Mahendra Kapoor: The Real “Shagird” of Mohammed Rafi
This article is written by Mr. Biman Baruah, Sivasagar, Assam.
(A homage to Legendary Singer Mahendra Kapoor )
Mahendra Kapoor
Legendary singer of Hindi cinema, Mahendra Kapoor passed away at 74, on Saturday evening (27th September, 2008) at his residence, Bandra in Mumbai due to cardiac failure. He was a heart patient and suffering from heart and kidney related ailment for long time. He is survived by three daughters and actor son Rohan Kapoor. His funeral took place on Sunday ( 28th September, 2008 ) at the Santacruz crematorium where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed grief over death of veteran playback singer. In a condolence message, President Pratibha Patil said Kapoor delighted millions of Indians by his voice. Maharastha Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh expressed “Kapoor as a great and versatile singer”.
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Mahendra Kapoor was born in Amritsar, Punjab on 9th January, 1934. Teenage Kapoor was inspired by Mohammed Rafi and soon he moved to Mumbai to start his singing career. At the beginning of his career, he won the all-India singing competition in the late 1950s at All India Youth Festival. He got his first break in Mumbai with director Raja Nawathe’s SOHNI MAHIWAL (1958). Then music director C. Ramchandra gave him a chance to sing the song “Aadha Hai Chandrama, Raat Aadhi, Rehna Jaiyee Teri Meri Baat Aadhi, Mulakhat Aadhi” in V. Shantaram’s film NAVRANG (1959). The song was picturised on Mahipal & Sandhya which was a big hit and Kapoor came to limelight. Â
Mahendra Kapoor
Mahendra Kapoor was matchless for rendering the most of patriotic songs picturised on actor Manoj Kumar (Upkaar, Purab Aur Paschim, Roti Kapda Aur Makan & Kranti) and many hit songs for B.R.Films (Dhool Ka Phool, Gumrah, Waqt, Hamraaz & Dhund ) composed by music director Ravi. He was a favourite of producer-director B.R. Chopra and sang many notable songs in his films. He also sang the title song of Chopra’s popular TV Serial “Mahabharat” in the late 1980s. Â
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He sung about 25,000 songs in different regional languages and was active from 1956 to 1999. In 1980, Mahendra Kapoor started singing for regional films, mainly in Punjabi, Bhojpuri and Marathi. He is best known in the Marathi films as a permanent voice of Marathi actor Dada Kondke in all his films.
His most famous patriotic song was “Meri Desh Ki Dharti, Sona Ugle , Ugle Heere Moti” picturised on Manoj Kumar in the film UPKAAR for which he won the National Film Award in 1968 for Best Male Playback Singer. He also won Filmfare Best Male Playback Award three times, for “Chalo Ek Bar Phirse, Ajnabi Baan Jayee Hum Dono” in Gumrah (1963), for “Neele Gagan Ke Tale, Dharti Ke Pyar Pale” in Humraaz (1967) and for “Nahin Nahin Bus Aur Nahin” in Roti Kapda Aur Makan(1974). Government of India honoured him by Padmashree, the India’s highest civilian award and Maharashtra Government had recently honoured him with Lata Mangeshkar Award for his lifetime contribution in playback singing.Â
He was also pioneer in conducting the popular reality Antakshari programmes in Television with his son actor turned anchor Rohan Kapoor who acted in a few films in the 1980s, i.e. Yash Chopra’s Faasle (1985), Love 86 (1986) and Imaandar(1987).
