Mohammed Rafi – The Greatest Magician
This article is written by Mr Sandeep Nadkarni & shared by Mr Nitin Dhareshwar
Frankly speaking I am not a regular writer nor do I posses any such ability of a writer and hence I have so far restricted myself in submitting very small anecdotes & other comments only in this beautiful site namely mohdrafi.com since the past couple of months. However in these couple of months of my association with this great site I have come across interesting & very beautiful articles from various fans & admirers of our dear Mohammed Rafi Saab.
Mr Venkatadri Brahmandam, Mr G V Murthy, Mr A S Murty, Mr Biman Baruah, Mr D P Bijoor, Mr Narayanan & Mrs Bina from Bangalore, Mr Shashank Chickermane, Mr Haldarjee and many more others have indeed contributed their great thoughts & remembrance truly befitting the everlasting memories of our Beloved King of Melody in this site. (I should be specifically pardoned if I have not spelt all the names of the regular contributors except for the few as enumerated above & probably I will ensure to add the names of the left outs in my next such article)
Further I have also come across & observed several unwanted critics & their comments in a couple of articles especially in the one titled True Voice – Mohammed Rafi which is presently on the verge of crossing the magic figure of almost 2000 comments. I personally feel this is mainly on account of the monger makers & other non interested characters who enjoy creating mischief in such a beautiful & successful site dedicated in the memory of Rafi Saab. Hence I personally feel this should stop forthwith for which the concerned organizers & the administrative committee of this site should initiate remedial measures with immediate effect coupled with equal cooperation from all the fans & admirers of Rafi Saab.
Mohd Rafi
In the annals of my assessment I have always considered Rafi Saab as the greatest magician the Indian Film Industry has ever produced. Indeed he was the most God fearing & a pious human being on Earth par excellence. His greatest quality & strength mainly lied in the virtue of his terrific expressions & his golden sweet voice which in my personal opinion can never ever happen again on this Universe. Rafi Saab was always able to deliver any simple or for that matter of fact difficult rendition very easily mainly since he was very confident of himself and above all he was definitely sure as to only he and only he can deliver these songs with a difference of its class & beauty of its own. Ek aaisa insaan jiske chotese dil mein sara jahan basa kartatha.
My association in this industry as a violinist over the years has been very fruitful mainly because in these long years of ones struggle I indeed had the great privilege & opportunity of taking active participation in the various recordings in which Rafi Saab was either performing on the solo platform OR in duets with various other female & contemporary male singers.
Rafi Saabs other unique quality lied in his in-built control over his harkates and his great adayagees and this unique feature indeed spelt fear psychosis amongst most of the female singers with whom he performed so brilliantly over the past so many years.
Rafi has associated himself with almost all the female singers like the ones of Noor Jehan, Samshad Begum, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosale, Geeta Dutt, Suman Kalyanpur, Mubarak Begum, Kamal Barot, Pushpa Pagdhare (couple of Marathi songs) and several other singers.
However of all the above female singers I personally rate Suman Kalyanpur as the one whom I always admired a lot mainly because of her great & joyful nature and above all she was a great human being. The combination of Rafi – Suman was excellent and their chemistry was so unique which indeed worked wonders on various occasions. When these 2 greats used to perform the atmosphere in the recording rooms was always very healthy & pleasant and each & every artist associated with such recordings was always in a joyous mood. This was the magnitude of Rafi – Suman when they always paired together. Since Rafi was aware that Suman Kalyanpur had a peculiar and a particular range of her voice quality he had the audacity of improvising on most of the occasions which can be observed from a couple of the renditions such as Dil ek Mandir hai, Parbaton ke pedon par sham ka basera hai and Aja hoon na aayee balama saawana beeta jayee.
Further as most of the lovers & admirers are aware of the fact that Rafi Saab by & large was a stringent family person and hardly used to attend any filmi functions or parties which always used to involve high level politics & boozing at the peak level. For such a personality who never ever tasted or touched wine in his life-time had a unique duty to sing & render songs for the boozed artists on the silver screen. Hence a few of his classic numbers specifically falling under this category are enumerated as follows.
Mohd Rafi
| Koi sagar dil ko behelata nahin | Dil Diya Dard Liya | Dilip Kumar | Naushad |
| Mujhe duniya walo | Leader | Dilip Kumar | Naushad |
| Mere pairon me ghungaroo | Sanghursh | Dilip Kumar | Naushad |
| Ye zulf agar khulke | Kaajal | Raaj Kumar | Ravi |
| Jangal me mor nacha | Madhumati | Johny Walker | Salil Choudhary |
| Saawan ke mahine mein (SAD) | Sharabi | Dev Anand | Madan Mohan |
| Din dhal jaye hayee | Guide | Dev Anand | S D Burman |
| Ye duniya usikee zamana usikaa | Kashmir Ki Kali | Shammi Kapoor | O P Nayyar |
I personally believe that the chapter Mohammed Rafi is indeed a very vast subject and any number of the volumes written or published in his everlasting memory shall definitely be short of the mark. With this fact in mind I intend to end this note of mine probably to re-appear again in this beautiful site very shortly.
