the early 1970s were with music directors like Laxmikant Pyarelal, Madan Mohan, R. D. Burman and S. D. Burman. These include "Tum mujhe Yun Bhula na Paoge" (a signature song of Rafi in 1971) from Pagla Kahin Ka, "Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil" from Heer Ranjha (1970), "Jhilmil Sitaron ka" from Jeevan Mrityu (a duet with Lata Mangeshkar, 1970), "Gulabi Aankhen" from The Train (1970), "Yeh Jo Chilman Hain" and "Itna to Yaad Hain Mujhe" from Mehboob Ki Mehndi (1971), "Mera mann tera pyasa" Gambler, "Chalo Dildar Chalo" from 1972 released Pakeezah, "Chura Liya Hain Tumne" from Yaadon Ki Baarat (a duet with Asha Bhosle, 1973), "Na tu Zameen Ke liye" from 1973 released Dilip Kumar movie Dastan, "Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho" from Hanste Zakhm (1973), "teri bindiya re", from Abhimaan(1973) and "Aaj mausam bada beimaan hai" from Loafer (1973).

Later years

Rafi made a comeback as a leading singer in the mid-1970s. In 1974, he won the Film World magazine Best Singer Award for the song "Teree Galiyon Mein Na Rakhenge Qadam Aaj Ke Baad" (Hawas, 1974) composed by Usha Khanna. His last song was "Shaam phir kyun udaas hai dost" (Aas Paas), which he had recorded with Laxmikant-Pyarelal few hours before his death. He was survived by four sons (Saeed Rafi, Khalid Rafi, Hamid Rafi, Shahid Rafi), three daughters (Parveen, Nasreen, Yasmin) and 18 grandchildren.

Rafi was buried at the Juhu Muslim cemetery. It was one of the biggest funeral processions Mumbai had ever witnessed, with over 10,000 people attending.

In 2010, his tomb was demolished to make space for new bodies. Fans of Mohammed Rafi who arrive twice a year at his tomb, on December 24 and July 31, to mark his birth and death anniversary, use the coconut tree nearest to his grave as a marker.

He was a teetotaller, a highly religious and extremely humble person. He was a devout Muslim. Once, when a lesser-known composer Nisar Bazmi (who had migrated from Pakistan) didn’t have enough money to pay him, Rafi charged a fee of one rupee and sang for him. He also helped producers financially. As Laxmikant (of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo) once observed – “He always gave without thinking of the returns”.

Legacy

The government of India announced a two-day public holiday on his death, honouring him.

Rafi's song from the film Gumnaam (1965), "Jaan Pehechan Ho", was used on the soundtrack of Ghost World (2001). The film opens with the lead character dancing around in her bedroom to a video of Gumnaam.

His "Aaj Mausam Bada Beiman Hai" is featured in the 2001 film Monsoon Wedding.

His song "Mera Man Tera Pyasa" (Gambler, 1970) has been used as one of the soundtracks in the Jim Carrey-Kate Winslet starrer Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). This song is played in the background in Kate Winslet's character's home while the lead pair are having a drink - at approx 00.11.14 runtime.

Several of Rafi's unreleased songs will be used for an upcoming film titled Sorry Madam.

A documentary about Rafi’s life is under production by The Films Division of India.

In the summer of 2008, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra released a double CD entitled Rafi Resurrected comprising 16 songs by Rafi. Bollywood playback singer Sonu Nigam provided the vocals for this project and toured with the CBSO in July 2008 at venues including the English National Opera in London, Manchester's Apollo Theatre and Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

The Padma Shri Mohammed Rafi Chowk in the Bandra suburb of Mumbai and Pune (extending MG Road) is named after Rafi. The same Poll voted "Man re, tu kahe na Dheer Dhare" (Chitralekha, 1964), sung by Rafi as the #1 song. Three songs tied up for the #2 place and two of them were sung by Rafi. The songs were "Tere Mere Sapne Ab Ek Rang Hain" (Guide, 1965) and "Din Dhal Jaye, hai raat na jaye" (Guide, 1965).

This poll was published in Outlook Magazine, the jury of which included many people in the Indian music industry; Abhijeet, Adesh Srivastava, Alisha Chinai, Anu Malik, Ehsaan, Gulzar, Hariharan, Himesh Reshammiya, Jatin, Javed Akhtar, Kailash Kher, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Khayyam, Kumar Sanu, Lalit, Loy, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Mahendra Kapoor, Manna Dey, Prasoon Joshi, Rajesh Roshan, Sadhna Sargam, Sameer, Sandesh Shandilya, Shaan, Shankar, Shantanu Moitra, Shreya Ghoshal, Sonu Nigam and Talat Aziz.

In an article in Times of India, Rafi is described as "a versatile singer, who could render classical, rock and roll, indeed any kind of song with ease, he was Hindi film's favourite male voice through the 1950s and 1960s". Music director Rajesh Roshan, who composed some of the songs with Rafi, remembers him as "a warm-hearted simple person with no ego".

Music lovers have appealed to the Government of India to honour the singer, posthumously, with Bharat Ratna (India's Highest Civilian Award)

Veteran actor Shammi Kapoor said, "I am incomplete without Mohammad Rafi. I used to often go for the recoding of my song, which was sung by Mohammad Rafi, only because I used to like telling him how I would perform on this song on screen so that he can sing it that way. Even he liked my involvement".

On September 22, 2007, a shrine to Rafi designed by artist Tasawar Bashir was unveiled on Fazeley Street, Birmingham, UK. Bashir is hoping that Rafi will attain sainthood as a result.

Singers like Shabbir Kumar, Mohammed Aziz and, more recently, Sonu Nigam, who made a name by adopting his style, perhaps owe their entire careers to Rafi.

