A long-awaited stamp issue has been finally released by Indian Post! These are ten commemorative stamps dedicated to the most outstanding Indian singers who are Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar, Bhupen Hazarika, Geeta Dutt, T. M. Soundarajrajan and Shamshad Begum. Let’s appreciate these bright items together!
Talat Mahmood (February 1924 – 9 May 1998) is considered one of the greatest male singers in India. A born singer with an intuitive sense of beauty, charm and grace; a legendary Indian playback singer who created his own new style of ghazal singing which was to be followed afterwards. Talat Mahmood received Padma Bhushan in 1992, in recognition of his artistic contributions in the spheres of cinematic and ghazalmusic.
Prabodh Chandra Dey (1 May 1919 − 24 October 2013), known by his stage name Manna Dey, was a playback singer. He debuted in the film Tamanna in 1942, by this song “UparGaganBishal” and went on to record more than 4,000 songs from 1942 to 2013. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 1971, the Padma Bhushan in 2005 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2007. Manna Dey sang in all the major regional Indian languages, though primarily in Hindi and Bengali. His peak period in Hindi playback singing was from 1953 to 1976.
Mohammed Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) was one of the most popular singers of the Hindi film industry. Rafi was notable for his versatility; his songs ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs, sad lamentations to highly romantic numbers, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans. He was known for his ability to mould his voice to the persona of the actor, lip-synching the song on screen in the movie. It is believed that he sang about 7,400 songs in many languages.
Kishore Kumar (4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987) was a famous playback singer, actor, lyricist, composer, producer, director and screenwriter. He is considered one of the most successful playback singers of the Hindi film industry. He was awarded the “Lata Mangeshkar Award” by the Madhya Pradesh government and from that year onwards, the Madhya Pradesh Government initiated a new award called the “Kishore Kumar Award” for contributions to Hindi cinema.
Mukesh Chand Mathur (22 July 1923 – 27 August 1976), better known mononymously as Mukesh, was a playback singer of Hindi movies. Along with Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar, he was one of the most popular and legendary singer of his era. Amongst the numerous nominations and awards he won, his song “Kai Baar Yuhi Dekha Hai” from film Rajnigandha (1973) won him the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer. Mukesh was also popular as being the voice of the actor Raj Kapoor. The first song that he sang for a Hindi film was “DilJalta Hai ToJalne De”.
Hemanta Mukherjee, often credited as Hemant Kumar (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), was a playback singer, music director and film producer, who sang in Bengali, Hindi and other Indian languages. He won two National awards for the category best male playback singer.
Bhupen Hazarika (1926–2011) was a lyricist, musician, singer, poet and film-maker from Assam, widely known as Sudhakantha. His songs, written and sung mainly in the Assamese language by himself, are marked by humanity and universal brotherhood and have been translated and sung in many languages, most notably in Bengali and Hindi. His songs, based on the themes of communal amity, universal justice and empathy, have become popular among the people of Assam, besides West Bengal and Bangladesh. Geeta Dutt (born Geetā Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri; 23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972 was a prominent singer, born in Faridpur before the Partition of India. She found particular prominence as a playback singer in Hindi cinema. She also sang many modern Bengali songs, both in film and non-film genre.
Thoguluva MeenatchiIyengar Soundararajan (24 March 1922 – 25 May 2013), popularly known as TMS, was a playback singer in Kollywood for over six decades. He gave his voice to actors and thespians in the South Indian film industry such as M. G. Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan, N. T. Rama Rao, Gemini Ganesan, S. S. Rajendran, Jaishankar, Ravichandar, AVM Rajan, Muthuraman, Nagesh, Rajkumar and A. Nageswara Rao. He also gave his voice to many new generation actors like Kamalahasan, Rajanikanth, Vijayakanth, Satyaraj, Rajesh, Prabhu, Vijaya Kumar and in five generation actors.
Shamshad Begum (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) was an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry. She had a distinctive voice and was a versatile artist, singing over 6,000 songs in Hindi and the Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil and Punjabi languages and of them 1287 songs were Hindi film songs. She worked with maestros including Naushad Ali, S. D. Burman, C. Ramchandra and O. P. Nayyar.