Geeta Dutt was a renowned Indian playback singer and a HindiHindi/ BengaliBengali classical artist. One of the initial songs as a playback singer was ‘Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya‘. The song describes the pain of a woman whose life turns tragic after she loses everything she has in her life. It translates to ‘My beautiful dream has ended, and the cruel world has won. Little did she know that this song would become the description of her life.
Venturing into Hindi Film songs, Bollywood:
Geeta was born in Faridpur (now Bangladesh) before India’s partition. She was one of the 10 children born to a wealthy zamindar. Her family shifted to Kolkata and Assam during the early 40s, abandoning their land and properties in Faridpur. Later, in 1942, her parents moved into an Apartment in Bombay (now Mumbai). At 12, she continued her schooling in Bengali High school.
Around 1947, Geeta was 15 when a music director heard her singing on her balcony. He was mighty impressed with her melodious voice and signed her for his movie called Bhakt Prahlad. He was K. Hanuman Prasad. Furthermore, he trained and groomed her for professional singing before launching her career. Bhakt Prahlad was a mythological film, and she sang two lines for two songs in the film.
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Singing career over the years:
After a year from her debut, Burman heard a song from the film and decided that Geeta would sing 6 of the 9 songs he composed for ‘Do Bhai‘. The decision was made after a disagreement between Burman and the producers. One of the songs in the film was ‘Mera Sundar Sapna’. It was destiny that this song, later on, went to become the theme of her life.
Geeta Dutt has sung many prominent songs in her singing career, and she was a versatile singer. She could easily sing a Cabaret number to a bhajan song. Some of her best ones are Na Jao Saiyyan, from the Guru Dutt-classic directed by Abrar Alvi — Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. The other, Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam, is from the cult classic Kagaz Ke Phool.
During one of her song recordings for the movie Baazi, she met a young and upcoming director, Guru Dutt. She was playful, young, and slightly restless while he was creative, calm, and philosophical. Despite their contradicting personalities, something clicked between the two. Their romance materialized in the form of marriage on 26 May 1953. They had 3 children together, Tarun (1954-1985), Arun (1956-2014), and Nina (b. 1964).
Changing the course of life:
In the film Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Meena Kumari was the face who reflected the anger, frustration, and desperate feelings of a wife who wanted to hold on to her hedonistic husband. She tries to shape herself into the woman her -pleasure-seeking husband prefers. But, the end is tragic when the wife becomes an alcoholic in the course and the husband meets a painful end.
Another similar song is ‘Na Jao Saiyaan’. The song has scenes with close-up shots of drunk Meena Kumari’s eyes and face. The soul of the song was Geeta Dutt’s seductive voice, which had pain and some playfulness with the essence of deep pain.
She sang nearly 1200 songs in Hindi films. Geeta has sung songs in different languages like Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Maithili, Bhojpuri, and Punjabi. She has even sung in the Nepali evergreen movie Maitighar. Geeta even sang Non-film discs, singing to the tune of notable music directors like Sudhin Dasgupta and Anal Chatterjee.
In 1957, Guru Dutt launched the film ‘Gauri’. He introduced Geeta Dutt as a singing star of the film. The film would have created history by becoming the first film in cinemascope. However, it got shelved after shooting for a few days. It was alleged Guru Dutt was romantically involved with Waheeda Rehman. To cope up with all these, Geeta Dutt took up drinking. The break-up in her marital life had a considerable impact on her singing career.
In 1958, S.D Burman had a disagreement with playback singer Lata Mangeshkar. He decided to work with Geeta Dutt as the main singer for his songs rather than upcoming singer Asha Bhosle who was raw as per him. But, Geeta could not practice her art adequately due to her problems that failed to meet his expectations.
Time brought tragedies to the star:
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). Geeta suffered a nervous breakdown, and she was caught in financial problems. She tried to resume her career by recording disc music for Durga Puja and doing stage shows. In one such stage show, she collapsed on her chair during her performance and Singer Hemant Kumar sang her lines. She starred in a leading role in the Bengali movie, Badhu Baran (1967). She also sang admirably in Anubhav (1971), to the music of Kanu Roy. Her final performance was for Midnight in 1972 (unreleased).
During the 60s, the 2 women linked with a tragic song from Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Meena Kumari and Geeta Dutt turned into victims. Not talking about Meena Kumari’s tragic life here, Geeta Dutt becomes an imitation of the young bride from the movie Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. She became irreverent in the industry she could have dominated by her talent. Geeta was no longer acknowledged for her singing and at the age of 41, her life was destroyed. Time did bring pain for the versatile singer, who was sweet and once full of life.