After his death, seven Hindi movies have been dedicated to Mohd Rafi; Allah Rakha, Mard, Coolie, Desh-Premee, Naseeb, Aas-Paas and Heeralal-Pannalal.

Personal life

In 1945, Rafi married his cousin Bilquis, in his village. He was very much a family man, following a recording-room to home to recording-room itenerary. He never attended filmy parties, did not smoke or drink. He used to perform his riyaz (musical practise) from 3 AM to 7 AM without fail. His only indulgences were playing carom and badminton and flying kites. Rafi has rendered the maximum number of songs for the music director duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal—a total of 369 numbers, 186 of them being solos. The song “ajab hai dasta teri ae zindagi…” was first given to Kishore Kumar to sing and he sung the first half of antara but in the second half, he faced some trouble and after many retakes, he was unable to give the effect that Shankar Jaikishan wanted, and finally the song was given to Rafi to sing. A man, sentenced to be hanged until dead, was asked what his last wish was. The man asks that he be allowed to listen to “O duniya ke rakhwale, sun dard bare mere naale; jeewan apna wapas lele, jeewan dene wale“. During a concert in Raipur with Shankar-Jaikishan, the audience kept on demanding "once more".. Even the musicians in the orchestra were tired. Finally, Rafi sang five songs with just Harmonium as a musical instrument. Then, he sang the National Anthem In the earlier years, Filmare used to have only One Best Singer Award (no distinction between a male or female singer). Rafi won it six times.

Awards

; Honorary 1948 - Rafi received a silver medal from the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, on the first anniversary of the Indian Independence Day. | "Chahunga Main Tujhe" | Dosti | Laxmikant-Pyarelal | Majrooh Sultanpuri |- | 1966 | "Babul Ki Duaae " | Neel Kamal | Bombay Ravi | Sahir Ludhianvi |- | 1977 Winner: {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Song ! Film ! Music director ! Lyricist |- | 1960 | "Chaudhvin Ka Chand Ho" | Chaudhvin Ka Chand | Bombay Ravi | Shakeel Badayuni |- | 1961 | "Teri Pyaari Pyaari Surat Ko" | Sasural | Shankar Jaikishan | Shailendra |- | 1964 | "Chahunga Main Tujhe" | Dosti | Laxmikant-Pyarelal | Majrooh Sultanpuri |- | 1966 | "Baharo Phool Barsao" | Suraj | Shankar Jaikishan | Shailendra |- | 1968 | "Dil Ke Jharoke Mein" | Brahmachari | Shankar Jaikishan | Shailendra |- | 1977 | "Kya Hua Tera Wada" | Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin | Rahul Dev Burman | Majrooh Sultanpuri |}

Nominated: | Dosti | Laxmikant Pyarelal | Majrooh Sultanpuri |- | 1966 | Arzoo | Shankar Jaikishan | Hasrat Jaipuri |}

;Sur Sringar Award

Winner {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Film ! Music director ! Lyricist |- | 1964 | Chitralekha | Roshan | Sahir Ludhyanvi |}

References

External links

Mohammed Rafi at the Internet Movie Database

Category:1924 births Category:1980 deaths Category:Bollywood playback singers Category:Indian film singers Category:Indian Muslims Category:People from Amritsar Category:Indian male singers Category:Filmfare Awards winners Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri Category:Punjabi people Category:Indian musicians Category:Indian singers Category:People from Mumbai Category:Marathi-language singers

Name	Guru Dutt
Birthname	Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone
Birthdate	9 July 1925
Birth place	Bangalore, Princely State of Mysore, India
Deathdate	10 October 1964
Deathplace	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Yearsactive	1944–1964
Deathdate	October 10, 1964
Occupation	Actor, Producer, Director, Choreographer
Spouse	Geeta Dutt (1953–1964) (His Death)

Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone (Konkani: वसंत कुमार शिवशंकर पडुकोण) (9 July 1925 – 10 October 1964), popularly known as Guru Dutt was an Indian film director, producer and actor. He is often credited with ushering in the golden era of Hindi cinema. He made quintessential 1950s and 1960s classics such as Pyaasa (Thirsty), Kaagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (The King, the Queen and the Jack) and Chaudhvin Ka Chand (The Fourteenth Day Moon). In particular, Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool are now included among the greatest films of all time, both by Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies In 2010, he has been named the list of CNN's "top 25 Asian actors of all time".

He is most famous for making lyrical and artistic films within the context of popular Hindi cinema of the 1950s, and expanding its commercial conventions, starting with his 1957 film, Pyaasa. Several of his later works have a cult following. His movies go full house when re-released; especially in Germany, France and Japan. The latest book on him is Ten Years with Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvi's Journey by Sathya Saran based on the recollections of his chief scriptwriter and friend.

Early life and background

Guru Dutt was born to Shivashanker Rao Padukone and Vasanthi Padukone. His parents were Konkani speaking Chitrapur Saraswats, originally settled at Panambur, a village in South Kanara district of present day state Karnataka (then Madras Province). His father was initially a headmaster, and then a bank employee. His mother Vasanthi, while initially a housewife, later taught in a school, gave private tuition and also wrote short stories and translated Bengali novels into Kannada. Vasanthi was only 16 when Guru Dutt was born.

Guru Dutt had a tough childhood with financial difficulties, and a strained relationship between his parents. As a child he had some bad experiences; the hostility from his maternal uncle's family, a frightening encounter with his insane maternal adopted uncle, and the death of his seven-month old brother (Shashidhar).

Guru Dutt was initially named Vasanth Kumar at birth at the suggestion of his mother's elder brother, but after a childhood accident, he was renamed Guru Dutt, which was felt to be a more auspicious name. He was joined by three younger brothers, Atmaram, Devidas and Vijay and a younger sister, Lalitha. The Indian film director, Kalpana Lajmi, is his sister's daughter.

