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…)

By Souvik Chatterji

Mohd Rafi with Jeetendra

Jeetender started his career in the early 1960s with the patronage of eminent director V. Shantaram. He was launched as hero opposite Rajashri in the film Geet Gaya Pattharone in 1964. At that time Jeetender had to face the competition from the rulers of bollywood films like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Rajender Kumar and others. Probably Jeetender spend his toughest time of the career to cement his place between 1964 to 1970, when viewers starting recognizing Jeetender and appreciating his acting and dancing skills. (more…)

By Onika Setia

Mohd Rafi Sahab with team

एक प्यार भरा सन्देश रफ़ी साहब के नाम

हम अपने दिल की बात एक ग़ज़ल के रूप में पेश कर रहे हैं उसके नाम जो इस संसार से तो चला गया मगर हमारे दिल से ना जा सका . ( 10 सालों के बाद भी ) जो हमारे ख्यालों में बसा हुआ है उस के नाम दो गज़लें पेश-ऐ- खिदमत है। …. (more…)

By Vineet Kumar Bhatia, Jaipur

Mohd Rafi

Background playback singing is an important organ of Indian Film music. The song in the background represents the synopsis & gist of the very philosophy enshrined into the movie & brings out to the surface its main theme, ethical & moral values as well.  This singing aspect can be termed as one of the toughest facets of singing arena, because in other form of singing, voice ability of a singer is superimposed by the acting i.e lip syncs of an acting artist(s). Therefore, most of the appreciations of the song are taken away by the artist(s) on the screen & the good flavour of the singing voice is just lost & goes in vain. (more…)

By Mahesh Prasad Rijal

Mohd Rafi

It is not so long ago that an angel made a short visit to the Earth to pleasurize mankind with a soothing voice. Although his visit lasted for a very short period of time, his progress in the field of singing was equally swift for he had a significant love for music.The glorious success he achieved in very short period was unachievable by any ordinary singing talent because his success were measured in people’s hearts, more than awards and trophies. His Godhood was visible not only by his sonorous voice, but also his character and never-proud-attitude that reflected the Goodness he had within him. (more…)

By Pravin B Dave

Lata Mangeshkar singing Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Chinese aggression on India’s border in NEFA and Ladakh. It also reminds us of the period when “watan ki aabroo khatre’ me’ hai” ; “aawaz do hum ek hai” ; “aapni azadi ko hum mita sakte’ nahi” ; ” kar chale’ hum fida jaan aur tun” , all by the patriot of all patriots – our great Sahab, and “ai mere watan ke logo” by Lataji. (more…)

The is article is compiled by Mr. Biman Baruah, Sr.F&AO, ONGC Ltd., Mumbai High Asset, Mumbai.

Shashi Kapoor and Mohd Rafi

Mohammed Rafi Sahab created wisdom of real playback singing in Hindi Film Music with his universal voice and great transforming quality in his voice. He is the first ever singer who eliminated the distance between acting and playback singing in Hindi Film. He also eliminated special attachment between singer-actor combinations. For instance, Mukesh as a voice of Raj Kapoor, Talat Mehmood as a voice of Dilip Kumar and Kishor Kumar as a voice of Dev Anand. He had a universal voice and can sing for any actor modulating his voice according to range of voice of the actor, so that audiences can think that the actor singing on screen. Thus, he was the only singer who can sing for three brothers universally like Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor. (more…)

By : Suneil K Makwana

Tribute To Rafisaab

88th Birthday celebration of the Legend Padmashree Mohd. Rafisaab under a banner “ Rafi Ki Yaadein” on 24-12-2012 at Juhu Jagraan Hall, Mithibai College, Mumbai. All Rafi lovers and talented singers like Shree A. Narayan (Nari), Shree Kishore Makwana, Shree Manikrao Bhise (Voice Of R.D. Burman), Master Mohd Patel, Shree Santosh & Female Singer Smt. Rani Kaur pay their homage to the legend.. (more…)

By Souvik Chatterji

Mohd Rafi with S.D.Burman

Sachin Dev Burman as a composer had a liking for folk tunes and the softness of sounds of nature was captured in his compositions. Whenever his compositions were studied in the commercial films there was limitation relating to the immense musical talent because there were preferences of the producers, actors and other groups of people.

But when it came to realistic films, probably SD Burman’s best tunes were created. Mohammad Rafi as a singer had the greatest range and modulation in respect of singing. So SD Burman’s songs in realistic films with Mohammad Rafi created magic. (more…)