Initially, Geeta was a singer known for singing bhajans and sad songs, but her renderings of composer S. D. Burman's jazzy musical scores in Bazi in 1951 demonstrated a new facet of Geeta's singing: The sexiness in her voice and her easy adaptation to "western" tunes. From then on in the 1950s, Geeta was people's first choice for singing seductive songs and providing song accompaniments in dance clubs.

S.D. Burman recognized the magic in Geeta's voice through her songs in "Do Bhai". He effectively used the Bengali lilt in her voice in movies like Devdas (1955) and Pyasa (1957). The song "Aaj Saajan Mohe Ang Lagaa Lo" in "Pyasa" is a prime example of a Bengali keertan being presented in its Hindi version.

Under composer O.P. Nayyar's direction, Geeta further developed into a singer who could sing almost any kind of song, be it soft, snappy, teasing, or sad. She, Shamshad Begum and Lata Mangeshkar were the premier female playback singers in the 1950s.

According to some estimates she has sung for around 100 composers during her career!.

The third composer who gave her many hit songs was Hemant Kumar. Some other popular composers for whom she sang were Shanker-Jaikishen, Chitragupt, Bulo C Rani, Hansraj Behl, Husnlal-Bhagatram and Madan Mohan.

During Geeta's recording of songs for the movie Baazi, she met the movie's young and upcoming director, Guru Dutt. Their romance culminated in marriage on May 26, 1953. Geeta went on to sing some of her best songs in his movies while continuing to sing in various other assignments as well.

Geeta and Guru Dutt had three children: Tarun (b. 1954), Arun (b. 1956), and Nina (b. 1962).

In 1957, Guru Dutt launched a movie, "Gauri",' with Geeta as its singing star. It was to be India's first movie in Cinemascope, but the project was shelved after only a few days of shooting. By then, their marriage was on the rocks, Guru Dutt had got romantically involved with Waheeda Rehman, and Geeta had taken to drinking. The breakup of their marriage affected Geeta's singing career.

In 1958, S.D. Burman had developed discord with Lata Mangeshkar as a playback singer, and he attempted to work with Geeta as the main singer of his compositions rather than the upcoming Asha Bhosle, who, he felt, was relatively raw. However, out of her personal problems, Geeta would not practice her art sufficiently, and failed to meet Burman's demanding standards. (He, and O.P. Nayyar too, then started to work with Asha and helped her blossom as a singer.)

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 then suffered a serious nervous breakdown, and also ran into financial problems. She tried to resume her singing career, cutting discs at Durga Puja, and giving stage shows. She also performed in a leading role in a Bengali movie, Bhadu Bharan (1967), and sang admirably for a movie, Anubhav (1971), which turned out to her final performance to the music of Kanu Roy.

Geeta died of cirrhosis of the liver on July 20, 1972.