He spent a great deal of time with his mother's cousin, Balakrishna B. Benegal (known to the family as Bakutmama) who was a painter of cinema posters. The Indian film director, Shyam Benegal, is the son of Sridhar B. Benegal, Balakrishna's younger brother.

Bengali connection

Guru Dutt's father was initially a headmaster at Panambur and later a bank employee at Bangalore. He moved jobs to work as an administrative clerk at the Burmah Shell company and began living at Bhawanipore in Calcutta, where Guru Dutt finished his schooling. Hence, Guru Dutt spoke fluent Bengali, and carried a distinct stamp of Bengali culture in his work . Later, when he moved to Bombay (now called Mumbai) in the 1940s, he dropped the Shivashankar Padukone part of his name, and was known simply as Guru Dutt. Because Dutt is a common Bengali last name, many people assumed that he was a Bengali.

Early Inspirations

His sister recalls that at age 14 Guru Dutt would use his fingers to shape images on a wall lit up by the flickering light of their grandmother’s diya (candle) as she performed the evening arathi (prayer). Though untrained, he could produce inspired movements as he did when he persuaded his uncle, Benegal, to photograph him performing a snake dance, based on a painting by the latter. The snake dance was later performed at a gathering of Saraswat Brahmins at Calcutta for which Guru Dutt was even given a cash prize of 5 Rupees.

He was a good student, but never went to college, partly because of financial troubles at home. Instead, he joined the performing arts troupe of Uday Shankar, the older brother of the better-known Ravi Shankar.

The Uday Shankar India Culture Center at Almora taught dance, drama, and music. It aimed at combining the best of the Gurukula system with a modern Arts University, and tried to turn out well-rounded students, at home in many disciplines. A young Guru Dutt joined the center at age 16 in 1941 on a five-year scholarship of Rs. 75 annually (a lot of money then), and studied at Almora until 1944, when the advancing World War II forced the closing of the center.

Career

Early career

Guru Dutt wired home to say he had got the job of a telephone operator at a Lever Brothers factory in Kolkata. But soon he disengaged himself from the job, and joined his parents in Mumbai in 1944.

However, his uncle found him a job under a three-year contract with the Prabhat Film Company in Pune (then called Poona) in 1944. This once premier film producing centre had already seen the departure of its best talent, V. Shantaram, who had by then launched his own Kala Mandir. It is here that Guru Dutt met two people who would remain his good friends - actors Rehman and Dev Anand.

Guru Dutt acted in a small role as Sri Krishna in Chand in 1944. In 1945, he acted as well as assisted director Vishram Bedekar in Lakhrani, and in 1946 he worked as an assistant director and choreographed dances for P. L. Santoshi’s film, Hum Ek Hain.

This contract ended in 1947, but his mother got him a job as a freelance assistant with Baburao Pai, the CEO of the Prabhat Film Company and Studio. However, after that, for almost ten months, Guru Dutt was unemployed and stayed with his family at Matunga, Mumbai. During this time, Guru Dutt developed a flair for writing in English, and wrote short stories for The Illustrated Weekly of India, a local weekly English magazine.

It is during this time that he is supposed to have written the script for the almost autobiographical Pyaasa (). Its original name was Kashmakash (), which was changed later to Pyaasa and was written at his home in Matunga.

It is in this phase of his life that Guru Dutt was almost married twice! The first time he eloped with a girl called Vijaya from Pune, and later his parents had him almost married to his maternal niece, Suvarna, from Hyderabad.

As choreographer, actor, assistant director

While Guru Dutt was hired by Prabhat Film Company as a choreographer, he was soon pressed into service as an actor, and even as an assistant director. At Prabhat, he met Dev Anand and Rehman, who both became stars. These early friendships helped ease his way into the film world.

After Prabhat failed in 1947, Dutt moved to Mumbai, where he worked with two leading directors of the time, with Amiya Chakravarty in Girl's School, and with Gyan Mukherjee in the Bombay Talkies film Sangram. Then, Dev Anand offered him a job as a director in his new company, Navketan, after the first movie had flopped.

Thus, Guru Dutt's first film, Navketan's Baazi, was released in 1951 . It was a tribute to the Forties' Film Noir Hollywood with the morally ambiguous hero, the transgressing siren, and shadow lighting.

Dev Anand and Guru Dutt's promise

There exists a very interesting anecdote behind this new job. Guru Dutt and Dev Anand used the services of the same laundry man when they were at Prabhat in Pune in 1945. One day Anand found that one of his shirts had been replaced with a different one. On arriving at work as the hero of Hum Ek Hain, he found the film's young choreographer (Guru Dutt) wearing his shirt. On being questioned, Guru Dutt admitted that it was not his shirt, but since he had no other, he was wearing the replacement. This developed into a great friendship, since they were of the same age. They promised each other that, if Guru Dutt were to turn filmmaker, he would hire Anand as his hero, and if Dev were to produce a film then he would use Guru Dutt as its director.

Dev Anand fulfilled his end of the bargain with Baazi, but still regrets that his friend Guru Dutt did not. Guru Dutt indirectly did fulfill his promise. His studio, Guru Dutt Movies Pvt. Ltd., produced "C.I.D." which starred Dev, but the film was directed by Raj Khosla (an assistant director to Guru Dutt). Thus, technically, Guru Dutt never directed Dev Anand under his production company.

Guru Dutt and Dev Anand would make two super-hit films together, Baazi, and Jaal. Creative differences between Guru Dutt, and Chetan Anand (Anand's elder brother), who was also a director, made future collaborations difficult.

Remembering his old friend Guru Dutt, Anand quotes, “He was a young man he should not have made depressing pictures…”

Recently, Anand quotes, "my only true friend in the film industry. We got close to each other while working for Prabhat, one of the big banners of those days. I gave him his big break in Baazi and he cast me in some of his movies like C.I.D."

