Geeta Dutt | |
|---|---|
 Dutt, taken before 1958 | |
| Born | Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri (1930-11-23)23 November 1930 |
| Died | 20 July 1972(1972-07-20) (aged 41) Bombay,Maharashtra, India |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1946–1972 |
| Spouse | |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Instruments | Vocals |
Musical artist | |
Geeta Dutt (Bengali pronunciation:[ɡitadɔtːo]; bornGeeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri; 23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972)[3] was an Indianclassical andplayback singer. She found particular prominence as aplayback singer inHindi cinema andBengali cinema and is considered as one of the best playback singers of all time in Hindi films.[4] She also sang many modernBengali songs in the non-film genre.
Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri was one of 10 children born to a wealthyzamindar family in a village named Idilpur,Madaripur Subdivision underFaridpur district inBengal,British India presently underGosairhat Upazila ofShariatpur District, Bangladesh. Her family moved toCalcutta andAssam in the early 1940s, leaving behind their land and properties. In 1942, her parents moved to an apartment inBombay. Geeta was twelve and continued her schooling at the Bengali High School.[3]
As a child she trained as a singer under her music teacher, Hirendranath Nandy before her family left East Bengal in 1942 and settled in Bombay. The composer K. Hanuman Prasad launched Geeta, aged sixteen, into singing for movies in 1946 when she got the first break with the mythological filmBhakta Prahlad. She was given two lines to sing for two songs.[5]
The 1947 filmDo Bhai marked her breakthrough in playback singing, with the popular song "Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya" scored byS. D. Burman. She worked on 15 films in a span of two years after that. By 1949, she had established herself as one of the leading playback singers of the time with popular songs inShaheed,Ek Thi Larki, Darogaji,Shabnam, andJeet, among others.[6]
Both Darogaji (1949) andJogan (1950) contained 12 or more songs sung by Dutt and scored byBulo C Rani. Dutt's continuous collaboration with Rani spanned 60 songs between 1947 and 1964.[7]
In 1951, her songs in the Hindi filmBaazi, also scored byS. D. Burman, were highly well-received with the song "Tadbeer se bigdi hui taqdeer bana le" being a fan favorite. She met and fell in love withGuru Dutt, who directedBaazi, at the recording of this song.[8] Consecutive hits made her one of the highest paid and most sought-after singer in the Hindi film industry the 1950s, singing in around twelve movies in 1948 and at least twenty-five films in 1949.[9]
Despite not knowing the language, her songs in Gujarati films brought her early success and assignments. She recorded for four Gujarati films —Gunsundari,Kariyavar, Nanand Bhojai, andVarasdar — all released in 1948 with composersAvinash Vyas andAjit Merchant. She recorded for six more films in 1950, and for two of six Gujarati films released in 1951. She worked again with Avinash Vyas for five songs in Naagdevta (1955) and for four songs with her composer brother Mukul Roy in Vidhata (1956). Between 1948 and 1967 Dutt recorded nearly 80 songs for 25 Gujarati films.[10]
Geeta Dutt maintained a significant body of work inBengali, her mother tongue. She recorded two songs for the film Mahakobi Girishchandra (1956) for composer Anil Bagchi. She collaborated multiple times with composerNachiketa Ghosh with popular songs in the film Prithibi Aamaare Chaay (1957) and Indrani (1958).
She frequently worked withHemanta Mukherjee, in 11 films, including Joutuk (1958),Sonar Harin (1959), Modhyoraater Taara (1961), and Sathi Hara (1961). In the 1958 filmLukochuri, also scored by Hemanta Mukherjee, she sang withKishore Kumar for the song "Shudhu Ektukhani Chaowa".
Outside of Bengali film music, she worked with Kanu Ghosh, Sudhin Chakraborty, andSalil Chowdhury among others on devotional, folk, and other genres of music.[11]
After meeting on the sets of Baazi, Roy often visited Dutt and his family at their apartment inMatunga. Being the sole earner of her family, Roy's relatives were reluctant to have her marry the, largely unestablished, Dutt who was also not Bengali unlike the Roys. However, with support from Dutt's family, they were engaged and, nearly three years later, married on May 26, 1953 at Roy's mother's home inSanta Cruz.[8] She adopted Guru Dutt's last name.
