MOHAMMED RAFI - The Eternal Singer

Madhuban  mein  Rafida  Nachere…..!!!!

Mohammed Deen, elder brother of a young lad called Pheeko had a barber shop ,  and the  lad spent many of his childhood days in his brothers barber shop.     One day,  when Pheeko was about seven years of age,  his brother noticed him following a fakir who was walking the streets singing while playing on his Ektara (a one-stringed instrument).    Ignoring the regular reprimands of his parents,  the young boy continued to follow the fakir to his abode - a huge tree - on a regular basis.   Then one day, some of the patrons at the barber shop heard him sing the songs of the fakir with such perfect sur (pitch) that they immediately recognised the immense musical gift that the boy possessed,  and were convinced that this young genius-in-the-making was destined for greater things in life.     The elders,  and the patrons,  then used to regularly ask the young boy to visit the barber shop and sing for them,  for he had a truly sureely awaaz.    Pheeko  had picked up the rudiments of music from a fakir while already possessing a God-gifted voice and is better known to the connoisseurs of  music  and also to other music lovers as Mohammed Rafi!

This great singer was born at Kotla Sultan Singh, Amritsar (British India), as the fifth of six sons, to Hajji Ali Mohammed. Fondly called as Pheeko. When Rafi,  at a tender age of about fifteen decided to become a singer,  his father,  a village landlord,  was dead against the idea.     His brother, Mohammed Deen, though,   having recognised that this young boy had a God-given talent which he simply could not see go to waste,  decided to help his little brother realise his dreams,  for the young Mohammed Rafi enjoyed nothing as much as he did to sing all day long.   When a was barely seventeen years old,  and sang his first playback song for a Punjabi film,  'Gul Baloch' under the music direction of the late Shyam Sunder in 1941,  Rafi was not literate  enough and had to commit the words to memory before he could go before the microphone.      When it came to remembering any melody though, there never was a problem.   The young genius in the making needed only to hear a melody once to not only commit it to memory,  but also suggest improvements to the tune.    Following the popularity of his Punjabi song,  Rafi took the final big step in his life and ventured off to Bombay to realise his dreams of making singing his career.     In 1942 he arrived in Bombay to sing,  again under the music direction of Shyam Sunder for the movie 'Gaon ki Gauri'

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After this successful debut in Bombay,  Rafi approached the renowned music director Naushad,  confiding in him his admiration for the great Kundan Lal. Saigal,  and how his ambition was to sing with Saigal Saheb.     Naushad did not disappoint him,  giving him two lines (Ruhi Ruhi Mere Sapnon ki Rani) with K.L Saigal for a song in the movie 'Shahjehan'.     Although Rafi had several 'hit' songs during these early years,  he never-the-less had tough competition from respected singers like  Manna Dey,  Talat Mahmood,  Hemant Kumar and Mukesh.    The real recognition for Rafi,  though,  which never saw him looking back again,  was his incomparable effort for his songs in 'Baiju Bawra' under the music direction of Naushad Sahab.    O Duniya ke Rakhwale (which you're listening to right now) together with 'Man Tarpat Hari Darshan' left Rafi in a league all of his own.    He continued over the years to lend his magnificent golden voice to such great music directors as Sachin Dev Burman,  C. Ramachandra,  Roshan,  Shankar-Jaikishen,  Madan Mohan,  O.P. Nayyar,  Kalyanji-Aanadji,  Laxmikant Pyarelal,  Jaidev,  Salil Chowdhury,  Ravindra Jain,  Iqbal Qureshi,  Usha Khanna,  Ravi,  Chitragupta and Rahul Dev Burman,  to name a few.

Any music lover whether a connoisseur or not would definitely agree that when one thinks of Indian film music, the name of Mohammed Rafi crops up almost instantaneously. It is difficult to accurately give the count of the total number of songs he has sung during the 56 years of his life from 24^th December, 1924 to 31^st July, 1980, so is to count the number of his fans. Of course he entertained all of us he starting his active singing at the age of 21 only giving us only a span of 35 years of his sweet voice. Rafi received his training from prominent  classical Ustads like Abdul Wahid Khan,  Pandit Jiwanlal Matto,  Ghulam Ali Khan and Firoz Nizami  -  all doyens and devotees of music.