Baazi's other contributions

Baazi also highlights two early key technical developments in Indian movie-making that are attributed to Guru Dutt. The use of close-up shots with a 100 mm lens - there are over 14 in the movie - which became known in Indian movie-making as the "Guru Dutt shot", and the use of songs to further the narrative in the movie. Guru Dutt also introduced Zohra Sehgal (whom he met at Almora) as the choreographer in the movie, and he also met his future wife, Geeta Dutt during the making of the movie.

As director

Baazi was an immediate success. Guru Dutt followed it with Jaal and Baaz. Neither film did well at the box office, but they bring together the Guru Dutt team that performed so brilliantly in subsequent films. He discovered, and mentored, Johnny Walker (comedian), V.K. Murthy (cinematography), and Abrar Alvi (writing and directing), among others. He is also credited for introducing Waheeda Rehman to the Hindi cinema. Baaz was notable in that Guru Dutt both directed and starred, not having found a suitable actor for the principal character.

Fortune smiled on Dutt's next film, the 1954 Aar Paar. This was followed by the 1955 hit, Mr. and Mrs. 55, then C.I.D., Sailaab, and in 1957, Pyaasa - the story of a poet, rejected by an uncaring world, who achieves success only after his apparent death. Guru Dutt played the lead role in three of these five films.

His 1959 Kaagaz Ke Phool was an intense disappointment. He had invested a great deal of love, money, and energy in this film, which was a self-absorbed tale of a famous director (played by Guru Dutt) who falls in love with an actress (played by Waheeda Rehman, Dutt's real-life love interest). Kaagaz Ke Phool failed at the box office and Dutt was devastated. All subsequent films from his studio were, thereafter, officially helmed by other directors since Guru Dutt felt that his name is anathema to box office.

Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, a critically and commercially successful film, was directed by his protege, writer Abrar Alvi, which won him the Filmfare Best Director's award. The film's star Waheeda Rehman denied rumors that the film was ghost-directed by Guru Dutt himself. Guru Dutt also has his influence on his last box office smash hit Chaudhvin Ka Chand.

His legacy to direction of Hindi cinema is unmistakable and accepted by many leading Hindi directors of the day, including another of his protege, Raj Khosla.

Guru Dutt's last productions

In 1964 he acted in his last film Sanjh Aur Savera opposite Meena Kumari.

Death

On 10 October 1964, Guru Dutt was found dead in his bed in his rented apartment at Pedder Road in Mumbai. He is said to have been mixing alcohol and sleeping pills. His death may have been suicide, or just an accidental overdose. It would have been his third suicide attempt .

Guru Dutt's son, Arun Dutt views this as an accident in an interview with India Abroad in October 2004 on the 40th anniversary of his father's death. Guru Dutt had scheduled appointments the next day with actress, Mala Sinha for his movie, Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, and Raj Kapoor to discuss making colour films. According to him, "my father had sleeping disorders and popped sleeping pills like any other person. That day he was drunk and had taken an overdose of pills, which culminated in his death. It was a lethal combination of excessive liquor and sleeping pills."

At the time of his death, Guru Dutt was involved in two other projects, Picnic starring actress, Sadhana and Director K. Asif's epic, Love and God. Picnic remained incomplete and Love and God was released two decades later with Sanjeev Kumar replacing Dutt in the leading role.

The extra-feature on DVD of Kaagaz Ke Phool, has a 3 part Channel 4 produced documentary on life and works of Guru Dutt titled, In Search of Guru Dutt. This excellent and a must see for any Guru Dutt fan work includes interviews with many who worked and lived with Guru Dutt.

Everyone, especially Abrar Alvi seem to suggest that it was a suicide. Abrar and Guru Dutt sat late that night discussing a movie and during conversation according to Alvi, Guru Dutt was very morbid in his thinking and conversation.
He was, according to many, distressed by his then personal situation - he was not on terms with his wife, Geeta Dutt; Waheeda Rehman had distanced herself from him. There was sleeping disorder that made him take sleeping pills, and he had been drinking since 5:00 pm that evening.

Personal life

In 1953, Dutt married Geeta Dutt, a well-known playback singer. They had been engaged for three years and had to overcome a great deal of family opposition to marry. They had three children, Tarun, Arun, and Nina.

Dutt had an unhappy marital life. According to his brother Atmaram, Guru Dutt was "a strict disciplinarian as far as work was concerned, but totally undisciplined in his personal life" (Kabir, 1997, p. 124). He smoked heavily, drank heavily, and kept odd hours. Guru Dutt's relationship with actress Waheeda Rehman also worked against their marriage. At the time of his death, he had separated from Geeta and was living alone. Geeta Dutt herself died in 1972 at age 41, after excessive drinking which resulted in liver damage. According to an interview with Abrar Alvi, one of Dutt's close friends and his assistant director in films, Dutt did not "open up" to discuss his thoughts and problems, even though they were spending many hours together.

Legacy

Guru Dutt was at first mourned as a matinee idol but as the years passed, it became ever clearer that it was as a director that he would be remembered. Starting in 1973, his films were shown at film festivals throughout India and the rest of the world. Despite being a commercial director, he appealed to the same intelligentsia who made Satyajit Ray an international favorite. He also has a place in the hearts of many ordinary Indians for his song picturisations and the many vivid characters sketched in his films.

Contrary to general belief about commercial viability of Guru Dutt's film projects, he more or less gave commercially successful films. Down the years his commercial projects saw trade-off with creative aspirations. Movies like C.I.D., Baazi, Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool Chaudhvin Ka Chand and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam were in their rights the first in Hindi cinema. The only movie produced by Guru Dutt and termed box-office disaster was, and which is now a cult classic Kaagaz Ke Phool. He lost over 17 Lacs producing that movie, a large amount by 1960s standard, which was more than recovered by his next projectChaudhvin Ka Chand. He never lost faith of his team, and distributors of his films. Once a project was over, he'd begin new - with little to worry over commercial success of the previous project. He is a part of the exclusive school of Indian cinema - the likes of Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan and Bimal Roy, which were always a healthy blend of artistic and commercial elements between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s.