Their marriage was strained by their differing personalities, demanding work schedules, and Guru Dutt's engagement with his work and his relationship with co-starWaheeda Rehman. For brief periods, the couple would live separately with Dutt at her mother's home and Guru Dutt spending most of his time at work.[8]
In a purported effort to repair the relationship, Guru Dutt began production on a film called "Gouri", based on a1943 Hindi film of the same name, and cast Dutt in her first leading role. Shooting began in 1957 in Calcutta with scenes to be shot in both Bengali and English. The shooting was suspended within a few days for unclear reasons and the film shelved with Guru Dutt's production incurring a financial loss. According to the script writer for the film,Nabendu Ghosh, and writerBimal Mitra, an on-set heated argument with Dutt led to Guru Dutt calling the shoot off for the day with the unit leaving Calcutta in the next two days.[12]
In 1963, soon after demolishing their house onPali Hill, Dutt moved to live separately with her three children in Bandra while Guru Dutt lived alone in a flat onPeddar Road.
After their marriage, she sang in all of Guru Dutt's subsequent films with songs inMr. & Mrs. '55, C.I.D.,Pyaasa,Kaagaz Ke Phool, andSahib Bibi Aur Ghulam earning popular praise. She also regularly worked on films starring Dutt's close associates including Dev Anand inNau Do Gyarah,Kala Bazar, andEk Ke Baad Ek.
In 1956, Dutt was forced to declare personal bankruptcy after the financial failure ofSailaab a film produced by Mukul Roy, her brother.
Despite consistent work in her husband's productions, her career declined in the late-1950s amidst rumors of a disturbed personal life, missed rehearsals, and heavy drinking.[9] Her regular collaborators includingS.D. Burman andO. P. Nayyar drifted towards hiring, the more popular,Lata Mangeshkar andAsha Bhonsle.[13]
As her mental health challenges worsened after Guru Dutt's death in 1964, she performed even more infrequently in films. However, she played a leading role in the Bengali film Badhu Baran (1967) with co-starPradeep Kumar which also featured her last Bengali film song. For composerKanu Roy, she recorded three well-received, and now popular, songs forBasu Bhattacharya'sAnubhav in 1971.
Dutt's final performance was for the unreleased film Midnight (1972) with two duets, one of which was withTalat Mahmood.
With over 25 years in performance, Geeta Dutt recorded over 1,400 songs in various South Asian languages beyond Hindi including Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, and Nepali.[14]
Of her singing, popular music criticRaju Bharatan remarked, "Of all her contemporaries her musical training was perhaps the sketchiest but what she lacked in training and technique, she more than made up with her ability to breathe life and emotion into any song she was singing."[9]
Comparing her with the then-newcomerAsha Bhonsle, frequent collaborator and composerO. P. Nayyar said "As a singer, she [Asha Bhosle] sang all my songswith her heart and soul. However, Geeta Dutt’s voice modulation was far farbetter. It remains one of my greatest regrets that I phased out Geeta due to myemotional involvement with Asha, when it was Geeta who had introduced meto Guru Dutt. That’s when my career really took off."[9]
Of her collaboration withS. D. Burman and them finding success together, Burman's son composerR. D. Burman said "Geeta Dutt was my father’s favourite and there was a family feeling between us. Geeta’s first hit song, Mera sundar sapna beet gaya...was composed by my father whom she called chacha (uncle). Geeta was very famous in her time; she could sing any type of song: soft songs, cabaret songs, aggressive and romantic songs...My father’s music was not recognized immediately...Then came Baazi, a bighit."[8]
Postage stamps featuring Dutt were issued byIndia Post in 2013 and 2016.
With Guru Dutt, Geeta Dutt had two sons, Tarun (1954-1985), Arun (1956-2014) and a daughter, Nina (b. 1962).
She died on 20 July 1972 due toliver cirrhosis aged 41, inMumbai,Maharashtra.
Some of the songs sung underS. D. Burman's direction:[15]
Some of the songs she sang underO. P. Nayyar's direction:[17]
Some of the songs sung underHemant Kumar's direction[18]
Madan Mohan's direction
For movieAnubhav (1971)
Several songs fromJogan:
Some Bengali songs:[20]
A few Bengali songs of non-film genre:
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