By Vijay Bavdekar, Nagpur

Mohd Rafi with Ashok Kumar

Every Rafi fan remembers many melodious songs of Rafi, rendered under the baton of Great Music Directors like Naushad, Shankar Jaikishan, S D Burman, Madan Mohan, Roshan, O P Nayyar, Ravi, Usha Khanna and the long list goes upto Bappi Lahiri. It will be very much interesting for us to take a deep dive into the ocean of Rafi’s songs to collect the gems produced by less remembered Music Directors or those who produced sparkling songs in their small career and disappeared like a firefly. (more…)

By Ahamed Kutty

Mohd Rafi with Geeta Dutt

The man who became a Radio Repairer in his early days only to hear the HEAVENLY VOICE OF RAFI SAAB from Radio Cylon and Vividh Bharati is Radio Koya. I met him last week at his residence in Calicut, Kerala. The sit out where “Rafi Mehfil” is being conducted on every Sunday evenings with two big portraits of Rafi Saab welcoming us while entering the home. Calicut is the ‘City of Music Lovers’ and Rafi Saab is their favorite than any other singer – local or other languages. (more…)

By Sharad Desai

I have made a list of Rafi sahab 25 different songs, with different letters, with different actors, and different movies. Help me list a song starting with letter ‘X’. (more…)

By Vijay Bavdekar

रफीकी भक्तिरसधारा,

‘मन तडपत हरी दर्शन को आज ‘(बैजू बावरा),’बड़ी देर भई बड़ी देर भई कब लोगे खबर मोरे राम ‘(बसंत बहार)जैसे ईश्वर के प्रति समर्पण भाव व्यक्त करनेवाले भक्तिगीत हम बरसोंसे रफ़ी साहबके अदभुत स्वरके भक्ति छटा के आविष्कार स्वरुप सुनते आ रहे है। रफ़ी साहब के गाये हुए भक्तिगीतोंमे ईश्वर की अनुभूति दिलानेका सामर्थ्य है यह एक सम्पूर्ण सत्य है । मेरे इस विधान के पुष्टीकरण में उन्होने १ ९ ६ ० के पहले गाये हुए कुछ चुनिन्दा भक्ती गीतोंका मै यहाँ जिक्र करता हूँ जो हमेशा सुनाई नहीं देते तथा जो हम सुन चुके है । (more…)

By Sonilal Bedasie, Trinidad, West Indies

Mohd Rafi

Good day to every one and devotees of The RAFI Age. This is my humble statement and I think it will be appropriate to say the following: At the present time, I am now afforded the opportunity to make my tribute and I am taking it, for if I miss it now, I will regret it later and maybe I won’t be around anymore.

Being a heavy duty fan and disciple of this great singer is by no means a whim or a fancy.  I am observing every one is paying a dedicated service in their own shrines to this ICON in their hearts, consciousness and otherwise. Lip service  is not an option and in this respect, we stand guard permanently to this GREAT MASTER – MOH’D RAFI. (more…)

Written by Dr. Khaja Aliuddin

The word “ MAA” is the sweetest word in the world. When you express the word “ MAA”, your lips kisses together. This is unique, beautiful and amazing, SubhanAllah.

Although, many “ Mother’s Day  celebrations world-wide have quite different origins and traditions. In America, Anna Jarvis celebrated first time in 1908 on second Sunday of May. After this brief description on “Mother’s Day “ I would like to connect our beloved Rafi Sahab with “ Mother’s Day”. Rafi sahib has sung so many beautiful numbers on “MAA”. Maa hai mohabbath ka naam is one of his masterpiece from the movie “ Maa ka Aanchal “, beautifully composed by Madan Mohan with heart touching lyrics by Kaifi Azmi. When you listen to this song, you get mesmerized thinking about your mother. (more…)

By Vijay Bavdekar

Mohd Rafi

Dear Rafians, it will be great pleasure for you to recollect and listen the following rare gems (in true sense) of our beloved Rafi Saheb.

1. Mai jab gaun geet suhana gaye mere saath jamana-Film-Amar Raj-1946-M. D.Firoz Nizami (This claasical base song is also in duet form. The lady singer with Rafisaheb is famous Mohantara.  (more…)

By Dr. Souvik Chatterji

Joy Mukherjee and Mohd Rafi

There were many bollywood actors who acted in more than 200 films out of which 40 to 50 films were musical in nature. In case of Joy Mukherjee out of his 38 films in a career spreading over 15 years, almost all the films were musical and his everlasting combination with Mohammad Rafi only produced gems after gems. (more…)

By Biman Baruah
( My personal accolade to Shammi Kapoor and his major playback voice Mohammed Rafi )
(This article is dedicated to Rajkumari Neela Devi and Aditya Raj Kapoor.)

Shammi Kapoor

Actor Shammi Kapoor unified with voice of God nearly 1 ½ year back in 2011. Once upon a time, Producer-Director Manmohan Desai remarked about Mohammad Rafi: “If God had a voice, it would be Rafi’s voice’.” Manmohan Desai also remarked, “My first brush with superstardom came when I directed Shammi Kapoor who is India’s first superstar and the most stylish actor ever seen in Hindi Cinema.” Monmohan Desai was a great aficionado of Rafi Sahab who directed the Shammi Kapoor in four films: BLUF MASTER (1963) & BUDTAMEEZ (1966) as a leading hero and PARVARISH (1977) & DESH PREMEE (1982) in supporting role. (more…)

Short articles written by Fans – M.S.Zaman, Mahender Singh and Dharmendra vyas

This picture was taken when he was rehearsing for the song Dono ne kiya tha pyaar from the film Mahua with the music director duo Sonik-Omi.

I feel very frustrated of my inability to put into words my feelings for Rafi Sahab in a correctly transpiring manner, about his style, his experiments with voice, ragas, feelings, sentiments, sensibilities, beauty, eternity, spirituality, nostalgia, vocabulary, and, God knows, what else that I could not write here.

His experiments with singing in breaths, singing on low and high notes, playing around with voice rumblings and lahriyas etc. were simply matchless. I cannot stop dying listening to his voice. (more…)