He was the voice of Manoj Kumar, like Mukesh was the heart of Raj Kapoor. On Kapoor’s death, Manoj Kumar remarked what Raj Kapoor had said when singer Mukesh passed away: “I have lost my voice”. In addition to Manoj Kumar, he lent his melodious voice for many actors like Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, Dharmendra, Joy Mukherjee, Biswajeet, Shashi Kapoor, Raj Babbar, Jakie Shorff, etc.Â
As a playback singer, Mahendra Kapoor was among the handful of singers who dominated the golden age of Hindi Film Music. He was a diehard fan of Mohammed Rafi and his singing style was quite similar to Rafi Sahab whom he considered as his GURU. He used to play “Tanpura” for Rafi Sahab. If Rafi Sahab got preference over other singers, Kapoor felt no resentment as he was a devoted fan of Rafi Sahab, who openly admits “I adore Rafi”. Thus, he was the real “Shagird” of Mohammed Rafi and his heartbreaking demise is a great loss to music world and music lovers. His death also brought the closing stages of Golden Era of the Hindi Film Music history.  Â
A list of notable songs of Mahendra Kapoor picturised on different actors:-
| SL No. | Year | Film | Song | Music | Lyric | Actor |
| 1 | 1958 | Navrang | Aadha Hai Chandrama | C.Ramachandra | Bharat Vyas | Mahipal |
| 2 | 1959 | Dhool Ka Phool | Tere Pyar Ka Aasra Chata Hoon | Ravi | Sahir | Rajendra Kumar |
| 3 | 1963 | Gumrah | Chalo Ek Bar Phir Se | Ravi | Sahir | Sunil Dutt |
| 4 | 1965 | Dil Aur Mohabbat | Haath Aaya Hai Jabse Tera | O.P.Nayyar | S.H.Bihari | Joy Mukherjee |
| 5 | 1966 | Baharen          Â
Phir BhiAayengi |
Badal Jaye Agar Mali | O.P.Nayyar | Kaifi Azmi | Dharmendra |
| 6 | 1967 | Hamraaz | Neele Gagan Ke Tale | Ravi | Sahir | Raaj Kumar |
| 7 | 1967 | Hamraaz | Tum Agar Saath Dene Ka Wada Karo | Ravi | Sahir | Sunil Dutt |
| 8 | 1967 | Upkar | Mere Desh Ki Dharti | Kalyanji Anandji | Gulshan Bawra | Manoj Kumar |
| 9 | 1968 | Kismat | Lakhon Hain Yahan Dilwale | O.P.Nayar | S.H.Bihari | Biswajeet          Â
 |
| 10 | 1970 | Purab Aur Pachhim | Bharat ka Rehnewala Hoon | Kalyanji Anandji | Indeewar | Manoj Kumar |
| 11 | 1970 | Gopi | Gentleman Gentleman | Kalyanji Anandji | Rajendra Krishan | Dilip Kumar          Â
 |
| 12 | 1981 | Aaj Ki Awaaz | Dil Hi Dil Mein Le Liya Dil Meherbani Aapke | Ravi | Kaifi Azmi | Raj Babbar |
everybody seems to miss one great, soulful song of MK. That is from film ‘zindagi aur maut’. Song is ‘dil laga kar hum ye samjhe zindagi kya cheez hai/ ishq kehte hai kise aur ashiqi kya cheez hai.’ One of his best.
Jai Hind.
Bhagwan ne hi Raffi & Kapoor Sahib Ki Awaz me awtar Lyia Hai. Both are the piller of Singing. In Dono ke Naam ke Bina Film Industry to Kya Gayki Ke Ilava Zindagi Ke Hansi-Khushi Aur Gam Hi Nahi Pooja Path Aur Desh Pyar, Khas Karke Bachpan-Jawani Adhoora Hai.
Aao in Dono Ki Awaz se Zindagi Ka Har Pal Jite Rahe.
Prem Rattan Kalia
Ludhiana
Punjab
India.
Mahendra Kapoor or Rafi Saheb 2 whatever we may call hi. but aaahhhhhh……. what a singer he was…. how can one forget “Na Muh Chuppa ke jiyo” from HUMRAZ. This is the song only Rafi Saheb could have sung beside Kapoor Saheb. Yes Mahendra Kapoor was underrated by our film industry but his songs prove what his class was. He was the only one who could match Rafi Saheb when it comes to singing…
“WHEREVER YOU ARE YOU WILL REMAIN IN OUR HEARTS & YOUR SONGS WILL ALWAYS REMAIN WITH US.”
