Written by: J.K. Bhagchandani

This piece is inspired by the write-ups of some distinguished writers on this forum describing how they became a Rafi-fan. I thought to pen down my account on this subject.

Mohd Rafi

The music and especially the film songs fascinated me from as early days as I can remember. Those were the days when radio and especially Vividh Bharti was the main source of access to film music. In early days, the songs of all singers like Rafi saab, Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh, Talat Mehamood, Kishore Kumar etc. fascinated me with no specific favorites.

But slowly my liking graph of Rafi took an ascending path. His voice mesmerized me like a magical spell. While all singers were great but I found his voice having that something extra, something indescribable which can only be felt. The most notable feature being the wide spectrum of songs that he sang with seemingly effortless ease. In those days it was quite common that two or three consecutive songs of Rafi saab were played on Vividh Bharti. And more often than not, these songs used to be contrasting in nature. For example: Na kisi ki aankh kaa noor hoon……. followed by Baar baar dekho.… or Nain lad jaee hain to…… followed by ‘Yaad na jaaye beete dinin ki….’. I was wonder-struck by his range. (more…)

Ghazal written by Sarah Modi.

Mohd Rafi

I am a huge fan of Rafi. Here is my tribute to him in form of a ghazal I wrote and composed for him. It is only for Rafiana. This song is copyrighted and unauthorized copy or distribution of it is prohibited.

badhawaasi ke is shor mein
ek sukoon ki sadaa hain rafi
mohabbat ke noor ki
ek haseen adaa hain rafi (more…)

By Souvik Chatterji.

Mohd Rafi with Suman and Hasrat

Shankar Jaikishan in the 60s made immense number of experiments in bollywood film music. Right from westernized compositions to Indian classical songs to folk tunes, the compositions had a wide variety. Rafi was the automatic choice of the legendary musical duo, with his tremendous range and romantic appeal. Suman Kalyanpur sang landmark duet song with Rafi under the composition of giant composers during the 60s, including Naushad “dil-e-betaab ko sinese lagana hoga”, in Palki, Madanmohan “baad muddat ke yeh ghari aye”, Jahanara, Roshan “rahe na rahe hum”, in Mamta, Khayyam “parbaton ke pero par sham ka basera hai”, in Shagun, to name a few. Suman Kalyanpur sang many immortal duet songs with Rafi in the 60s and 70s under the composition of Shankar Jaikishan. (more…)

By Mr. Biman Baruah, Assam

Mohd Rafi with Sanjeev Kumar

APNE  LIYE  JIYE  TU  KIYA  JIYE
TU JI  YEH  DIL  ZAMANE  KE  LIYE
It is one of my beloved songs which depict the great personality of our beloved Rafi Sahab and the song was picturised on versatile actor Sanjeev Kumar in the film BADAL (1966). Long back in my school days, I had seen this song for first & last time in RANGOLI telecast by DD-1 at 07:00 AM. From that time, I was under presumption that it was being sung by Rafi Sahab. Since, I do not have collection of this song and recently with a plan to work on Rafi – Sanjeev Kumar combination; I searched the song details and disconsolately came to know that it is being sung by Manna Dey not by our beloved Rafi Sahab, though the song was composed by Rafi devotee composer Usha Khanna in the lyrics of Javed Anwar. (more…)

By Souvik Chatterji

Mohd Rafi with poet lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi and composer Khayyam

Mohammad Zahur Khayyam Hashmi, better known as Khayyam, was generally an off-beat composer whose level of excellence could be very well compared with Naushad or Shankar Jaikishan or Roshan, inspite of composing music in less number of films.