Pyaasa was rated as one of the best 100 films of all time by Time Magazine. In the 2002 Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll, two of his films, Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool, were among the top 160 greatest films of all time. The same 2002 Sight & Sound poll ranked Dutt at #73 in its list of all-time greatest directors, thus making him the eighth highest-ranking Asian filmmaker in the poll.

Memorable quotes

On failure of Kaagaz Ke Phool and success of Chaudhvin Ka Chand : "Life mein, yaar, kya hai? Do hi toh cheezen hai – kamyaabi aur failure. There is nothing in between." ("What is there in life, friend? There are only two things - success and failure. There is nothing in between.") While scouting for locations in Baroda for Chaudhvin Ka Chand : "Dekho na, mujhe director banna tha, director ban gaya; actor bana tha, actor ban gaya; picture achche banane thay, achche banay. Paisa hai, sab kuch hai, par kuch bhi nahi raha." ("See, I wanted to be a director, I became one. Wanted to be an actor, I became one. Wanted to make good pictures, I have done that too. Have money, have everything. But I have nothing left.")

Selected filmography

Actor

Picnic (1964)-Incomplete

Sanjh Aur Savera (1964)

Suhagan (1964)

Bahurani (1963)

Bharosa (1963)

Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962)

Sautela Bhai (1962)

Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960)

Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959)

12 O'Clock (1958)

Pyaasa (1957)

Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955)

Aar Paar (1954)

Suhagan (1954)

Baaz (1953)

Hum Ek Hain (1946)

Lakha Rani (1945)

Chand (1944)

Director

Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959)

Pyaasa (1957)

Sailaab (1956)

Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955)

Aar Paar (1954)

Baaz (1953)

Jaal (1952)

Baazi (1951)

Producer

Aar Paar (1955)

C.I.D. (1956)

Pyaasa (1957)

Gauri (1957) Incomplete

Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959)

Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960)

Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962)

Baharein Phir Bhi Aayengi (1966)

Further reading

Guru Dutt, 1925-1965: A Monograph, Firoze Rangoonwalla, National Film Archive of India, Govt. of India, 1973.

My Son Gurudutt, Vasanti Padukone, India, serialised in The Imprint and Screen magazine, April 1979 & 2004.

Nanna maga Gurudatta, Vasanti Padukone, Kannada, Manōhara Granthamāle, Dharwad, India, 1976, 120pp.

Guru Dutt, un grand cinéaste encore pratiquement inconnu hors de l’Inde, Henri Micciollo, Films sans Frontières, 1984.

Profiles, Five Film-makers from India, Shampa Banerjee. Directorate of Film Festivals, National Film Development Corp., 1985. ISBN 81-201-0007-7.

Guru Dutt: A Life in Cinema, Nasreen Munni Kabir, Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-19-564274-0.

In Black and White: Hollywood and the Melodrama of Guru Dutt, Darius Cooper, Seagull Books, 2005. ISBN 81-7046-217-7.

Yours Guru Dutt: Intimate Letters of a Great Indian Filmmaker, Nasreen Munni Kabir, Lustre Press, Roli Books, 2006. ISBN 81-7436-388-2.

Ten Years with Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvi's journey, Sathya Saran. 2008, Penguin, ISBN 0-670-08221-X.

Notes

See also

Guru Dutt team

Films directed by Guru Dutt

References

Kabir, Nasreen Munni, Guru Dutt: A Life in Cinema, Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-19-564274-0

Micciollo, Henri, Guru Dutt, un grand cinéaste encore pratiquement inconnu hors de l’Inde, Films sans Frontières, 1984

External links

Website dedicated to Guru Dutt - Biography, Filmography & more

Review of Ten Years with Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvi's journey

Interview with Dev Anand

Interview with Guru Dutt's cameraman, V. K Murthy

Compilation of songs from Guru Dutt movies

Category:1925 births Category:1964 deaths Category:Actors who committed suicide Category:Indian film actors Category:Indian actors Category:Indian Hindus Category:Indian film directors Category:Hindi film directors Category:Hindi film actors Category:Indian film producers Category:Indian film choreographers Category:Drug-related suicides in India Category:Alcohol-related deaths in India Category:Mangaloreans Category:Konkani people

Name	Waheeda Rehman
Caption	Waheeda Rehman in Pyaasa (1957)
Birth date	May 14, 1936
Birth place	Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, India
Yearsactive	1955 - 1991, 2002 - present
Occupation	Actress
Othername	Waheeda Rahman
Spouse	Kamaljit Singh (1974 - 2000 his death)

Waheeda Rehman (), born on 14 May 1936 is a famous Indian film actress who appears in Bollywood movies, most notably C.I.D. (1956) and Guru Dutt classics such as Pyaasa (1957), Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962).

Early life

One of the most prominent actresses of the golden era, Waheeda Rehman was born into a traditional Muslim family in Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, India. She and her sister learnt Bharatnatyam at Mumbai's Sri Rajarajeswari Bharata Natya Kala Mandir, where Guru T. K. Mahalingam Pillai, doyen among nattuvanars taught and performed on stage together. Her father, who was a District Commissioner, died while she still in her teens.

Many people believe that Rehman was born in Hyderabad. “It’s a long story,” she says, “When I was in Chennai, I did three to four Telugu movies. In the first one, Rojulu Maraayi, I did only a folk dance number. However, it went on to become a hit! I was in Hyderabad celebrating its success and Guru Dutt happened to be there. He was on a lookout for new faces and heard that I could speak in Urdu. It is because he spotted me in Hyderabad that people assume I was born there.”