It was not difficult for the family to get convinced gong by the performance he had in Lahore, the first of his numerous public ones at the age of 13 and his first movie song, a duet in a Punjabi film “ Gul Baloch” along with  Zeenat Begum starting like”Soniye Nee, Heeniye Nee”, and a few songs at the  All India Radio, Lahore. Stalwarts and Wizards of music of those days like Pandit Jeewan lal Mattoo, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad  Abdul Wahid Khan, Foroze Nizami etc helped Pheeko  get moulded into the Mohammed  Rafi we know of ,through their  intensive trainings at various stages of his formative days..

He is noted for his ability to render songs of different moods and varieties with the greatest degree of perfection. In fact he was one of the first playback singers who molded his voice to the persona of the particular actor for whom he sung. Even now while listening to his songs one will be able to link it to the actor who had enacted the song in celluloid. His variety spreading over pure classical, patriotic, extremely romantic and sad lamentations are always cherished by his fans. Quawwalis, Bhajans, Ghazalas were also his specialities.His complete command and control over Hindustani music was his strength which helped him to scale the heights of fame. His voice was heard in languages like Assamese, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Odiya, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Gujarati, Sindhi, Maithili, Urdu, Maghi etc. Unfortunately Malayalam and Tamil were never blessed with his songs. It is reported that one of the great music composers of Malayalam Baburaj had requested him to sing a song in the film “Dweepu” and Rafi Saheb politely declined the offer saying that he was not sure whether he will be able to pronounce the words, which he was always insistent. Finally Talat Mohammed sang the song “Kadale Neela kkadalae”. However he had also sung in foreign languages like Persian, Dutch, English and Spanish.

Shyam Sunder who had given Rafi a break in Punjabi film at Lahore , again made him record his first ever song in Hindi, a duet with GM Durrani “Aji Dilko quaboo mein”.His acquaintance with Shyam Sunder , Poet Tanvir Naqvi etc made him closer to the  active film makers of those days like Mehbooh Khan, Abdur Rashid Kardar etc and brought him regular opportunities to sing in Hindi movies. His success in the first round of duets gave him solo numbers too and he excelled in both these, as we have seen. Almost all the music composers readily accepted this gifted singer and rolled out great hits.Naushad is believed to be the wizard who came out with the most melodious ones through Rafi.

'Bapu ki Amar Kahani',  a poignant song dedicated to the Mahatma Gandhi,  recorded just a month after Gandhi-ji's assassination in January of 1948,  had Nehru-ji shedding tears at the emotion in Rafi Sahab's voice.    Rafi Sahab sang over 26,000 songs in all the national languages of India in his fourty year career.    He was the master of all forms of songs  -  he could sing ghazals,  qawwalis and bhajans with the same ease and greatness.    There came a time in the sixties when Rafi Sahab was the permanent voice of Shammi

Kapoor,  Dilip Kumar,  Rajendra Kumar,  Dev Anand,  Dharmendra,  Shashi Kapoor and Raj Kumar.    In fact,  Shammi Kapoor's films were mainly popular because of the songs,  which were sung by Rafi Sahab in a very distinct style.    Rafi Sahab's voice personified the rebellious image of  'Yahoo' star,  Shammi Kapoor  ;   made RajendraKumar a 'Jubilee Star'  and Jeetendra a 'Jumping Jack'. 

  

Sachin Dev Burman made Rafi sing for Dev Anand and Guru Dutt.Great numbers of Pyasa, Tere Ghar ke Samne, Kagaz ke phool etc. Though with a coming back of Kishore Kumar, Rafi received a slight set back for a brief period, the movies which had hits of Kishore from Sachinda like Aaradhana (Rajesh Khanna), Guide (Dev Anand), Abhimaan(Amitabbh Bachan) etc Rafi was also roped in to come out equally popular numbers like”Baagon Mein Bahar hein”, :Tere Mere Sapne”, “ Tere bindiya re”.The number sung for  Abdul Sattar(better known as Johny Walker) in Pyasa-Sar jo tera chakaraye enacting a mobile massager, has come out well from Rafiji , may be due to his acquaintance with such activities during his childhood at Lahore where his father had a Men’s parlour.

Shanker Jaikishen team had excellent partnership with Rafi whereby the most famous ones in the movies with actors like Shammi Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar were produced. The songs of Junglee like “Yahoo-chahe koi mujhe jungalee kahe”, “Ehsaan tera hoga”, Bharao phool barsao, Dil ke jharoke mein, Teri Pyaari Pyaari”, Re mama re mama re”,Chakke mein Chakka, Mein Gaoon tum so jao, numbers fom Evening in Paris, Love in Tokyo etc.