I have great respect for the range of this great singer’s voice. But, Rafi always excelled because Mahendra Kapoor could not retain the sweetness and melody of Rafi’s voice in high pitches. Even in high pitches, Rafi’s voice remained melodious. That made all the difference!!
The headline should be ” Rafi the real chela of Mahendra Kapoor”. Mahendra Kapoor voice is distict and meladous. But only few sad songs and high pitched songs of Rafi are popular.
By the way Kishore Da is the God of Indian playback singing.
Hey man what can i do? Actually i don’t like both of their voice. I love high cord vocal like kisor da mukesh’s.
By the way, may I request for this song by Mohd.Rafi
‘ Gulon ke rang Sitaron ki roshni de doon’
If any one has this as mp3 etc, please email it to me, I shall be very greatful to you.
Many thanks,
Bhupinder
With great respect to Mohd Rafi and Mahendra Kapoor, they both have been on their top at their best. I am very fond of these both singers. They were both born in Amritsar, and so was I, may be a coincident ! It is very sad that we have lost these talented artists from our music industry. May their souls rest in peace.
They will be greatly missed. And this goes for all others, Kishore, Mukesh,Hemant, Talat ………
Can somebody confirm or reject this. There’s a guy from Lahore claiming on YT (YouTube) that Mahendra Kapoor stated in an interview on Zee TV that Rafi suffered descrimination because he was a muslim. He has particularly singled out SD Burman and Lata and is saying that Rafi had to wait for couple of hours to be picked up after concerts in favour of others or something to that effect.
I have never heard this crap. What to Rafi experts think? Plz let me know.
Many thanks.
I feel lot of music composers were not serious that Mahendrakapoor and Mohdrafi should had a duet songs in their time. they missed it completely, also music composer Ravi was the instrumental for both the singers. But there is some unique episodes like Talat mohd & Mukesh didnt sang, Kishorekumar & Hemant kumar didnt sang duets. So, it is Rafisahab who sang with every and each new singers like Shailendra Singh and others. He is the sweetest singer all the time
CORRECTION FOR MY POST-21:
DEAR BIMANJI
I HAVE MISTAKENLY MENTIONED THE SINGERS FOR THE SONG ” CHOD KAR TERA PYAR KA DAMAN ….” FROM THE FILM ‘ WOH KAUN THI ‘ AS RAFI SAHAB & ASHAJI BUT IT SHOULD BE : RAFI SAHAB & LATA MANGESHKARJI .
REGARDS/ A.T.M. SALIM.
DEAR BIMANJI
YOU HAVE WRITTEN A VERY GOOD ARTICLE ( AS A TRIBUTE ) ON MAHENDRA KAPOORJI !
BESIDE SOLO SONGS , MAHENDRA KAPOORJI HAS RENDERED MANY BEAUTIFUL & SWEET DUETS WITH LATAJI & ASHAJI :
1) ” CHOD KAR TERA PYAR KA DAMAN…” ( WITH ASHAJI ;FILM : WOH KAUN
THI ) ;
2) ” AAJA RE … ” ( WITH LATAJI ; FILM : OONCHE LOG ) ;
3) ” AAJ KI MULAQAT BAS ITNI…” ( WITH LATAJI ;FILM : BHAROSA ) ;
4) ” HUMNE JO DEKHE SAPNE….” ( WITH LATAJI ;FILM: PARIVAR ) ;
5) “TUJHKO MERA PYAR PUKARE…” ( WITH ASHAJI ; FILM : GUMRAH ) ;
6) ” O NEELE PARBATON KI DHARA…” ( WITH ASHAJI ; FILM: ADMI AUR
INSAAN ) .
BUT ONE DUET I MUST MENTION HERE IS ABOUT A MALE DUET , THAT IS ,
MAHENDRA KAPOORJI HAS RENDERED A DUET WITH RAFI SAHAB TOO !
THE DUET IS FROM THE FILM : ” ADMI ” AND THE SONG IS ” KAISE HASEEN RAAT ….”
