Best remembered as "The King of Ghazals", Talat Mahmood was one of India's foremost singing stars that gave India a perfect golden voice. A popular Bollywood playback singer, and a little lesser known actor, Talat Mahmood ruled the Indian music industry for nearly four decades through his soft and mellow voice.
Background
Talat Mahmood was born in an exceptionally highly cultured and conservative family in Lucknow. He was one amongst the six children born to father Manzoor Mahmood. Music struck him from the time when he was a child, since his father and sisters were talented singers. With this, Mahmood had just two options: either he should maintain a low profile and remain in the background, or embark a movie career. But he chose to become a singer.
Education
Mahmood's music training began at Morris Music College, under the guidance of Pandit S.C.R. Bhat in the 1930s.
Career
At a young age of 16 in 1939, he delivered ghazals on All India Radio in Lucknow. The famous amongst them included Daag, Mir, and Jigar that caught the attention of thousands of listeners due to his distinct quality of voice from other similar singers. His talent was first noticed by HMV that offered him a contract for his first disc "Sab Din Ek Samaan Nahin Tha" in 1941. His 1944 hit "Tasveer Teri Dil Mera Behela Na Sakegi" sold over 10,000 copies and Talat Mahmood became a national star. This was just the first step towards name and fame. Soon, Mahmood received an offer in acting from the Calcutta film industry, the premier hub of film production in the 1940s. He acted in three movies, namely, "Rajlaxmi", "Tum Aur Main", and "Samapti", which were regional hits. He even recorded several Bangla songs under the name "Tapankumar", most of which were super hits and are still aired on All India Radio as old song reminisces.
Talat was considered a handsome man and a good singer, which prompted movie producers to try him as an actor. Talat acted in over a dozen films with top actresses of the time like Nutan, Mala Sinha, Suraiya and others. Later he decided to give up acting to concentrate on singing.