FOREVER MOHD RAFI:
ARTICLES BY NASIR WHO IS TODAY CONSIDERED AN AUTHORITY ON THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MOHD RAFI:
With special reference to the 1950's and 1960's.
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It had became as clear as crystal to the Music Directors and the film industry in general in the Fifties as to what a storehouse of powerful voice did Rafi Sahaab have. They thus could come up with many compositions without restrain about the scales for they had found in Rafi Sahaab a singer who could not only understand and emote the finer nuances of lyrics effectively but also deliver the songs with grace and sweetness going from the low and high and back without losing the voice quality. Rafi Sahaab's ability to staying in tune even in fluctuation of voice range, producing specific vowel sounds and tone colours for the sound that were needed were now all too evident. So by the close of Fifties it was Rafi Sahaab all the way. He could sing all genres of songs with great ease. The classicals he had already rendered in Baiju Bawra and Basant Bahar and other movies of the Fifties, culminating in 1960 with MADHUBAN MEIN RADHIKA NAACHE RAY....(Kohinoor). His duet with Lata in Suvarna Sundari: KUHOO KUHOO BOLAY KOYALIYA is again an unforgettable number. Other genres such as Ghazals, Qawwalis, Western-influenced numbers too were already mastered by him in the Fifties. To give just an example each when the question of rendering a ghazal of Ghalib (Mirza Ghalib – 1954) in a difficult composition came up before Ghulam Mohammad he could only turn to Rafi for rendering HAI BAS KE HAR IK UNKAY....As for the qawwali style and its feel, who can forget AANKHON MEI.N TUMHAARE JALWAY in Shirin Farhad. In the Fifties itself the Western pop music had begun its assault and the Bollywood film industry could not remain unscathed. Therefore, when the West danced to Rock ˜N' Roll music, we had our own Desi version in LAL, LAL GAAL, JAAN KE HAIN LAAGU...(Mr X - 1955) belted by our own Rafi Sahaab who could not at all be repressed. Later, O.P. Nayyar found it to his comfort to use Rafi Sahaab's mastery over this style to churn out lilting numbers such as JAAWAANIYA YEH MAST MAST BIN PIYE...(Tumsa Nahin Dekha - 1956). When Usha Khanna was introduced as the Music Director in DIL DEKE DEKHO (1958) she seemed to be under this influence too. Rafi Sahaab rendered the title song of the movie that was inspired by SUGAR IN THE MORNING, SUGAR IN THE EVENING. In the same movie, Rafi Sahaab also rendered the Desi version of the DIANA number: I'M SO YOUNG AND YOU'RE SO OLD... by KAUN YEH AAYA MEHFIL MEIN... By the way, after a quarter of century later, Rafi Sahaab would be singing to Usha Khanna HUM AUR TUM AUR YEH SAMAA from this movie showing his pleasure for the masterly composition of TU ISS TARAH SE MERI ZINDAGI MEIN SHAAMIL HAI from the 1980's AAP TOH AISAY NA THHEY. The Fifties was also a decade when many low-budget mythological movies were made. It was a boon for their music directors that Rafi Sahaab sang the Bhajan's with so much emotion, pathos, power, and mastery of Hindi dialect as well. (He had already proved that with MANN TADPAT HARI DARSHAN KO...in Baiju Bawra). His Bhajans from Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1953) including GOKUL GAAWOON, and from Tulsidas (1954) including MUJHE APNI SHARAN MEIN LAY LO RAM....; from Chakradhari (1954): KAHAY KO BISRAA HARI NAAM; Aastik (1956) O JISKA SAATHI HAI BHAGWAAN.... Or from the Dilip Kumar starrers: Amar (1954): INSAAF KA MANDIR HAI, Insaniyat (1956): APNI CHHAAYA MEIN BHAGWAN, Naya Daur (1957): AANA HAI TO AA.., can never be forgotten. The genre comedy are amply represented by such songs as: AY DIL HAI MUSHKIL (C.I.D – 1956) SAR JO TERA CHAKRAAYE (Pyaasa -1957), JANGAL MEIN MOR NAACHAA (Madhumati – 1958). These songs are specially known for their uncanny resemblance to the voice and the mannerisms of comedian Johnny Walker. But then he also sang such songs for other actors too. One such notable movie is HAMM SAB CHOR HAIN. In the Fifties the Voice of Rafi Sahaab was sugar and honey and tugged at the hearts of its listeners, evoking all shades of noble emotions. No doubt he became a national icon.
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