Clarion call to Bollywood
Monday, August 27th, 2007This article is written by Mr. A.S.Murty
Mohammed Rafi, the Numero Uno among all the singers that our country has produced, ruled over Bollywood for close to four decades. He sang over 27000 songs and in many languages and he sang all types of songs. Be it ghazals, geets, qawwallis, bhajans, romantic or tragic, patriotic or plain MESSAGE BOARD songs, Mohd. Rafi rendered them all with such subtle ease and passion that he has no parallels in the music industry. He worked with all the top film producers, directors, music directors, female lead singers, male lead singers and a host of chorus artistes. (more…)
From my very childhood I used love the songs of Rafi Sahab. That was the time when I was not understanding Hindi or Urdu ( my mother tongue is Telugu ), but neverthless the heart touching melody & softness in rendering had developed a prominent position in my deep within, which has become an inseparable bondage. I started craving for Rafi sahab. I used to get sleep while listening to these melodies. I dint know when my mother had switched off the radio. That was the time when I was in a small village Sakhigopal in Orissa. 
Some words are really made for Padamashree Mohd.Rafi Sahab ( The King Of Melody ) and his every song has a m’essage for his fans, like Wadiyan Mera Daman Rashate Meri Rahe Ja oo Mere Siya Tum Kaha Ja oo gee. My Father Mr: Kishore.M.Makwana and My Self (Suniel.K.Makwana) are very great fan of Padamashree Mohd.Rafi Sahab. We are staying near Famous Studio at Tardeo were Rafi Sahab use to come for his song recording and whenever we listen the songs sung by him we always say 
Mohammed Rafi has sung innumerable duets with Lata Mangeshkar, Geetha Dutt, Asha Bhonsle, Suman Kalyanpur, Sharada, Shamshad Begum, etc. apart from other male Singers like Mannadey, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, Talat Mehmood, Shailendra Singh, Balbir, etc. But there are certain duets where the other Singers commence the song and Rafi enters the song late. Invariably it is found that in such songs Rafi has stolen the thunder from other Singers and has elevated the quality of the song. 
Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar have perhaps sung the maximum number of duets as compared to any other Singers, which was even admitted by Lata in her SHRADDANJALI. Those days, the MDs used to get the complete Royalty for any record sold. In the mid sixties, these two great Singers had a rift due to which they did not sing together for about three years. Officially it was given that Lata wanted a higher Royalty for the Singers, and thought that with Rafi’s backing, as he was the most popular singer during that period, 
Teri Ada album is like unearthing a veritable goldmine lost in the sands of time. ‘TERI ADA’ Love is in the air’ brings out the last few songs of Mohammad Rafi, composed by late Chitragupt Ji and penned by Late Kafil Azar. Recorded 28 years ago, these hitherto unheard of songs are now being released by the composer duo Anand-Milind exclusively on the Reliance Mobile World. 
Omkar Prasad Nayyar (better known as O.P.Nayyar) is known to be one of the trend-breakers of the traditional music in the Golden Age of Indian film music, in the 50s and 60s. During that period although the Film arena were glorified by Giants of different specialisations, namely Naushad with his Brilliant Ragas, Roshan with the use of Sarengi and providing immortal mujras and qawallis, Madanmohan with his everlasting Ghazals, the general trend of Hindustani classicals and folk songs were used by most of the music directors. Excepting Shankar-Jaikishan who worked on diversified subject matters like 
In the inagural function of Delhi Chapter of Rafi Foundation, the first biography of legendary singer Mohammad Rafi – Meri Awaz Suno was released by renownd singing actress Padmashree Puspa Hans and wellknown classical singer Padambhushan Shanno Kurana.