Wednesday, 23 November 2022

Remembering Geeta Dutt

Revered remembrance of
Geeta Dutt on her 92nd Birth Anniversary today.
She came in the limelight even with minimal musical training but she compensated that with the melody and emotion she brought into her songs.
To quote Raju Bharatan a music critic who has penned biographies of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle..
 “Geeta Dutt was thandi hawa and kaali ghata rolled into one. The moment she came, you got the refreshing feeling of aa hi gayi jhoom ke. There was a rare swing in her voice. She hit you like a thunderclap… This made Geeta Dutt the one singer that Lata Mangeshkar really feared”.

Geeta Roy made her debut in 1946 under Dada (S.D.) Burman.
Her arrival was sounded in " Do Bhai' where she sang 6 of the 9 songs of the film for Dada.
One of them is the classic 
"Mera Sunder Sapna Beer Gaya'.
Written by Raja Mehendi Ali Khan( also making his Debut).

After this she was the top singer till Lata Mangeshkar entered with Mahal .
But Geeta Roy unfazed tried a new genre of Jazz in Baazi ( again S.D.Burman). She sang six of the eight songs in the film – all solos. The song from the film that stood out and  transformed her career was 'Tadbeer Se Bigdi Hui'.Geeta Roy sang with oomph, her voice giving expression to Geeta Bali’s enamoring looks. The song was a roaring success and Geeta Roy was back. 
Baazi also had a turning point in her personal life. It was during the making of this film that she fell in love with the film’s director, Guru Dutt and Vice Versa. They got married in 1953 and Geeta Roy became Geeta Dutt.
Thus were born some of the most achingly romantic melodies of the 50's- those nuggets of love and its various facets which materialized because there was love in the air.
She went on to sing over 1200 songs in the next 20 year's.
Her most famous and celebrated work in Hindi Film songs is of course with the veteran composers Sachin Dev Burman, O. P. Nayyar and Hemant Kumar. 

She passed away 50 years ago in 1972 but not before reminding us of her enormous talent in the 1970-71 film Anubhav, where she glowed brightly once again and sang three lovely melodies 
'Meri jaan mujhe jaan na kaho', 'Koi chupke se aake' and 'Mera dil jo mera hota' which represent some of the finest work that Geeta Dutt had ever done.
composed by Kanu Roy, two of which were written by Gulzar.

Geeta Dutt’s melodious voice enthralled many in the 1940s and 1950s, but a career that began with a meteoric rise to fame ended in tragedy.
42 was no age to go.
But Even Guru Dutt left at 39 and Possibly wanted to make up with her in heaven 🙏

Bibliography
Official Website of Geetadutt
The Best of Geeta Dutt
Collage : Shailendra Mishra

No comments:

Post a Comment