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 |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1946–1972 |
| Spouse | |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Instruments | Vocals |
Musical artist | |
Geeta Dutt (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]
K. Hanuman Prasad took Geeta under his patronage, trained and groomed her in singing and later launched her into singing for movies. In 1946, she got the first break with an opportunity to sing in the mythological filmBhakta Prahlad for which Prasad was the music director. She was given two lines to sing for two songs. She was sixteen at that time.
During Geeta's recording of songs for the movieBaazi, she met its young up-and-coming director,Guru Dutt. Their romance culminated in marriage on 26 May 1953. Together they had three children: Tarun (1954–1985), Arun (1956–2014) and Nina (b. 1964).
She also cut a number non-film discs, singing to the tune of notable music directors likeSudhin Dasgupta and Anal Chatterjee.
In 1957, Guru Dutt launched the filmGauri with Geeta Dutt as its singing star. It was to be India's first movie incinemascope but the project was shelved after just a few days of the shooting. By then, Guru Dutt had got romantically involved withWaheeda Rehman and Geeta had taken to drinking. The break up of their marriage affected Geeta's singing career[citation needed].
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).[5] This shattered Geeta, who then suffered a seriousnervous breakdown and ran into financial problems[citation needed]. She tried to resume her singing career, cutting discs atDurgā Pujā and giving stage shows. She performed a leading role in aBengali movie,Badhu Baran (1967), and sang admirably inAnubhav (1971), to the music ofKanu Roy. Geeta Dutt's final performance was for Midnight in 1972 (unreleased) Two duets, one of which was withTalat Mahmood.
Geeta Dutt died on 20 July 1972 due tocirrhosis aged 41, inMumbai,Maharashtra.
She has sung over 1417 songs in Hindi films. In addition, she has sung songs in many other Indian languages including Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Maithili, Bhojpuri and Punjabi. She has sung in Nepali evergreen movieMaitighar.[6]
Some of the songs sung underS. D. Burman's direction:[7]
Some of the songs she sang underO. P. Nayyar's direction:[9]
Some of the songs sung underHemant Kumar's direction[10]
Madan Mohan's direction
For movieAnubhav (1971)
Several songs fromJogan:
Some Bengali songs:[12]
A few Bengali songs of non-film genre:
Postage stamps featuring Dutt were issued byIndia Post in 2013 and 2016.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
