This article is written by Mr. Souvik Chatterji.

Mohd Rafi with Shankar

Shankar Jaikishan had always been known to set trends and not follow any existing system created by the other compositions. SJ used Lata to her limit in Barsaat in the late 40s, during a time when the other female singers like Noorjahan, Suraiya, Samshad Begum, Rajkumari were also prominent in singing playback songs in bollywood films. SJ never stuck one single team and that was one of their secrets of success in bollywood films. (more…)

This song review is written by Mr. Gan Sharma

Mohd Rafi, Naushad, C. Ramchandra, Talat Mehmood

The reason modern Hindi songs lack the nuances, the twists and the folds of older numbers is simply that life itself has lost them. You cannot divorce poetry from life, and when life has grace, pain, fortitude, gentleness and a value system, poetry has them too. Today’s life, unfortunately, is all straight lines: clean-cut, neatly shaven, and artificially perfumed – and so today’s music is either just technical or cynical. In the days gone by, though, grace in daily life was important; restraint was important; bearing was important. Therefore, the poetry of those days was beautiful too. (more…)

This little piece has been penned down by Mr D.P.Bijoor and shared by Mr Nitin D Dhareshwar.

Mohd Rafi

The voice born at the Kotla Sultan Singh located near Amritsar, the fragrant voice of the soil, in which he was born on 24th December 1924, the voice of the khet, khaliyan in which he grew up, the voice of you & me, the voice of the masses and ultimately the voice of the silver screen almost ranging from Talat Mahmood to Mahmood and various character and other artists. (more…)

This article is written by Mr. Devraj M.V

Mohd Rafi, Dilip Kumar

Amar (Dilip Kumar) is an advocate in a typical Indian village. Accidentally he meets the village girl (Nimmi) who innocently falls in love with him. During a village festival Nimmi performs a dance and an appreciative Amar garlands her. To the girl, Amar’s act is symbolically equivalent to marriage and she becomes his devotee although Amar is engaged to Anju, a rich lady (Madhubala). (more…)

This article is written by Mr. A.S.Murty, Rafi Foundation, Hyderabad Chapter.

Mohd Rafi

Hundreds of songs sung by the legendary singers of the golden era of film music in India are on the lips of millions of music lovers who enjoy listening and singing them again and again.  Several decades after they first hit the stands, these songs have given millions of music lovers solace, taught social messages, inculcated in them a fervor for nationalism and patriotism, spread brotherhood and a sense of god-fearing among the masses.  They have enlivened several kinds of rituals, functions, programmes and enriched the thriving industry of music in all forms. (more…)

This article is written by Chandan (Mr. K.S. Ramachandran).

Mohd Rafi

We have been talking of the wonders of the world and of late I see wonders of India that was announced. All of us here in this great group would, I am sure, agree with me, that the wonder of “wonders” that this mother earth has bestowed on us is our dear Rafi Saab. More and more we talk about this great legend, we feel it is less and less. Probably a true exception to the concept of “diminishing marginal utility”!!

Many of us have listened to the songs of Rafi Saab literally every day and probably a million times through our clubs and various regional chapters but we seem to be not at all satisfied and we want to talk about this legend in one way or the other, more and more. (more…)

By Anonymous

Mohd Rafi, Firoz Khan

500 years before the legendary Mohammed Rafi was born, William Shakespeare is reputed to have said that a rose is a rose is a rose. Even if called by any other name, it would smell as sweet.

This small piece of literary history came to fore so resonantly and how!. And it needed the somber reflection on the past of a good-looking actor called Feroze Khan, who lost his battle with cancer in Bengaluru the other day. All the talk has been about Rafisaab lending his mighty vocals for the frontline bigwigs like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Rajendra Kumar, Shammi Kapoor and secondline poker-faced heroes like Joy Mukherjee, Biswajit, Bharat Bhushan and their ilk. The list is exhaustive (!) and endless. (more…)

This article is written by Mr. M.V.Devraj

Mohd Rafi with S.D.Burman and Guru Dutt

Guru Dutt’s film Kaagaz ke Phool released in 1959 was the first full Cinemascope Indian film. This was considered to be a slow movie and was an initial flop. Guru Dutt, a brilliant filmmaker, was way ahead of his times. But when the film was later re-released, it became a cult film. The film won two Filmfare awards, one for its cinematography and the other for its art direction. Two lyrical gems, ‘Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam’ and ‘Dekhi zamaane ki yaari’ written by the inimitable Kaifi Azmi and set to music by Sachin Dev Burman are distinct high points of the film. (more…)

This article is written by Mr. Souvik Chatterji

Mohd Rafi with Shammi Kapoor, Hasrat, Jaikishan

When Shammi Kapoor was informed about Rafi’s death in 1980, he was told by the informer that he had lost his own voice. In other words it was said that Rafi’s voice had reached the soul of Shammi Kapoor, whose success in bollywood films was largely dependent on the golden voice of Rafi. Shankar Jaikishan had contributed in around 22 films of Shammi Kapoor and without the magical duo Rafi’s combination with Shammi Kapoor would not have fulfilled the popular demands of the musical audience. (more…)

This article is sourced by Mr. P. Narayanan and written by Ms. Shikha Biswas Vohra, the illustrous daughter of the legendary music director Anil Biswas. I think it is important for me to stress the Anil Biswas-Mohd Rafi nexus or rather lack of it. I have recd several calls from Rafi fans after my clarification on Radio Farishta and they are quite pleased with the solving of a long-standing dilemma – Shikha Biswas.

Shrikant Narayan, Shikha Biswas

Music lovers of Delhi were enthralled by the sheer magic of melody, as they travelled back in time to the golden era of Indian cine music. Responsible for transporting them there was the combination of the effort of Sangeet Smriti, an organization dedicated to old melodies being run in the capital by Shikha Biswas Vohra, and the mellifluous voice of Shrikant Narayan, who held an entire audience spellbound with his renditions of the ‘melodious moods’ of the immortal singer. (more…)