THIS SONG IS NOT RELEASED BY ‘ SAREGAMA’ COMPANY IN RECORD/CASSETTE/CD TILL DATE. THIS SONG IS RETAINED IN THE FILM “ADMI” ITSELF . AT FIRST , THIS DUET GOT RECORDED IN THE VOICES OF RAFI SAHAB AND TALAT MEHMOOD SAHAB AND THUS GOT RELEASED IN RECORDS. THEN THIS SONG WAS RE-RECORDED BY NAUSHAD SAHAB IN THE VOICE OF RAFI SAHAB & MAHENDRAJI TO SUIT THE ACTORS -DILIP KUMAR AND MANOJ KUMAR RESPECTIVELY AND HENCE RETAINED IN THE FILM ONLY .
BEST REGARDS/ A.T.M. SALIM.
I want to say that infact there was an interview with Mr.Rohan Kapoor, the son of Mahendra Kapoors. I saw he started to cry when the incident happened in the television news channel. Binuji is right all the channels shown the news of the demise of the legend and also Vikas is correct tht there was not big publication of his sad demise in the newspapers. But when I saw some papers of Punjab, Ludhiana, NewDelhi (Newspapers) in the library literally they had publiched afterwards. So, find out the old newspapers in punjabi and Hindi languages. There is some papers called Ajit, Punjab Kesri, Samachar, Dainik Baskar all are Hindi papers. But there was some publications after wards. So, i feel they had shown some respect to the legend from the media and also I had posted a funeral photo in the Hamara forum site.
further to post no. 15 let me pen a small incident of july 31st rafi saahebs anniversary. my friend complained to me ( a great rafi lover ) that the media has has ignored rafi saaheb. i informed him that ndtv, star tv, doordarshan, samay and sahara , asianet, surya and many many channels reported mohd rafi saaheb. he said sorry and added , oh, i was in my office, very busy all day and could not see the t.v. that day.
please do not complain for the sake of seeing your name in print. on the contrary one can always write about the melodious songs of mohd rafi, the divine voices of the hindi music scene rather than harping on “mata saraswati” on a general basis. i agree. the voice has divinity . but, sadly not the human behaviour. let’s close this discussion else the cat will be out among the pigeons – some day sooner.
TRULY MAHENDRA KAPOOR WAS A GREAT SINGER WITH POWERFUL VOCAL , WE MUSIC LOVERS HAVE LOST ONE MORE PEARL FROM THIS EARTH.
MAY GOD BLESS HIS SOUL.
WE WILL ALWAYS BE WITH MAHENDRA KAPOORS VOICE……
I feel vikas said abt the media is correct, but infact there was some small column news of demise of Mahendra Kapoorji in all the newspapers of all the languages as well as in Screen Newspaper which i have shared in the Hamara forum. Please browse in that site also. Recently in the Mumbai Mirror there was an small article abt the felicitation of his the lata Mangeshkar Award. Whtever articles you wanted go for tht site also. But Mahendra Kapoor is a great legend in our film industry. He sang Marathi, Punjabi as well as Hindi songs. But it is a coincidence that on 28th Sept the great legend Hemant Kumar died, Lata’s birthday and another legend died. It is a really shocking and bad news of his sudden demise. May his soul be peace!
vikas : re post 12 : u are a very intelligent person and has listened 100% of rafi songs. u are one person in the world who has heard all rafi songs, has 100% of his collections .
you have also heard 30,000 songs of the indian nightingale,(mostly non-existent) . I believe you. long live your beliefs…….
binu nair.
post no 12 : people have a habit of rushing in and complaining that this event has not been shown on television, when the fact is thay they have not “watched” the event or the television.
for twenty four hours mahendra kapur ji’s sad demise was shown on national television by all the lead channels. they were there in full strength at kapur’s residence and reported. i am a witness to this.
binu nair. mumbai
post 12 : you can be swayed by emotions towards any person but records cant lie. never and never.
h.m.v now sare gama, music india now universal do not have the records of more than 6000 songs sung by your favroute singer. her claims of 25000 songs were deleted by guiness book of records when it was brought to their notice. the correct figure will not be more than 7000 and this has been brought out by publications in punjab and mumbai. she has not contested this and has also not taken these publications to court . Why mr Sharma ’cause – this is the truth.
do not believe what i say, for you are in the category of those “gullible” people who truly believe she has sung 30,000 songs – which is humanly not possible for her in this life.
binu nair
I personally think Mahendraji was the most ‘complete’ singer in HFM after Rafisahab and Mannada. He could cover almost all moods, had a good vocal range, a good voice and nice feel of the lyrics.