Her dream was to become a doctor but, due to circumstances and illness, she abandoned this goal. Instead helped by her supportive parents, she hit the silver screen with the Telugu film Jayasimha (1955), followed by Rojulu Marayi (1955).

Career

Waheeda Rehman was discovered by Guru Dutt in a film and was brought to Bombay (now Mumbai) and cast as a vamp in his production C.I.D. (1956), directed by Raj Khosla. A few years after joining the Hindi film industry, she lost her mother. After the success of C.I.D., Dutt gave her a leading role in Pyaasa (1957). Their next venture together, Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), depicted the story of a successful director's decline after he falls for his leading lady. Dutt's existing marriage and her film successes with other directors caused them to drift apart personally and professionally, although they continued to work together into the 1960s Chaudhvin Ka Chand. She completed Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) under some strain. They broke away from each other after the film's indifferent reception at the Berlin Film Festival in 1963. Soon afterward, Guru Dutt died on 10 October 1964 in Mumbai reportedly from an overdose of sleeping pills and alcohol. Rahman was cast as "Gulabi" in Satyajit Ray's Bengali film Abhijan in 1962.

Later career

Her career continued throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. She won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her roles in Guide (1965), where she hit the peak of her career and Neel Kamal (1968), but despite excellent offbeat roles in subsequent films, including a National award winning performance in Reshma Aur Shera (1971), some of the films failed at the box office. At around this time, Kamaljit who starred opposite her in Shagun (1964) proposed. She accepted and they were married on 27 April 1974. After her marriage, she shifted to a farmhouse in Bangalore. She bore two children named Sohail and Kashvi. After her appearance in Lamhe (1991) she retired from the film industry for 12 years. On 21 November 2000, her husband died following a prolonged illness. She moved back to her ocean view bungalow in Bandra, Bombay where she lives currently.

In recent years she made a comeback playing elderly mother and grandmother roles in Om Jai Jagadish (2002), Water (2005) and Rang De Basanti (2006) and Delhi 6 (2009) which were all critically acclaimed.

In October 2004, a Waheeda Rehman film retrospective was held at the Seattle Art Museum and the University of Washington where Waheeda participated in spirited panel and audience discussions on her most memorable films — Pyaasa, Teesri Kasam and Guide — although her most successful film is still considered to be Khamoshi, with costar Rajesh Khanna.

Awards

National Film Award for Best Actress for Reshma Aur Shera in 1971.

Filmfare Best Actress Award for Guide in 1966 Filmfare Best Actress Award for Neel Kamal in 1968 Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994

NTR National Award for 2006.

Padmashri in 1972.

Nominations

Filmfare Nomination as Best Supporting Actress--Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) Filmfare Nomination as Best Actress--Ram Aur Shyam (1967) Filmfare Nomination as Best Actress--Khamoshi (1970) Filmfare Nomination as Best Supporting Actress--Kabhi Kabhie (1976) Filmfare Nomination as Best Supporting Actress--Namkeen (1982) Filmfare Nomination as Best Supporting Actress--Lamhe (1991)

Selected filmography

Jayasimha (1955) ... Princess

Rojulu Marayi (1955)

C.I.D. (1956)

Pyaasa (1957) .... Gulabo

12 O'Clock (1958) .... Bani Chaudhary

Solva Saal (1958)

Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) .... Shanti

Kala Bazar (1960) .... Alka

Ek Phool Char Kaante (1960) .... Sushma

Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960) .... Jameela

''Roop ki Rani Choron ka Raja ( 1961).unknown

Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) .... Jaba

Bees Saal Baad (1962) .... Radha

Baat Ek Raat Ki (1962) .... Neela/Meena

Mujhe Jeene Do (1963)

Kohra (1964) .... Rajashwari

Guide (1965) .... Rosie Marco/Miss Nalini

Teesri Kasam (1966) .... Hira Bai

Dil Diya Dard Liya (1966) .... Roopa

Patthar Ke Sanam (1967)

Ram Aur Shyam (1967) .... Anjana

Palki (1967) ...Mehroo

Neel Kamal (1968) .... Rajkumari Neel Kamal/Sita

Aadmi (1968)

Khamoshi (1969) .... Nurse Radha

Prem Pujari (1970) .... Suman Mehra

Man Mandir (1971) .... Krishna and Radha

Reshma Aur Shera (1971) .... Reshma

Phagun (1973)

Aadalat (1976)

Kabhi Kabhie (1976) .... Anjali Malhotra

Trishul (1978) .... Shanti

Sawaal (1982) .... Anju D. Mehta

Namak Halaal (1982) .... Savitridevi

Himmatwala (1983) .... Savitri

Mahaan (1983) .... Janki

Coolie (1983) .... Salma

Sunny (1984) ..... Sita devi

Mashaal (1984) .... Sudha Kumar

Chandni (1989) .... Mrs. Khanna

Lamhe (1991) .... Dai Jaa

''Ulfat Ki Nayee Manzilen (1994)

Om Jai Jagadish (2002) .... Saraswati Batra

Water (2005) .... Bhagavati

Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (2005) .... Principal Khanna

15 Park Avenue (2005) .... Mrs. Mathur/Mrs. Gupta

Rang De Basanti (2006) .... Ajay's Mother

Chukkallo Chandrudu (2006) .... Hero's Grand-Mother

Delhi 6 (Feb.20, 2009).... Dadi

Notes

References

External links

Waheeda Rehman Interview

A Film Retrospective in Seattle. October 2004 *

Category:Indian film actors Category:Indian actors Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:Indian Muslims Category:Filmfare Awards winners Category:Hindi film actors Category:People from Tamil Nadu Category:National Film Award winners Category:People from Mumbai

Name	Mala Sinha
Caption	Mala Sinha in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi (1966)
Birthname	Alda Sinha
Birthdate	November 11, 1936
Birth place	Kashmir, India
Yearsactive	1952 - 1994
Occupation	Actress
Spouse	C. P. Lohani

Mala Sinha () (born 11 November 1936) is an Indian actress of Nepalese ethnicity. She became one of the most popular female stars in Bollywood films from the fifties to the early seventies, starring in numerous blockbusters and hits like Pyaasa (1957), Dhool Ka Phool (1959), Anpadh (1962), Himalaya Ki God Mein (1965), Aankhen (1968) and Maryada (1971) .