Born in 1927, Khayyam, learnt music from Baba Chisti, a renowned composer of Pakistan. He learnt music from also Hunslal Bhagatram and Pandit Amar Nath. He assisted composer G.A. Chisti in Lahore for some time. He returned back to Ludhiana in 1943. He went to Bombay to be an actor. He got a role in the Yeh Hai Zindagi in 1947. (more…)

By daijiworld.com

Mohammed Rafi Foundation Launched in Mangalore

Padmashree Mohammed Rafi Foundation was inaugurated during a function held at Lions Seva Mandir here, recently. MLA U T Khader inaugurated the foundation. Managing trustee Pascal Baptist Pinto lauded the musical talent of Bollywood legendary singer the late Mohammed Rafi. Mumbai Rafi Foundation chairman Binu Nair, Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee (DCC) vice-president Ivan D’Souza, Inland Infrastructure Developers Private Limited managing director Siraj Ahmed, MUDA former chairman Suresh Ballal and former deputy superintendent of police Sharief were present on the dais. Read More

By Mr. Souvik Chatterji

Mohd Rafi

Jeetender was one of the bollywood stars who maintained his stardom with successful films for over 30 years. Born in 1942, his success started in the 60s and continued till the 80s. Rafi had sung innumerable number of golden songs which had remained timeless gems.

Although he started his career with Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne in 1964, he created attention with his dancing skills in the film Farz in 1967. All the songs composed by LP and sung by Rafi became smashhit. The successful songs included “mast baharon ka mai aashiq”, “baar baar din yeh aye”, “tumse wo haseena”, to name a few.  The Rafi Jeetender combination continued in the film Jeene Ki Raah. All the songs of the film became successful including “aap mujhe acche lagne lage”, “ai mare humjoli aa” and “ek banjara gaye”. (more…)

By Souvik Chatterji

Mohd Rafi with Dharamender

Dharmender  had a grand combination with musical maestro Mohammad Rafi which contributed the most in the major part of his acting career which glorified bollywood films for more than 40 years. Dharmender and Rafi’s combination was unique for a number of reasons. Firstly Dharmender was not attached to any big banner in the early part of his career like Dilip Kumar with Bimal Roy or Shammi Kapoor with Shakti Shamanta. Secondly Dharmender played prominent roles opposite senior actors in many films in the early part of his career like Balraj Sahani in Haqeekat, Rajender Kumar in Ayee Milan Ki Bela, Raj Kumar in Kajal, to name a few. For those reasons, different composers composed music in the films of Dharmender and most of them were sung by great Rafi Sahab. (more…)

By: Sohail Butt. He is a ‘Rafi Bhagat’ of long standing and can be contacted at: sohail_butt@hotmail.com.

I am pleased to attach a copy of my article that I wrote in 2007 following my visit to Rafi Saheb’s house in Lahore and met his real brother Mohd Saddique and his nephew Mohd Ashfaq (Late Mohd Ibrahim’s son). I am also attaching some photos of a musical function in Lahore where Mohd Saddique sahab sang his late brother’s songs. The written article and photos can be related to each other.

Mohd Rafi with Hameed

Lahore ( founded by  prince Loh, son of Ram Chandra  in 1000BC)  has been described by  many during its long history   in so many different ways that it is extremely difficult to sum it all up in a word, sentence or even a book. However there are few sayings in Punjabi that I have heard and will like to quote them if I were to describe the city:

(1) ‘ Lohrre , Lohrre Aiye”  ( Lahore is Lahore).

(2)  “ Jinay Lohrre Nahin Waykhay, oh, nay kuj nahin waykhay” (If you have not seen   Lahore , you have not seen anything).

(3)   Nahin Reesan Shahar Lahore Deeyan ( The city of Lahore is incomparable and unmatchable). (more…)

By Achal Rangaswamy
Part 2 in continuation

Mohd Rafi

Kala Bazaar..Madras..a rainy evening..slick pavement was perhaps at a time when I hardly realized what was happening to me, I was too young to know most things.

But the first real taste of Bollywood in all its Eastmancolour clarity and beauty was- seeing Joy Mukherjee swing his guitar more like a cricket bat, wear a white sweater like a cricketer and croon ” Laakhon Hain Nigaahon Mein” in Phir Wohi dil laaya hoon. It was a Christmas afternoon and Regal Cinema in Delhi. I fell in love with voice of Joy Mukherjee, the singer’s voice I mean, and was completely bowled over by the tonga style rendition of Banda Parvar Tham Lo Jigar…the title song of the same movie. “paaon jahan rakh dogey adaa se dil ko wahin paaogey…” truly mesmerized me. (more…)