Mahendraji’s tag (Rafi-like) proved to be a blessing for him (in the early part of his career) as well as a major barrier (once he established himself). I feel he did try to come out of this tag but never quite succeeded. As it has been mentioned in previous posts, his voice was sweeter when he was younger; as he grew older the voice got thicker and less sweet. Infact by 1980 (when Rafisahab passsed away) Mahendraji’s voice was rather unlike Rafisahab’s and that’s why the MDs went with Anwar & Co. rather than the real ‘shagird’, when the great singer left the stage.
I m in complete shock over the lacklustre bahviour of the indian news channels as they didnt showed the news of mahinderji’s untimely death .THis is just rediculous on the part of the the various news channels and other media that they didnt payed much attention to the legend of inidan film music.
Mahinder kapoor ji was a great singer and will remain so.He has sung thousands of punjabi songs as well.
I dont know the reason why binu start talking about the diamond of world music the one and only saraswati mata LATA MANGESHKAR.BInu unnecessarily try to talk rubbish about lataji.He is not aware of the fact that LATA ji is according to the guiness book of world record is the most recorded artist in the world whether femal or male. BINU if u are so sure about the facts than please give all the rafi sahib fans out here the exact number of songs sung by the phenomenon . I BET THAT U HAVE WOULD NOT HAVE LISTENED TO RAFI SAHIB EVEN 40% BY NOW LET ALONE THE OTHER LEGENDS .
I always listen the song of Legendary voice of Mahendra Kapoor, when i listen the first song of mahendra kapoor for Sohni Mahiwal ” Chand Chhuppa or Taare Doobe Raat Ghazad ki aayee, husan chala hain ishq se milne zulam ki badli chhayee” Nobody can estimate that who sing that song everybody think that that is voice of Legendary Mohd Rafi Sahib voice. After the instruction of Mohd Rafi Mahendra Kapoor used his original voice which make him famous. On the other had If Mahendra was the real Shagird of Rafi Sahib then tell me what he has do after the death of Rafi Sahib. I think that he only utilized the rafi sahib greatness. I feel very sad on the death of Mahendra Kapoor. May god give his soul in the place of foot.
Biman Baruah Ji,
It is a great way of giving tribute to Mahendra Kapoor on this site. After all he was Rafi Sahab’s only Shagird (disciple). Despite similarities in voice with Rafi, M Kapoor had gain recognition and success in the mid 60s. His voice may not be very suitable to new comers or any teenager actor. But despite all that he has given playback to many leading actors of Bollywood.
Some of the songs which possible may have been missed out in the article
1. Sansaar Ki Har Shai Ka Itnaa Hai Fasaana – Dhood
2. Do Bechare Bina Sahare – Duet with KK – Victora no 203
3. Duniya Mein Tera Badaa Naam –
4. Fakira Chal Challa Chal – Fakira
5. Meri Saanson Mein Jo – Duet with Lata – Badate Rishte
6. Songs of Nikaah – Solo and Duet with Salmaa Aaga – Nikaah
7. Mere Pyar Ki Tamanna – Twaaif
8. Anhoni Ko Honi Kar De – Duet with Shaliendar & KK – AAA
9. Ishk Aur Mush, Kade Na Chipde – Kala Pather
M Kapoor has given playback for Rajesh Khanna also in the film ‘Kanhaiya’. Most of the songs were devotional numbers for which KK was not preferred.