Early life

Sinha was born to Albert Sinha, in a Nepalese Christian family. They named her Alda. Her friends at school used to tease her calling Dalda (a branded vegetable oil of India), so she changed her name to Mala.

Career

Sinha started her film career as child artist in Bengali Films Jai Vaishno Devi followed by Shri Krishan Leela, Jog Biyog & Dhooli. Noted Bengali film director Ardhendu Bose saw her acting in a school play and took permission from her father to cast her as a heroine in his film Roshanara (1952), her cinematic debut.

After acting in a couple of films in Calcutta, Mala had to go to Bombay to shoot for a Bengali film. There she met Geeta Dutt, a noted Bollywood playback singer, who was charmed by her and introduced her to film director Kidar Sharma. It was Sharma who cast her as a heroine in his film Rangeen Ratein. However, her first Hindi film was Badshah opposite Pradeep Kumar, than came Ekadashia mythological film both films failed, but her lead role in Kishore Sahu's Hamlet fetched her rave reviews in spite of the film failing at the boxoffice.

Mala was also a singer of some repute and used to sing for All India Radio, albeit she was never allowed to sing playback (even for herself) in the movies. In 1957, noted Bollywood actor and film director Guru Dutt (the husband of Geeta Dutt) cast Mala in his film Pyaasa in a role originally intended for Madhubala. Mala gave a memorable performance as the woman who chooses to marry a rich man (played by character artiste Rehman) rather than a poor unsuccessful poet (played by Guru Dutt himself). The film remains to this day a classic in the history of Indian cinema and a turning point for Sinha.

After Pyaasa her major success was Yash Chopra's directorail debut Dhool Ka Phool(1959) that elevated her into a major dramatic star, there was no looking back for Sinha than as she gave hits after hits in movies like 'Parvarish', 'Phir Subah Hogi', 'Main Nahse Main Hoon', 'Love Marriage', 'Bahurani', 'Anpadh', 'Aasra', 'Dil Tera Deewana', Gumrah (many critics believe her career best performance), 'Aankhen', 'Hariyali Aur Rasta', 'Himalaya Ki God Mein' and many more. What was most remarkable about Mala Sinha was that most of her 1960s hits were fuelled by her own star power as much as the heroes'. She did not mind working with newcomers as long as her role was worth. When she acted opposite big stars, she made sure her role was as good as theirs. She worked with many newcomers of her era including Dharmendra, Sunil Dutt, Sanjay Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. In most of her films she got the first billing in the credits, even before the heroes.

In 1966, Sinha went to Nepal to act in a Nepali film called "Maitighar" when the Nepali film industry was still in its infancy. Her hero in the film was an estate owner called C. P. Lohani. Soon after, Mala Sinha married C. P. Lohani with the blessings of her parents. From the beginning theirs was a long-distance marriage with Lohani based in Kathmandu to look after his business and she living in Bombay with their daughter Pratibha. Mala continued acting in films after her marriage.

Of her rich and varied repertoire of films, she mentions she is rather partial to Jahan Ara(1964), a historical that Meena Kumari passed on to her as she says,"Meenaji turned down the role saying that she would not look the part whereas I would. Given my ignorance of Urdu, I was rather skeptical but Meenaji was convinced that I could do justice to the role. Playing Mumtaz Mahal's eldest daughter entailed grueling Urdu classes and learning royal tehzeeb. It was hot on the grand sets erected at Ranjit Studio and the film had Madan Mohan's haunting music. It was a film replete with lyrical moments". Though Mala evinced as much interest in her daughter Pratibha's career as her father did in her career, she was unable to achieve the same success for her daughter.

Personal life

Sinha currently lives in Bombay with her now-retired husband and daughter Pratibha Sinha, a Bollywood actress

Awards and nominations

Won, BFJA Award for Best Actress(1965) - ''Jahan Ara

Won, BFJA Award for Best Actress(1966) - ''Himalaya Ki God Mein

Star Screen Lifetime Achievement Award (2007)

Sinha received several Filmfare nominations for Best Actress for her women oriented roles in Dhool Ka Phool (1959), Bahu Rani (1963), Jahan Ara (1964), Himalaya Ki God Mein (1965). While she was not nominated for her other acclaimed roles like Hariyali Aur Raasta (1962), Anpadh (1962), Gumrah (1963), and Aankhen (1967) amongst others. She also won accolades for her role as greyhaired wife of Sanjeev Kapoor in Zindagi (1976). In spite of getting much critical acclaim and mass recognition for her work, Sinha has never won a Filmfare for any of her roles. She was honoured with the Star Screen Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

She was also felicitated by Government of Sikkim and Government of Nepal in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

Filmography

Hindi films

Zid(1994) (Jai Mehta)

Radha Ka Sangam(1992) (Govinda)

Khel(1992) (Anil Kapoor)

Dil Tujhko Diya(1987) (Kumar Gaurav)

Baboo(1985) Navin Nishchal

Yeh Rishta Na Toote(1985)Rajendra Kumar

Aasman(1984) Rajeev Kapoor

Beraham(1982) Sanjeev Kumar

Harjai(1981) Shammi Kapoor

Dhan Daulat(1980)Rajendra Kumar

Karamyogi(1977)Raj Kumar

Prayeschit(1977) Parikshit Sahni

Do Ladkiyan(1977) Sanjeev Kumar

Zindagi(1976) Sanjeev Kumar

Mazdoor Zindabad(1976) Rajendra Kumar

Naseeb(1976) (Guest Appearance)

