Nostalgic Nuggets: 'Itna Na Mujhse Tu Pyar Bada'

Imagine a voice which has been hailed as the softest of the Indian sub-continent. Not only this, but also the most soulful! That's Talat Mahmood(1924-1984) for you, arguably one of India's finest playback singers of the non-classical, semi-classical genre. Talat sang around 800 songs in a career of four decades, beginning from the 1940s to the 1980s. It's his 36th death anniversary today ( May 9)

A reference in Wikipedia notes thus: Talat Mehmood can safely be placed among the greatest male ghazal and/or film singers of the Indian subcontinent together with the singers like K. L. Saigal, Mohammed Rafi, Ahmed Rushdi, Mehdi Hassan, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, Kishore Kumar, Jagjit Singh, Ustad Ghulam Ali and Mukesh.

Having been associated with Bengali music directors, he sang many songs in that language which made him extremely popular there. Like Kishore Kumar, he too tried his hand as an actor and his roles were seen in nearly a dozen films along with top heroines like Nutan, Mala Sinha and Suraiya of that time. Of course, his influence on the singers of the next generation who followed his mellifluous pattern of music was profound and absolute.