Geeta
ji was blessed with a rich voice that was like an interacting
instrument that at once mesmerized her listeners. She
had such magic in her voice that charmed her listeners
like a snake is charmed to the music of a been. She
rendered songs from her heart making them so endearingly
heart rendering. When she sang "Thandi Hawaa Kaali Ghata"
you can feel the cool breeze of an overcast day. When
she sang "Koi Door Se Awaaz De" you can sense the feelings
of a hauntingly disturbed soul celebrating the resplendence
of life on one side and yet lamenting setbacks on the
other. As critic Subhash K. Jha puts it aptly "Geta
Dutt's voice conveys the sweetness of honey and the
pain of the bee sting."
Geeta Dutt was born into a rich zamindaar's family
as Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri in Faridpur, East Bengal
in 1930. In 1942, her parents shifted to a Dadar apartment
in Bombay when she was twelve. Over there in their modest
flat at Dadar, composer/music director Hanuman Prasad,
overheard her singing and agreed to take her under his
wings to provide her training with nuances of singing.
Soon after this, he launched her in a chorus song in
the movie "Bhakta Prahlad (1946)", where she had only
a couple of lines to sing.
S.D. Burman heard Geeta ji's voice and immediately
decided to have her sing in "Do Bhai". Geeta ji had
this unconventional way of singing. The time was when
most singing styles had origins of ghazals. Geeta ji
who had this innate talent, with no formal training
in singing of the type of songs that were in vogue at
that time, introduced her own brand of appealingly fresh
and free flowing style of singing. Her singing was based
on instincts and spontaneity, guts and feelings, and
love and pensiveness that resulted in breathing life
and emotion into each song she sang.
Geeta Dutt's singing life was largely influenced by
her personal life. While singing for "Baazi" she met
the first time director Guru Dutt and later married
him. During the romance and early years of her marriage
she sang some of her best songs for pictures involved
with Guru Dutt in one capacity or another. Some of the
most beautiful romantic songs Geeta ji sang were during
these days and they were spilled and richly splashed
with her youthfully exuberant voice. On one side she
sings "Babu Ji Dheere Chalna" and the next moment she
scolds her lover by singing "Jaa Jaa Bewafaa". Next
she entices her lover with the song "Hoon Abhi Main
Jawaan". When he is crossed with her she begs by singing
"Yeh Lo Main Haari Piya". This whole gamut of romantic
spectrum emotional rainbow was never repeated
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