By Rajiv Sachdeva

A lot has already been said and written about the greatness of Mohd. Rafi. Some say his greatness lay in his wonderful voice and ability to emote, some say it was his huge musical range and diversity and many others say it was his ability to adapt to the situation and actor on the screen. And this could go on and on.

According to me, Rafi had two unique and rare talents which make him stand apart.

1. Unlike other singers who sing a song line by line, his musical prowess was so high that he would sing every song word by word. This emphasis on words can be felt in songs such as “Deewana Hua Badal” which gives a pleasant floating feeling and “Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya” which has a heart-wrenching effect. This quality transformed even the most difficult and complex tunes into memorable melodies. “O Duniya Ke Rakhwale” and “Jungle Mein Mor Nacha” are just two examples.
   Sahir once said that Rafi not only sings the words but even enacts them. Many stars of that era, who were not particularly good actors, hugely benefited from this. Thanks to Rafi, Joy Mukherjee’s performances in ‘Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon‘ and ‘Love in Tokyo‘ were significantly enhanced and well appreciated. Similarly, Dharmendra’s screen presence received a tremendous boost through songs such as “Main Nigahen Tere Chehre Se” and “Aap ke Haseen Rukh Pe“.

2. Rafi’s voice would automatically modulate with feelings and emotions in sync with the meaning of the word. For example, if he sings the word “Bahaar“, a cheerful tone emanates and if he sings “Mohabbat“, a romantic touch is perceptible. Auto-modulation of the voice is not something which can be learnt. It is a very rare gift. I doubt whether Rafi ever made an effort to acquire this talent. It just happened to be there. But he was aware of it. Whenever people praised him for his singing, he would simply point his finger towards the heavens.
   Auto-modulation is probably the reason that Rafi’s version of songs, sung both by him and Lata, often became more popular (e.g. “Mere Mehboob“, “Ehsaan Tera Hoga” and many more).
   There are not many singers who are blessed with this gift. I only know of a few; Elvis Presley, Elton John and Toto (Italian). Our own Asha Bhonsle also has this talent but unfortunately only in the lower ranges. At high notes, the effect disappears. O.P. Nayyar was well aware of this. You can decipher it in the subtle allocation of notes in the Rafi-Asha duets. This could also have been the reason that Asha Bhonsle was more comfortable singing with Kishore Kumar.
   Among the new generation, Shreya Ghoshal seems to be endowed with auto-modulation. Therefore, some of her renditions of old songs often sound better than the originals.

A friend recently told me that, with the rapid progress in the fields of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and AA (Advance Analytics), it would be possible in a few years to artificially create perfect songs with ideal lyrics, music, voice and singing. I shook my head in disbelief at the ignorance of expectations because no extent of technological innovations can ever recreate the effect and impact of songs such as “Man Re Tu Kahe Na“, “Tu Mere Samne Hai” and “Chaudhvin Ka Chand Ho“.

This blog was published on Friday, July 31st, 2020 at 10:58 am and Last modified on Friday, July 31st, 2020 at 11:00 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.