This article is by Mr. Raghav

I as an avid listener of Hindi film music shudder to think of the possibility of life without Rafi. Though he is not amongst us today in physical form, the rich legacy and heritage of music he leaves behind is an everlasting treasure cherished every day by myriad of fans like me.

Before Rafi entered the film music scene in a big way, there were likes of Saigal, Surender, KC Dey, Mukesh, Punkaj Mullick all fine singers in their own way, but none had the unique qualities of Rafi; the richness of voice, infinite range of scales, versatility, classical background, equal ease with any kind of music be it classical, light, folk, western, Arabic, oriental, styles.

The Music Directors of the era like R.C.Boral, Anil Biswas etc, constrained as they were with limited range of the singers of that era, had no choice but to limit their compositions within the confines of the vocal range of the singers of that era. All the songs of that era today sound so staid, simple and sleepy to us brought up on Rafi. Had there been no Rafi, would the music scene have been same as it became? Could the MD’s have had the courage and opportunity to compose a variety of songs that became possible with Rafi? Could we still be stuck in the same old format and form of music?

Rafi changed the whole scenario. The metamorphosis was revolutionary in style as well as in content. The form and content, as well as the format and template of songs changed forever. Rafi’s versatility made it possible for MD’s to think of composing songs like man tadpat, chaudhvin ka chand, madhuban mein radhika and scores of similar songs in classical tradition.

Of course western oriented songs could have been sung by likes of KK, but who could sing feisty, full of life songs like Yahoo Chahe Koyi Mujeh, Jab pyar kisi se, Tumsa nahin dekha, Khoya khoya chand etc.

Music directors like O.P.Nayyar, Shankar Jaiskishan, S.D.Burman, Madan Mohan, Chitragupt, Ravi, even Naushad couldn’t have blossomed and developed the way they did thanks to a voice like Rafi which made it possible for them to compose any weirdest, hitherto untried, unheard of kind of songs because they knew that Rafi can sing anything, and that too very very well!

Rafi made it possible for MD’s to broaden their horizons, think anew, experiment, take risks, be innovative and broadband their musical genius.

Without Rafi could all this have been possible? I think NOT.

Besides his voice and versatility, biggest contribution of Rafi was to start and enable a revolution that swept Hindi film music from 50’s and changed it forever.

After Rafi? Well, many people sounding like Rafi came and went but none could take place of Rafi. KK dominating the scenario, once again brought in a change because the MD’s had to compose within the confines of KK style and range. Subsequent emergence of singers like Sanu, Udit did bring about changes, but the possibilities that existed with Rafi on the scene, never resurfaced again.

I request readers to come up with a list of songs which couldn’t have been composed but for presence of Rafi, songs which no one else could have rendered, could LP compose Chahunga main tujhe? who else could have sung it?

– Raghav

This blog was published on Monday, December 31st, 2001 at 3:44 am and Last modified on Sunday, December 4th, 2005 at 3:53 am and is filed under Meri Awaaz Suno. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.