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Geeta was born on 23rd Nov 1930 with a keen ear and a honeyed voice.
It didn't take long for her parents to recognize her talent and love for singing and thus, arranged for her professional training under the music master Shri Harendranath Nandi.
It was in 1942 that her family had to shift to Mumbai, and in four years' time she had hit the Hindi film industry with a melodic bang.
Debuting with her playback singing for a mythological film Bhakta Prahlad, the music of which was given by Pandit Hanuman Prasad; she made history and the Hindi film industry got a new versatile playback singer in Geeta.It was in the same year (1946) that Geeta sung for two more of Hanuman Prasad's albums 'Raseeli' and 'Nai Maa'.
Her big break came in the year 1947 when Sachin Dev Burman heard her sing in 'Bhakta Prahlad', met her, and asked her to sing for his upcoming film 'Do Bhai'. Not only did he offer her to sing, he also made her the principal singer for the album with 6 songs (four solos and two duets); against the advice of many of his friends. The song "mera sundar sapna beet gaya" became an instant classic and the sale of the music album reached soaring heights.
This marked the beginning of many more hits to come. Many other music directors like O.P. Nayyar, Anil Biswas, Hemant Kumar, Bulo C Rani, Khemchand Prakash, Vasant Prakash, Gyan Dutt, Ram Ganguly, Shaukat Hussain, Ghulam Haider etc used her voice for their films.
From 1947-1949, Geeta continued to grow in popularity and her versatility and ability to effortlessly shift from mythological song to a sad song to a seductive jazz track was well known among the film circle. Even when Lata Mangeshkar took the industry and fans by storm by giving her vocals to three back to back hit albums of 'Barsaat', 'Andaz', and 'Mahal'; Geeta managed to hold her own and the two along with Shamshad Begum, became the three leading playback singers of Hindi film industry.
A 1951 film directed by the first time director Guru Dutt, the music of which became a rage with many runaway hits with one song that shone particularly "tadbir se bigdi hui taqdeer bana de" added all new dimensions of sensuousness and suavity to Geeta's singing capabilities. Dev Anand stated that it was this song that made people watch the film more than once. And it was because of this song that Geeta was offered many other tracks in the same genre of club/cabaret and she continued to excel in each of the tracks.
It was in 1953 that she married the director/actor Guru Dutt, but in a few years' time her marriage and career started taking a downturn and after her husband passed away in 1964, things got worse as she succumbed to drinking.
Later, though quite a few films she sang for bombed at the box office, but their music and her singing in the songs like "Dekho Jaadu Bhare Morey Naen", "Zara Saamne Aa", "Taare chandni afsaane" and many more are still among the soothing favorites among the fans. Along with singing for the Hindi film industry, Geeta continued to lend her voice in Bengali songs at the same time.
After guru dutt died, She took to drinking.The last song at age 41,she recorded before her death was for Anubhav
After guru dutt died, She took to drinking.The last song at age 41,she recorded before her death was for Anubhav
She died of cirrhosis of the liver on 20th July 1972.
Many of the songs sung by her continue to remain classics till date and Geeta Dutt continues to be remembered as one of the finest singers Hindi film industry has ever had.
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