MOHAMED RAFI: THE VERSATILE GENIOUS
THE EARLY YEARS
Rafi was born at Kotla Sultan Singh Village near Amritsar in Punjab, to a middle class Muslim family. His family shifted to Lahore when he was still a baby. Every day, a "fakir" used to come to their locality in Lahore and sing. The young Rafi was so fascinated by him, that he used to follow him around. His elder brother Hameed was aware of Rafi's love for music and encouraged it. In Lahore, Rafi started taking music lessons from Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan and he also learned Indian classical music from Ghulam Ali Khan. One day Rafi and his brother Hameed went to attend a performance by K. L. Saigal. But the legendary singer refused to sing because there was a power failure at the venue. Hamed went up to the organiser to ask whether his brother could sing to keep the audience quiet. That was Rafi's first public performnce at the age of 13. Among the audience sat noted composer Shyam Sunder, who invited Rafi to Bombay.
Rafi's first song was in Punjabi for the film Gul Baloch - it was a duet with the singer Zeenat Begum. The song was Soniye nee, Heeriye nee, composed by Shyam Sunder. Shyam Sunder was impressed with his voice and gave Rafi seven songs in another film Bazaar. Also, in 1944, Rafi decided to move to Bombay, where Naushad gave him a break in Pehle Aap (1944). Rafi made his mark with "Tera Khilona Toota Balak" in Anmol Ghadi (1946). Rafi's first hit song was Yahan Badla Wafa Ka with legendary songstress Noor Jehan, composed by Feroz Nizami. It earned Rafi fame. Producer of film Amar Raj, J B Wadia went looking for him because he wanted only Rafi to sing songs for his film.
Rafi also had brief roles in movies like Laila-Majnu (1945) and Jugnu (1947). In Laila-Majnu, he was seen singing Tera Jalwa as a part of the chorus. Most famous film being Neel Kamal 1968.
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