I would like to invite feedbacks on this topic from all those who like songs of Geeta ji. Here is my journey over last couple of decades or so :
When I was in the school, I started listening to Hindi film songs which were played on Radio, generally Vividhbharati. As is the case with any one who likes wordings more, I started enjoying the old songs from 50’s and 60’s. Vividhbharati used to play mostly very popular songs only those days, so the obvious favorite singers were Rafi, Lata, Kishore, Mukesh and Asha. Very rarely I used to haer songs sung by Hemant Kumar, Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey and Shamshad Beghum. Slowly I started liking these singers and then one day I heard a few songs sung by Geeta Dutt. ( I believe the songs were from Aarpar and CID.)
This was a voice different from the voice of Lata ji and Asha ji and had a unusual appeal. There was no tape recorder at home, so there was no scope of listening to her songs other than some song played on Vividhbharati. Then I discovered Radio Cylone (as it used to be called earlier, now the name is Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC)). The reception was pathetic to say the least, but that was the place where I started listening to more songs of Geeta ji. Then I started listening to casettes of her songs in the tape recorder of a friend and then started liking the songs.
This liking slowly started turned into being a fan of this sweet, seductive voice. My friend had a 2-in-1 (Radio and Tape Recorder) and started recording songs of Geeta ji for me. Slowly we got a tape recorder at home and then I began to listen to more and more of her songs.
The transition in her voice from “Mera sundar sapna beet gaya ” to ” Apne pe bharosa hain toh yeh daav laga le” and from “Har juban ruki ruki” to “Merra naam chin chin choo” was simply amazing.
Then began hunt to get more and more songs of Geeta ji. Remember, there was no internet, no mp3, no CDs those times. Buying a LP disc player or 78 RPM record player was not feasible, hence all the efforts were into audio cassettes. There was a music shop nearby who had big catalogues of old Hindi film songs and used to record cassettes for Rs.30 per 90 minute cassette. I used to spend hours to find the songs sung by Geeta ji and make a list to record cassettes. Used to hunt many music shops in the city to get rare/unheard songs of Geeta ji (ex: Dekho ji dil na todo, nahin toh main ro doongi – Captain Kishore).
I had collected cuttings from many newspapers and magazines where some information was available on Geeta Dutt and Guru Dutt. Even these got lost in passage of time..
The joy of listening to her songs in black and white movies in the theaters was un-parallel. Saw Aarpar, Mr and Mrs 55, Pyasa, Shararat, Sadhana, Yahudi, Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam, Bhai Bhai and many more in theaters whenever they were released.
The joy of getting hands on a cassette “Duets to remember – Talat Mahmood and Geeta Dutt” was beyond any comparison. It took some time to groom into and love the peppy numbers like “Oh arabpati ki chhori” from Makhkhichoos.
By this time, I had over 40 different cassettes having many songs of Geeta ji spread over. The cassettes were not long lasting and it was too late by the time I realized it. Then job, marriage and moving from one place to another place happened. Still I was holding on to (and listening to) whatever songs of Geeta ji I had in the good cassettes.
I was working in a factory in a remote place and had a few Bengali colleagues. On my request one colleague bought 2 cassettes of Bengali songs of Geeta ji when he went to Kolkata for yearly vacation. That time I loved most of those songs, even when I wasnt knowing the language. The songs like “Nishi raat banka chand” were not less apeealing than “Kaise koi jiye” aur “Chand hain wohi”
I think the love for Geeta ji’s voice overpowered all the other factors..
I even had 2 cassettes of her Gujarathi songs (One was titled “Ateetna Sambharana” if I remember it correctly. This cassette had the song “Rakhada ramakada”, the original of “Tora manawa kyon ghabarayen”)
I moved into IT and then we moved abroad and came back after over 2 years. By this time, the cassettes had all gone bad.
Then there was PC and laptop and some songs in MP3 format with me. Then I bought this 5 CD set Legends which had about 100 songs of Geeta ji. Bought another CD with relatively rare numbers in London (Southall for those who know).
I was under the impression that Geeta ji had sung about 300 or 350 songs based on the limited knowledge I had.
Then I joined http://hamaraforums.com, an online forum dedicated to Hindi Film music . It was sort of turning point in my life. I got to download and listen to rarest of the rarest songs, and many songs which I had heard before on SLBC (Ex : Nazdeek na aana, Unse kehna ke woh pal bhar ke liye aa jaye, Kehne ko hain tayyar etc.)
Then I got about 80 songs from http://www.hamaracd.com in the form of 5 CDs which I ordered online. Now any compilation of her Hindi songs I see has more or less the same songs which I already have in my collection courtsey all the generous and kind souls at HF.
I still remember the efforts and pains I went through those early years to get to listen to songs of my favorite singer.
