TRIBUTE TO MOHAMMED RAFI THE LEGENDARY SINGER OF INDIA...1...
ARTICLES BY NASIR WHO IS TODAY CONSIDERED AN AUTHORITY ON THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MOHD RAFI:
Part 1
With special reference to the 1950's and 1960's.
What I present below is just a general observation and impressionistic views of an ordinary fan who did hear and enjoy the songs of Rafi Sahaab in the good old days and cherishes them still.
With the untimely death of the legendary Kundanlal Saigal in January 1947 a void had been created. Most of the actors having given up singing too about the mid-Forties, playback singing was a new industry and those who came in at that stage, most of them were heavily influenced by the Saigal style. Naushad, who had teamed up with Saigal in Kedar's masterpiece Shahjehan had given the last of great musical hits that kept the memory K.L. Saigal alive. The older generations were crazy after Saigal's songs. For several years, after his demise, Radio Ceylon used to play a 78 rpm record of Saigal's songs every day at 7:57 a.m.. It is against this background that emergence of Mohammad Rafi has to be seen and appreciated. Without going into his story of his earlier beginnings and forays in the Bombay film industry which are too well-known, I would like to begin at once with taking small glimpses of the "Rafian Process" that had a solid foundation in the late Forties itself, and which began building on that foundation in earnest with the 1950's. In accordance with the compositions of the Music Directors of the late Forties, Rafi Sahaab sang those songs that involved use of low octave in his earlier voice. For example, HAAY RE DUNIYA....in Zeenat (1945), YAHAAN BADLA WAFAA KA (with the reigning queen of melodies, Noor Jahan), and a light number for collegians: WOH APNI YAAD DILAANAY KO where he also appears as himself (Jugnu 1946); or TERA KHILONA TOOTA BALIK... in Anmol Ghadi (1946) had him singing in a deep bass. However, personally I'm surprised at Rafi Sahaab's rendition of KEH KE BHI NAA AAYE TUM...in Safar – a 1946 number under C. Ramchandra. The style belongs to the Fifties with another tonal quality. The following years we find a powerful amalgamation of the emotional feel of Rafi Sahaab blended in his songs In 1947, Do Bhai which had hit numbers of Geeta Roy, he lamented: DUNIYA MEIN MERI AAJ ANDHERA HI ANDHERA. The same year he gave such hits as TUM HAMAARAY HO NAA HO, in Saajan IK DIL KE TUKDE HAZAAR HUYE...was another of his song giving that hapless unrequited love in PYAAR KI JEET (1948). Emotion mixed with Romance in HAMM KO TUMHAARA HI AASRA in Saajan (1947). In 1948 he gave quite a few numbers for Amirbai Karnataki in Shehnaz. However, in MORE RAJA HO LE CHAL... in Nadiya ke Paar the voice used for Dilip Kumar is still in low octave. Which is again reflected in YEH ZINDAGI KE MELE in Mela (both of 1948) though not filmed on the protagonist.
Part 1 continues.....