Talat Mahmood

Talat Mahmood was an Indian playback singer who is considered as one of the most popular male Indian film song and ghazal singers. He was born in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India to Manzoor Mahmood, a member of the Indian Medical Mission to Ottoman. He showed his musical leanings from a very young age and learned classical music under Pandit S.C.R. Bhat at Marris College of Music, Lucknow. He started his singing career at the age of 16 in 1939, when he began singing the ghazals of Daag, Mir, Jigar etc. on All India Radio, Lucknow. His voice had a distinct quality of a slight quiver, which added to the charm of his singing. He recorded his first disc in 1941 for HMV and became famous throughout India. He moved to Calcutta in 1944 and sang for many Bengali films under the name of Tapan Kumar. He also acted in some films, but his main focus was on singing. He moved to Bombay in 1949 and became one of the leading playback singers of the 1950s and 1960s. He worked with many renowned music directors of that time and sang for many famous actors. He sang in 16 languages, including Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, and English. He was especially known for his soft and sombre ghazals, which earned him the title of 'King of Ghazals'. He was honoured with several awards, including the Padma Bhushan in 1992. He died of a heart attack in Mumbai at the age of 74.