Quiz by Asha - Meri Awaaz Suno
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Naushad says he would like to 'balance' the anecdote that was related in the first question when Rafi was at his lowest ebb with an account of his abiding dedication after he had reached his peak. No doubt this tale, too, has its location in the period following the Kishore Kumar wave, but by the time it took shape, Rafi had regained his gumption and set the seal on his comeback. Once again let us have it in Naushad's own words...
"I was scoring for Habba Khatoon - not the Habba Khatoon the late Mehboob Khan had planned to make, but the one Sanjay Khan wanted me to compose with Zeenat Aman in the title-role. Ali Sardar Jafri had come up with a beautiful piece of poetry for the film's maiden recording, starting with the words: Jis raat ke khwab aaye oon khwabon ki raat aayee.
When Rafi heard this opening line, he was visibly moved. 'At long last, Naushad saab,' he said, I'm going to sing poetry, not flim-flam - you have no idea about the kind of abracadabra they get me to render these days. And what a lovely composition to match the lovely words! Rest assured, Naushad Saab, that I'm going to do full justice to this and any other number you may summon me to sing for a theme so poetic as Habba Khatoon.'
Rafi by then was already back at the zenith of his vocal powers, so I had no difficulty in rehearsing him to a point where we were word-perfect and tune-perfect. The recording, therefore, went exceedingly smoothly - in fact, I okayed the first take itself, permitting Rafi the luxury of a second try only because he felt he could do even better, though I knew that, having resumed our pattern of thorough rehearsal, that first take could not be excelled.
I now underscored the point to Rafi by playing to him both takes, one after another. And Rafi had agree that the first take was the better one. 'I should have known it, Naushad saab,' he said. 'Once you said so, it had to be so, only this confusion seems to have entered my mind that I can now peak only in the third take or so, since that's how today's music directors record me.'
But then today's music directors hardly rehearse the singer outside the studio, whereas, with me, it had at all times been no end of rehearsal but just one take in the case of Rafi. And now that Rafi's very first take of Jis raak ke khwab aaye, set in Patdeep, had been okayed, the moment came to hand over the Rs. 15,000 he was again charging for a song.
Rafi said, 'What are you doing, Naushad saab? Do you think I am going to accept payment for such a surpassingly lovely creation that's come for me as an oasis in the desert at a time when they have turned me into a billi-kuththe ki awaaz? Forget it, let Jis raat ke khwaa aaye endure as the number with which Naushad restored to Mohamed Rafi his vocal ethos.'
Rafi by then was of course at a stage in his career when he could afford to forgo the amount. But he had done the same some 23 years earlier, when he was in dire need of the cash and yet had chosen to forego Rs. 500 for the song we had recorded for a mood number for Shabab - so pleased was he with my Gaud Sarang composition."
Now that Naushad has revealed the name of the raaf of that Rafi solo from Shabab, can you identify the number?
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Saif answered it correctly on the forum. The correct answer is Aaye Na Baalam Waada Kar Ke
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