Sunehra Sansar(1975)Rajendra Kumar

Archana(1974)Sanjeev Kumar

Kora Badan(1974) (Guest Appearance)

36 Ghante(1974)Rajkumar

Nek Parveen(1974)Rakesh Pandey

Rickshawala(1973) Sujit Kumar

Kahani Hum Sab Ki(1973) Vinod Mehra

Phir Kab Milogi(1973) Biswajeet

Rivaaj(1972) Sanjeev Kumar

Lalkaar(1972) Rajendra Kumar

Maryada(1971)Rajkumar / Rajesh Khanna

Sanjog(1971) Amitabh Bachchan

Chahat(1971) Biswajeet

Holi Aayee Re(1970)Prakash Thapa

Kangan(1970)Sanjeev Kumar

Geet(1970)Rajendra Kumar

Do Bhai(1970) Jeetendra

Paisa Ya Pyar(1970) Biswajeet

Jaldeep(1970) (Children Film Society)

Mere Huzoor(1969) Rajkumar / Jeetendra

Humsaya(1968)Joy Mukherjee

Do Kaliyan(1968)Biswajeet

Pyar Ka Sapna(1968)Biswajeet

Aankhen(1968) Dharmendra

Dillagi(1966)Sanjay Khan

Nai Roshni(1967) with Biswajeet

Night In London(1967)Biswajeet

Jaal(1967) Biswajeet

Aasra(1966)Biswajeet

Tamanna(1966) Biswajeet

Apne Huye Paraye(1966) Manoj Kumar

Mere Lal(1966) Dev Kumar

Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi(1966) Dharmendra

Himalaya Ki God Mein(1965)Manoj Kumar........Nominated (Filmfare Best Actress Award)

Jab Yaad Kisiki Aati Hai(1965)Dharmendra

Neela Akaash(1965)Dharmendra

Bahu Beti(1965)Joy Mukherjee

Main Suhagan Hoon(1965)Ajit Khan

Jahanara(1964) Bharat Bhushan..........Nominated (Filmfare Best Actress Award)

Suhagan(1964)Guru Dutt

Phool Bane Angarey(1963) Rajkumar

Pooja Ke Phool(1963) Dharmendra

Gumraah(1963) with Sunil Dutt

Bahu Rani (1963) Guru Dutt...........Nominated (Filmfare Best Actress Award)

Gehra Daag (1963) Rajendra Kumar

Hariyali Aur Rasta (1962) Manoj Kumar

Anpadh(1962) Dharmendra

Bombay Ka Chor (1962) Kishore Kumar

Aankh Micholi (1962) Shekhar

Gyarah Hazaar Ladkiyan (1962) Bharat Bhushan

Dil Tera Diwana (1962) Shammi Kapoor

Suhag Sindoor (1961) Manoj Kumar

Maya (1961) Dev Anand

Dharamputra (1961) Rehman

Patang (1960) Rajendra Kumar

Main Nashe Mein Hoon (1960) Raj Kapoor

Bewaqoof (1960) Kishore Kumar

Mitti Mein Sona (1960) Pradeep Kumar

Dhool Ka Phool (1959) Ashok Kumar / Rajendra Kumar.......Nominated (Filmfare Best Actress Award)

Love Marriage (1959) Dev Anand

Duniya Na Mane (1959) Pradeep Kumar

Ujala (1959) Shammi Kapoor

Devar Bhabhi(1958)Rajendra Kumar

Parvarish(1958)Raj Kapoor

Phir Subah Hogi(1958)Raj Kapoor

Jaalsaz(1959)Kishore Kumar

Chandan(1958)Kishore Kumar

Detective(1958) Pradeep Kumar

Nausherwan-E-Adil(1957) Rajkumar

Ek Goan Ki Kahani(1957)Abhi Bhattacharya / Talat Mehmood

Apradhi Kaun(1957)Abhi Bhattacharya

Lal Batti(1957)Balraj Sahni

Fashion(1957)Pradeep Kumar

Pyaasa(1957)Guru Dutt / Rehman

Rangin Raaten(1956) Shammi Kapoor

Ek Shola(1956)Pradeep Kumar

Paisa Hi Paisa(1956)Kishore Kumar

Naya Zamana(1955) Pradeep Kumar

Ratna Manjari(1955)Mahipal

Ekadashi(1955)Trilok Kapoor

Riyasat(1955) Mahipal

Badshah(1954)PRADEEP KUMAR

Hamlet(1954)PRADEEP KUMAR

SUHAGAN(1952)GURU DUTT

Jhanshi Ki Rani(1952)SOHRAB Modi

BENGALI FILMS

Shohorer Itikotha ( with Uttam Kumar )

Saathihaara ( with Uttam Kumar )

Abhaya O Srikanta(1961)

KELAGHAR(1959)UTTAM KUMAR

Lookochoori (1958)(with Kishore Kumar)

LOUHA KAPAT(1958)

Kabita

Bondhu

SURER PARASHEY(1957)

PRITHIBI AMARE CHAAY(1957)

PUTRABADHU(1956)

DHULI(1954)

CHITRANGADHA(1954)

JOG BIYOG(1953)

ROSHANARA(1952)

Nepali Film

Maitighar

References

-A Profile of Mala Sinha -A Biography of Mala Sinha

External links

A Biography

Category:Bengali people Category:Nepalese actors Category:Indian film actors Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:Indian Christians Category:Indian actors Category:Hindi film actors Category:Kashmiri people Category:Indian people of Nepalese descent