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The first thing that strikes one when you hear Geeta Dutt sing was that she never sang. She just glided through a tune. 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.
Geeta Roy was born in Faridpur District in East Bengal in 1930. In 1942 when she was just twelve her parents shifted to Mumbai. Over there in their modest flat at Dadar music director Hanuman Prasad heard her singing casually. He gave her two lines to sing in the film Bhakt Prahlad (1946). But her rendering of those two lines stood out and astonished everybody in the recording studio. A minor incident became the genesis of a great musical career.
Her major assignment came the following year, 1947, with Do Bhai. The music of that film clicked in a big way particularly Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya and Geeta became a top playback singer.
Initially Geeta was a singer well known for bhajans and weepy, weepy sad songs. But 1951 saw the release of a film, Baazi. The jazzy musical score of the film by S.D. Burman revealed a new facet to Geeta's singing. The sex appeal in her voice and the ease with which she went western was marvelous to behold. While every song in the film was a raging hit, one stood out for special appeal - Tadbir se Bigdi hui Taqdeer. From then on in the 1950s for a club dance or a seductive song, the first choice was Geeta.
During the recording of the song she met the young and upcoming director of the film, Guru Dutt. Thus blossomed a romance, which culminated in marriage on 26 May, 1953. Geeta went on to sing some of her best songs in his films while continuing singing in various outside assignments as well.
S.D. Burman was among the earliest to discover the magic in her voice with Do Bhai. He effectively used the Bengali lilt in her voice memorably in films like Devdas (1955) and Pyaasa (1957). The song Aaj sajan mohe ang lagalo from the latter is one of the finest examples of the Bengali kirtan put over on the Hindi screen. In fact, no female singer has better articulated the spirit of Burmanda's music in its early years.
O.P. Nayyar developed the side of Geeta which had emerged with Baazi. Under his freewheeling baton Geeta developed into a really hep singer who could belt out any number - soft, sultry, happy, snappy, romantic, teasing or tragic. It was Geeta Dutt's rare gift that she could effervescently sing for both the doll and the moll. And it was O.P. who got Geeta to stop being overtly emotional in sad songs. O.P.'s comments on Geeta :
" ..........Who will deny there is a unique quality to her singing. Give her a blatantly westernized tune this momentand a complex classical composition the next, and she will do equal justice to both with an ease of expression which a singer can only be born with. She is particularly good for songs accompanying boisterous jamborees. With that tantalizing lilt and fascinating curves she puts into her singing,she is the ideal choice if it is seductive allure you want in a song........Geeta Dutt is an asset to any music director."
However by 1957 her marriage had run into rough weather and was on the rocks. Guru Dutt had got romantically involved with his new leading lady Waheeda Rehman. The breaking up of her marriage also began having repercussions on her career. To quieten things down Guru Dutt launched a film Gauri (1957) with her in the lead. She was to be launched as a singing star and it was to be India's first film in cinemascope but the film was shelved after just a few days shooting. This was the time when one heard complaints from music directors about her not being easily available for either rehearsals or recordings.
In fact in 1957, when he fell out with Lata Mangeshkar, Burmanda was looking to make Geeta his main singer rather than the upcoming Asha Bhosle. After all by then Geeta was a mature singer while Asha was still raw. But due to her troubled marriage Geeta was not free to practice in the style required by S.D. Burman who was a hard taskmaster regarding rehearsals. He joined O.P. Nayyar in shaping Asha rather than wait for Geeta. Consequently Asha not only took her place but also went beyond her. And to make things worse, Geeta began finding solace in drinks.
On October 10, 1964 Guru Dutt passed away. Geeta was a broken woman, shattered by his death. She suffered a nervous breakdown. When she recovered she found herself in a financial mess. She did try to resume singing again, cutting discs at Durga Puja and giving stage shows and even doing a Bengali film, Badhu Bharan (1967) as heroine! But her health kept failing as she drank herself to a point of no return. She died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1972. But not before she showed she still had it in her were she given a mike to sing. The songs of Basu Bhattacharya's Anubhav (1971), Meri Jaan Mujhe Jaan na Kaho Meri Jaan, Koi Chupke se Aake and Mera Dil Jo Mera Hota represent some of the finest work that Geeta Dutt ever did.
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