Finally we were able to launch the website http://www.geetadutt.com in her honor on 23rd November 2008.
Tags: Geeta Dutt, Geeta Dutt Singer Playback Queen Best Bhaav Gaayki
It is difficult to say when exactly I began liking Geeta Dutt’s songs and her voice. I remember listening to her songs as a child and even at a very early age, felt that she sounded different.I loved listening to ‘Jaanu jaanu re’ with the 2 contrasting and yet somewhat similar voice of Geeta and Asha and Nanhi kali sone chali… The 2 songs that later made a tremendous impact on me was ‘Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam’ and ‘ Mera sundar sapna beet gaya’ …I have always felt that Geeta is at her best while singing tragic /sad songs. This was probably because of her own personal life, where she had more than her share of unhappiness and heartache…Over the years I have developed a tremendous respect for her talent …
I make it a point to include at least one of her songs in all the cds and audio cassettes that I record.
Intresting, this was actually a very great read! thanks
Well, as I hv mentioned in my blog.. its jst been arnd 2 yrs since i hooked to old hindi film music.. n i discovered Geetaji thru “Tadbeer se bigdi hui…” playing on AIR FM Gold.. arnd tht time..
and after tht, for the first few days, it was Geeta Dutt n one else, tht mattered to me.. I searched for every piece of info on the legendary artiste.. since then, I hv built a sort of collection of her songs.. not many in numbers, though..
for me, old hindi music is synonymous to Geeta Dutt.. Rafi, Asha, Kishore & all follow after her..
want to do my bit in reviving her work among the present gen..
God bless my fav artiste!
Intresting, this was actually a very great read! thanks
It was not long before, in 2005, I got, by chance, a CD, compiling evergreen Bengali songs of various artistes of yeateryears. “Ei Sundar Swarnali Sandhyay” was the second track and begining from the melodious humming, the whole song just mesmerised me I heard it over again and again and each time it gave me a fresh charm. On the very first hearing of her voice, I declared Geeta Roy my favourite singer. Then I went on collecting her songs and now I have around three hundred of them. The song “Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya” and the Bengali song “Kon Shey Birohi Aponare Dohi” appeals to me a lot. Besides, I love every other song sung by Geeta Roy. I feel that every song of hers should be considered a hit. Geetaji’s voice, indeed had some divine characteristic, her voice haunts me wherever I go and in whatever I do. It surprises me, how, being a lad of sixteen, I am so much attracted to a person’s voice, who is of the generation of my grandparents! That is the divine charm that Geeta Roy’s voice could create. Long live the melodies of my favourite singer. May she continue resting in eternal tranquility.
So, how does a girl from Hamburg, Germany (pardon my English…), come to love the singing of Geeta Dutt?
Well, basically I’m a jazz listener, especially fond of the jazz styles of the first half of the 20th century. I discovered what is usually referred to as “world music” on a trip to Greece. There I heard some music I hadn’t known before, which I liked, and after a while I found out that it was called “Rembetiko”, and that this, too, was music popular in the Twenties, Thirties and Forties.
I went on to discover more of these beautiful fascinating sounds from earlier times and far away places – Latin American music like Rumba and Tango, which is comparatively easy to find on CD, and also Middle Eastern and Asian sounds. I purchased Chinese oldies in little shops in London’s Chinatown, and naturally I was thrilled when my local world music record shop displayed a CD titled “Golden Voices from the Silver Screen” – film songs from India, as aired in the BBC TV series “Movie Mahal”. Mind you, this was the early nineties, and nobody in Europe outside the Asian communities knew anything about “Bollywood” then (but maybe the TV series was the starting point of the Bollywood craze which catapulted Shahrukh Khan to international stardom and suddenly made movies like “Awaara” turn up at my hometown’s art cinema?)
Whatever – that one CD included two tunes, titled “Babuji Dheere Chalna” and “Na Jao Saiyan”, sung by a singer named Geeta Dutt. I listened, and I was hooked. I liked the other singers, too, Lata, Asha, Rafi and Mukesh, but Geeta was something special. In my personal musical pantheon she’s right up there with Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith, my absolute favourites. Maybe what sets Geeta apart from other Bollywood singers is a quality otherwise associated with jazz singers, or with “Chansonnières” like Edith Piaf – not just perfect execution of a song, but also emotion, passion, plus a feeling that she knows what she’s singing about. Besides – she sure could swing, too!
So here I am, some 15 years later, with internet shops and mp3 downloading making all this music more available than ever before, in an unprecedented abundance! And never would I have dreamt then, that one day I would be able to read about Geetaji on a website launched by fans thousand of miles away – keep up the good work!
Oh, and of course – happy anniversary!!!
Nice Information! I personally really like
Matchless topic