A legend in his lifetime, Mohammed Rafi was acclaimed as a gifted singer who had a number of records to his credit. An imaginative biographer has said that Rafi was born with a gold mine down his throat. Though he passed away at the premature age of 55 his songs continue to haunt his admirers as evergreen numbers.
He was born in a remote village near present day Amristar in Punjab. He was the second eldest of six brothers. He had the fortune of learning the basics of classical music from Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan. At the age of 13, He shifted to Lahore along with the renowned K.L.Saigal. But his maiden number was under Shyam Sunder which he sang along with Zeenat Begum in the Punjabi film ‘Gul Baloch’. His first Hindi film was ‘Gaon Ki Gori’ in 1945.
Rafi moved to Mumbai where his first song with Naushad was ‘Hindustan Ke Hum Hain’. He appeared in two movies and sang for Mera Sapnon Ki Rani and Roohi Roohi . After partition, he decided to stay back in India while singers like Noor Jehan migrated to Pakistan. Rafi’s famous solo songs were from ‘Chandni Raat’, ‘Dillagi’ and ‘Dulari’. Another famous director who utilized his voice was Husanlal Bhagatram.
In 1948, soon after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the team of Husanlal Bhagatram, Rajendra Krishan and Rafi combined and created the song ‘Suno Suno Ae Duniyawalon, Bapuji Ki Amar Kahani’. He was invited by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to sing at his residence. On Independence Day Nehru presented him a Silver Coin. Quite interestingly, Rafi’s first song with Naushad Ali was ‘Hindustan Ke Hum Hain’ (we belong to Hindustan) for the film ‘Pehle Aap’.
Rafi’s association with Naushad helped him to be the most successful playback singer in Hindi. The song from ‘Baiju Bawra’ (O duniyake rakhwale) has always been the most favourite among his renditions. Meanwhile S.D. Burman used his voice for Dev Anand and Gurndutt. The songs in ‘Pyasa’ (1957), ‘Kagaz ka Phool’ (1959), ‘Naya Daur’, ‘Kala Bazaar’, ‘Guide’ (1965), ‘Aradhana’ (1969) and ‘Abhiman’ (1973) continue to haunt music lovers even now.
Another rewarding collaboration was with music director Ravi. Rafi got his first Filmfare award for the tittle song, ‘Chandini Ka Chand (1966). It was reported that Rafi burst into tears while recording the song ‘Babul Ki Duaan leti Ja’ for the film ‘Neel Kamal’. Ravi and Rafi produced several other numbers such as ‘China Town’ and ‘Kajal’.
Two other music directors with whom Rafi worked were Madan Mohan and O.P. Nayyar. It was Nayyar who engaged Rafi to sing for Kishore Kumar, who was himself a singer of the first order. The songs in ‘Kashmir Ki Kali,’ ‘Shararat’ and ‘Meri Awaz Suno’ are still popular even after several years.
Equally productive were his numbers with Leksmikant Pyarelal. As a matter of fact, he rendered the highest number of songs for the duo.Another pair of music directors with whom Rafi sang a lot was Kalyanji-Anandji. He has also sung for other directors such as Roshan, Jaidev, Khayyam, R.D. Burman and Bappi Lahiri.
There arose a controversy involving Rafi and Lata Mankeshkar as and when she wanted him to support her with regard to increasing the royalty.
However, he refused to do so stating that since it is the producer who invests the money, the singer does not have any claim after accepting the money sufficiently early.
During 1970s, Rafi suffered from throat infection as a result of which Kishore Kumar had to sing a larger number of songs. His innumerable fans prayed for his safety and soon he became hale and hearty. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Rafi has not less than 25000 songs to his credit, in 11 Indian languages.
Rafi passed away on 31 July 1980 following a massive heart attack. He was buried at the Juhu cemetery attended by more than ten thousand mourners. The Govt.of India announced a two day public mourning. His last song was for the movie ‘Aas Paas’ which he had recorded for Lekshmikant Pyarelal just a few hours before his end.
Rafi’s Baharon Phool Barsao was voted the most popular Hindi song in a BBC Asia Network poll that commemorated 100 years of Hindi cinema. He was also named the greatest voice of Hindi cinema. He has won several times the best singer award, besides a number of honours from a grateful nation.
It is a fact that even after several years of his demise, a lot of music lovers miss him in India and abroad.
In other words, his soulful songs of love, longing and loss still haunt us.