  

Chaudvin ka Chand ho ya aphtaaph ho—an ever remembered melody from the Guru Dutt film with the same name was composed by Ravi who also gave Rafi very good numbers in Neel kamal. Madan Mohan who had marked Rafi as a favourite came out with excellent numbers through him. Like Teri aankhon ke siva, Yeh duniya yeh mehfil etc. OP Nayyar made him sing for Kishore Kumar as actor in Ragini-Man mora Bawara and many other unforgettable melodies in the films-Kashmir ki Kali, Tumsa nahin Dekha, Naya Daur etc.

The film  Dosti which gave the songs like Chahoonga mein Tujhe, Janewalo zara etc were results of the combination of Rafi with Laxmikant Pyarelal. RD Burman gave a break to him when he was getting chances less frequently after the reentry  of Kishore da with the film Aradhana, by giving Rafiji a national award winner-Kya hua tera vada in Hu kisise kum nahin.The quawaali from Amar Akbar Anthony-Parda hein Parda for Rishi Kapoor  still remains the greatest filmy Quawalis.

Rafiji’s first wife, a cousin of his refused to come to India after the ill famous partition of India and stayed back in Pakistan. He married again and has three sons and three daughters. He lived a pious , religious and disciplined life refraining from club  and party life, smoking and drinking. He was known as a humble man with so many good qualities. His attitude was evident when he agreed to sing for Kishore Kumar.He was regularly continuing his practice of music everyday  as Niaz even after he attained fame.He occasionally used to play caroms, Badminton , kite flying etc etc for exercise and entertainment.He chose to remain calm when other leading artistes like Lata Mangeshkar raised the issue of royalty on the songs which brought about an unwanted rift between the two artistes.Rafi’s view was that once he has been paid the agreed and          contracted amount for recording a song, his claim ended .If the movie and the songs were hits and fetched money it was for the producer who was not compensated when the reverse happened and .One composer Nizar Basmi (later migrated to Pakistan)  who couldn’t pay anything to Rafi for a song, Rafiji just took a token fee of One rupee and readily recorded a song for him. He never carried any ill feeling towards any of his male or female fellow singers and always cooperated with the composers to sing along with any and all of them.

Apart from winning the hearts of millions of pure music lovers the worls over, Rafiji had been bestowed with many awards some of which are: Padma Shree Award in 1967,National Award for Best Hindi film singer (1977), Film Fare award for best singer-6 times., Sur Singar award, Bengal Film Journalists’ award- 3times, a Silver Medal from the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the first anniversary of Independence in 1948, (after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the team of Husanlal Bhagatram-Rajendra Krishan-Rafi had overnight created the song "Suno Suno Ae Duniyawalon, Bapuji Ki Amar Kahani)

Naushad gave him his first song “Hindustan ke Hum hein’ for the film”Pehle Aap” (1944).Talat Mohammed was the favourite singer for Naushad.However with Baiju Bawra ( with the difficult and pure classical ones like Hari Om Man tarapat hari darsan”, Duniya ke rakhwale etc) Naushad continued to use Rafi, more and their duo produced super numbers to the listeners like the ones in Mughal-e-Azam. I personally, am an exponent of Rafi numbers particularly the Naushad number from Kohinoor- set to Rag Hameer- Madhu ban mein Raadhika Naachere  which is considered to be a class one, a classical  and a classic one ever to come from Hindi moviedom .(Hence the caption for the write up)  Madhuban mein Rafida Nachere.he will always continue to dance in our  gardens  of memories reminding us of  his unique musical wisdom and sweetness.

On the 31^st of July, 2013 , it will be 33 years since we lost this great singer to another world where he will be entertaining the music lovers  like he had done to us and still continues to do. The last song the bard is reported to have sung was :Sham phir kyon udass hein dost’ (of Aas Paas) making the evenings of millions of real music lovers udaas forever; but the available recordings of his songs in various forms  and the memories we recollect and share  keep him always at our Aas Paas. May his tribe be born and born again to enrich music.

Free Media Journal Contributor-

Mr. Vinayachandran is a singer and  music enthusiast. He is a senior official of State Bank of India Contact-vinchand59@gmail.com