Why So?
Sunday, July 6th, 2008This article is written by Mr. H.V.Guru Murthy
Whenever I listen to certain songs of yesteryears, I am always baffled by the choice of Singers for the particular song where the actors are required to act songs in an unfamiliar voice or without their usual singers. Of course, I am referring to songs mostly from pre-70s especially sixties as post-70, it became a fad for all the heroes to have KK singing for them and in fiftees, almost all Heroes had two or three Singers singing for them. When I listen to the melodious Rafi – Lata duet “Tum Hi Tum Ho Mere Jeevan Me†(Ek Dil Sau Afsane), I wonder what made SJ to select Rafi in place of Mukesh or even Mannadey, two best known play back singers for Raj Kapoor. Similarly, Rafi’s song in Mera Naam Joker. (more…)
Saturday Night Rafi Fever – "Part V" at Mumbai’s Naushad Hall. JULY 31, 1980 is the day of Legendary singer Mohd Rafi leaving us and becoming "IMMORTAL". Rafi Saaheb is easily one of those rarest of rare personality who is remembered each passing day with music lovers and fans visiting his final resting place at Juhu Mosque showering petals n flowers all round the year. 
Neither old age nor the vicissitudes of a long singing career have weakened Mahendra Kapoor’s zest for music. The singer who gave us the soulful “Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se” way back in 1963 is now ready with a collection of Sufi songs. Even at 72, the voice that took high pitch singing to unmatched levels still has a lot to offer. The affable veteran singer says that his sufiana album is something he wanted to do after he had his full in other genres of singing. 
A big debate is going on in various web sites of Rafiji, KK and others regarding who was a better singer. In fact, this sort of discussion was always going on even in our days when we used to heatedly argue as to who was better.
The Eyes which are an integral part of our body are a gift of nature. Eyes can give an expression without words. The portrayal of love, emotions, fear, confusion, mischief, solitude, pain, cruelty, truthfulness, etc can be expressed through eyes. In the golden era of 50s and 60s when love was expressed through sensuality, eyes played an integral part of the characterization of a role. This provided a lot of scope to writers to pen down some of the evergreen writings in the form of songs, dialogs, scripts, etc. 
Veteran actor Shammi Kapoor remembered Rafi Sahab during his felicitation by Aamir Khan at 10th Osian’s-Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema. Legendary filmmakers of his era Shakti Samanta, who made hits like ‘Kashmir Ki Kali’ and ‘An Evening in Paris’ with him and Lekh Tandon, who directed him in ‘Professor’, gave him the award. Sammir Dattani, Veteran actress Kamini Kaushal, Shakti Samanta, Lekh Tandon, Satish Shah with wife, Kamal Siddhu, Aditya Raj Kapoor with wife and mother Neilu, Raj Zutshi, Chetan Bhagat and many others arrived for the event. More at 
MOHD RAFI centric singers will test their singing skills, singing gems from the store-house of two legendary composers of the hfm : Roshan and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Rafi lovers are expected to attend in full strength and lap up the gems on offer "live" at the Naushad Hall in Mumbai’s central district – Sion on June 14, from 6.30 p.m. onwards. The Chief Guests expected to attend are: M/s. Sharada : playback singer and Mr.Padmakar Shivalkar the great Indian leg spin bowler – both of whom are dyed in the wool Mohd Rafi Lovers. 
Mohammad Rafi transformed thousands of ordinary songs into unforgettable & immortal with the touch of his charismatic voice. After the departure of this great legend, incalculable numbers of new singers came to light and many of his contemporary singers claimed to be best, but all disappeared in the dark. On other hand the magical effect of the songs of Rafi Sahab on the hearts of millions of music lovers is becoming deeper day by day. 
More than 90% of the people who are reading this know that this has something to do with Alibaba and the 40 thieves. But more than “Open Sesame”, what do today’s people know about this story? Think and see…it seems strangely blurred up, does it not? Well, that is nothing out of the ordinary and here is a chance for you to refresh your memory. This fantastic tale from the Arabian Nights is about a young man named Alibaba. Upon his father’s death, he and his elder brother Kasim were left with little. While his brother went on and married a rich woman, Alibaba became a woodcutter. 
Dev Anand was called evergreen hero because of his looks, boyish charm, his style, his positive energy and perhaps also due to the fact that he acted with maximum heroines in his career. The songs he sang on screen added to his romantic image whether the Singer was Rafi or KK or Talat or Hemant or even Mannadey (‘Chale Ja Rahe Hain, Mohabbat Ke Maare’ from Meena Kumari starrer Kinare Kinare). Songs from his fiftees and especially early sixties were mainly instrumental in popularising his movies.