On behalf of mohd rafi lovers the rafi foundation placed flowers on the body of the fallen hero of indian music – shri mahendra kapoor – that black sunday. mahendra ji has called home a few months back to know the activities of rafi foundation and promised to talk to us . but, ill health and time restrains of most mumba-ites prevented this interview. but music lovers were seen in strength at the last services.
two points : mahendra ji passed away as rafi during the holy month of ramzan, both had massive heart attacks like that of mukesh and kishore kumar. and, mahinder ji was the shagird of mohd rafi, the chosen one. the other one was m/s. usha timothi, playback singer.
long live indian music and shri mahendra kapoor.
No one….no one can do better than Mahendra Kapoor ji’s high pitched tones…. ” andheri raatha ki…..” in Hamraaz for one….. PBUY (peace be upon you )
I have always loved Mahendra ji. Because of his style and beautiful voice. The world had lost a majestic Singer
Rest in Peace…
A.Piroe
I liked the above post by unknown. Showing No.2’s of Mohammed Rafi by decades is a very innovative comment indeed.
I believe loss of Mahendra Kapoor is a greater loss to the fans of Rafi Sahaab since in him we saw Rafi Sahaab. In the earlier decades, especially with the songs of DHOOL KA PHOOL (1959) I remember the uninitiated mistaking his voice for Rafi’s.
I feel his initial style of rendering was better than his latter style. There was certain freshness then. However, when the songs of higher pitches became routine with him his style changed to heavy and laboured timbre. But then, that’s case of all No.2’s. Only certain aspects of Rafi Sahaab was evident in their voice. Anwar’s voice, it can be said, is the shade of Rafi Sahaab’s voice in the song: ILAAHI TU SUN LE… I liked Shabbir kUmar emulating Rafi Sahaab in RAQQAASA RAQS KAR… As for Munna Aziz, well, currently, I don’t remember which voice of Rafi Sahaab he resembles. Sonu sounds good while singing Rafi Sahaab’s numbers.
when I heard the song “Husn chala hai Ishq se milaney” by kapoor sahib I was dead sure that it has been sung by rafisahib.ears could not believe that a new singer has arrived on the horizon.one feels sad . where would we get singers like rafi & mahinder kapoor.Even music directors of today have stoppped composing those kind of tunes which will remain popular even after 20-30 years.Kapoor sahib we shall always remember you
please tell me from where you got the statistics of mahendar ji singing 25000 odd songs. it should not end up as the claim of 30,000 songs sung by the indian nightingale – for when the actual numbers were written down year wise by two different authors, the figure came to be close to 6000 songs sung. can sare ga ma and universal disclaim the figure of 6000 songs sung by our nightingale whose rights they have.
great tribute to mahinder ji by biman baruah and a big thankyou to the departed noble soul of mahendra kapoor saaheb.
binu nair, founder – rafi foundation, mumbai.
Mahendra Kapoor was the finest male singer after Mohammed Rafi. Lata was very selfish as a person as she refused to work with directors who took on new singers sounding very similar to her.
I also agree with that Shabbir Kumarji and Mohammed Aziz saab were the best singers in the 1980’s era as they brought that “Rafi touch” in the period and music and film directors wanted them to sing for their films as nobody can sing like the one and only Mohammed Rafi.
May God keep all Rafi followers well and sound and may he have Shri Mahendra Kapoor soul in peace.
Mahendra Kapoor had sung so many nice songs in the 60s and 70s. His songs from Gumrah, Waqt, Humraz, Kismat, Nikaah, Doli, Upkar, etc…. are unforgetable. I enjoy his songs. May God rest his soul in peace, Ameen.
Mahendra Kapoor is one of the best play back singer in the bollywood that is because of Mohd rafi if am not wrong(as I think)If we go to 1960’s there was Mohd Rafi and Lata Ji who as been copied by other singers as we know when ever some one copied Mohd Rafi stlye of singing Mohd Rafi was there for there help but when we go for Lata Ji she didn’t worked with MD who used singer who sing in her stlye….
In 1960’s Mahendra Kapoor was Mohd Rafi 2
In 1970’s Anwer was Mohd Rafi 2
In 1980’s to 1990’s Shabir and Aziz
In 2000’s Sanu as I think
In 2