Anmol Fankaar A website dedicated to artists of the Indian Subcontinent

G.M. Durrani was probably the first singer who emerged in the late 30s and 40s who showed an independent style as opposed to many other singers who tried to emulate K.L. Sehgal. It would be appropriate to say that he was the first major male playback singer in Hindi Films.

G.M. Durrani's full name was Ghulam Mustafa Durrani and is said to have been born in Peshawar in 1919. He had a lovely soulful voice and slowly he developed a keen interest in Singing. He then got a job in All India Radio and used to sing songs there.

He first got an opportunity to sing for a movie Saaed-e-Hawas in 1935/36 which was directed by Sohrab Modi with music by Bundu Khan. Since, playback singing was still in its nascency, he had to sing it himself on screen. Due to limited technology at that time it was a big effort for him. 

He did a few other songs in next few years but they were few and far between. Moreover since he was a AIR employee it was against the rules to do private recordings. His big break came from his guru Rafique Ghaznavi who offered him a duet with Ms Rose for Sagar Movietone's movie Bahurani in 1939. It was agreed that the recording would be done on a Sunday and would be credited to someone else to avoid problems for Durrani. Durrani got Rs 75 for singing that song while his All India Radio salary was only Rs 70 monthly. He decided that he wanted to quit his job at AIR. 

He quit his job on 31st December 1940 and dedicated himself to films. He started singing for all the major singers. He assisted Khwaja Khurshid Anwar for his debut punjabi movie Kurmai(1941) and sang for the movie. He sang a solo, Dil Hinj Hinj Karda. His trio, Gote Da Haar with Iqbal Begum and Rajkumari was a superhit in those days. 

Slowly, he started getting more work. He also assisted Naushad in 1942 for Nai Duniya. His songs in the movie like Dil Loot Liya with Rajkumari were very popular in those days. Work started increasing for him. 

The year 1943 was very good for him. His song, Neend Hamaari Khwab Tumhaare Kitne Meethe Kitne Pyaare from movie Nai Kahani(1943) became a super duper hit which is remembered till date. This opened the doors for him in the industry in a big way and made him the number one male playback singer. He was considered an idol by many including Mohd Rafi who was inspired by his style in the initial years. The same year, when Khwaja Khurshid Anwar could not take up work for a movie called Angoori(1943), he recommended Durrani's name and this became his first movie as composer. He was to do a few movies only as composer and was mostly a singer full time. He also met his actress wife Jyoti during this period and got married to her later.

His continued work led to lots of hits for him which cemented his position as the number one male playback singer. He sang many songs. His duets were extremely popular too. Many of the singers who sang with him in duets were Rajkumari, Suraiya, Parul Ghosh, Geeta Roy etc. He sang songs with all major playback singers of the era. 

His songs for movies like Shama(1946), Do Bhai(1947), Mirza Sahiban(1948), Dada(1949), Aiiye(1949), Maang(1950), Dilruba(1950), Madhubala(1950),  were very popular and he was quite respected in the industry. 

Unfortunately, work for him reduced in early 1950s. There are no confirmed reasons for this. Some say that Lata Mangeshkar had a fight with him in a recording  which affected his career. There are other stories which say that he had gone for Haj and stopped singing for sometime thinking it was against Islam. His mentee Mohd Rafi is supposed to have tried to make him come back by getting songs in movies like Musafirkhana but it didn't happen. There maybe other reasons too known only within industry as it appears from a comment in Manna Dey's autobiography. 

He is supposed to have taken to work in jingles which too dried up and is supposed to have gone to stay in a Chawl thereafter. He had a small shop there apparently to take care of his daily needs. 

He did compose for two stunt movies, Kismat Palat Ke Dekh and State Express in 1961. Due to non-melodious reasons, he was forced to take up a pseudonym Gunjan for these two movies. The movies unfortunately did not do well and he did not get any other movies to compose. He did a couple of songs for Bulo C Rani's last movie Sunehre Kadam but work ended there and sadly his career ended thereafter.

He had a very sweet and melodious voice for which he shall always be remembered for. He had a lovely voice and is particularly remembered for his emotive and chhed-chhad songs. May God bless his memory. 

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