On behalf of all his admirers & dear fans, I pray to the Almighty to rest his soul in eternal peace, Amen!!!
RESPECTED NADKARNI SAHAB ,THANKS A LOT FOR SHARING YOUR MEMOIRS WITH THE RAFI BHAKTS,
IN MY HUMBLE OPINION THE BEST DUET COMBINATION WAS THAT OFF RAFI
SAAB AND SUMANJI,WHICH YOU HAVE ALREADY ENDORSED.
RAFI SAAB – SUMANJI DUETS STARTED MAINLY FROM `MISS BOMBAY` AND `MUD MUD KE NA DEKH` AND IN `JEE CHAHTA HAI`( 1964) ALL THE DUETS WERE BY THEM,
SIR,IN THE 60`S AND EARLY 70`S ,SJ & LP ENSURED THAT THERE WAS ATLEAST ONE DUET BY THE DUO.
THE BSET TANDEM AGAIN I FEEL WAS FROM THE UNRELEASED`BLACK PRINCE` -`NIGAHEN NE PHERON CHALE JAYANGE HUM MAGAR YAAD`
THE DUO HAD ABOUT 138 DUETS AND 96 % ARE SUPERHIT DUETS.
WITH DUE REGARDS & RESPECT
My respectful Nadkarnisaab: For me Rafisaab is God and anyone who
had worked so closely with Him is also God. Many thanks,Sir, for
penning your experiences and thoughts on my God. I earnestly
request you to keep us enthralled and immersed in Rafisaab’s
ocean with your personal inputs.
I must also thak Mr.Ashok Desai for giving the inputs about
Nadkarnisaab’s close connections with rafisaab and his
brilliant association with Hindi Film Music.
With saprem namaskaars
M V Devraj
Maanya Sandeep Nadkarniji
Thank you very much for writing this article on Rafisaab.
In a section of the article you have written about songs which Rafisaab sang for boozers on screen and the way he sang them having been a teetotaler all his life. Being a boozer myself, it never ceases to amaze me how Rafisaab managed to modulate his voice that was always was in sync with a boozer’s pysche.
Here i would like to add some more songs to your list –
Maine peena seekhliya – Goonj Uthi Shehnai – Rajendra Kumar – Vasant Desai
Hui sham unka khayal – Mere Humdum Mere Dost – Dharmendra – Laxmikant Pyarelal
Mujhe duniyawalon – Leader – Dilip Kumar – Naushad
Pyaar Ka Saaz bhi – Asli Naqli – Dev Anand – Shankar-Jaikishen
Mujhe le chalo – Sharabi – Dev Anand – Madan Mohan
Jo unki tamanna – Inteqam – Sanjay Khan – Laxmikant Pyarelal
Chalkaye jaam – Mere Humdum Mere Dost – Dharmendra – Laxmikant Pyarelal
Peete peete kabhi kabhi yun – Bairaag – Dilip Kumar – Kalyanji Anandji
look forward to Rafifans adding some more songs to the list.
Thank You
DEAR SANDEEP SAHAB
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR VERY FINE ARTICLE ON OUR BELOVED RAFI SAHAB !!
YOUR ARTICLE CONVEYS THAT RAFI SAHAB WAS A GREAT & VERY HUMBLE HUMAN BEING BESIDE BEING THE GREATEST SINGER OF THE WORLD .
YOU HAVE VERY CORRECTLY MENTIONED IN YOUR ARTICLE – ‘ RAFI SAHAB’S GOLDEN & SWEET VOICE CAN NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN IN THIS UNIVERSE ‘ .
WE ARE ALSO THANKFUL TO HAVE ‘YOU’ IN OUR BELOVED RAFI SAHAB’S WEBSITE – AS WE ARE GETTING MANY ” UNKNOWN / RARE ” INFORMATIONS RELATED TO RAFI SAHAB & HIS SONG RECORDING SESSIONS.
PLEASE KEEP-ON VISITING THIS WONDERFUL WEBSITE AND THUS RECALL & POST MORE & MORE SWEET MEMORIES RELATED TO OUR EVER LOVING RAFI SAHAB .
THANKS & BEST REGARDS/ A.T.M. SALIM.
ref. post 16
Moorthy saab is correct.the musicians who had worked with
the great son of india rafi saab may please be shared their
views.the experiences which they had with rafi saab will be
much more interesting.there is a musical programme about
rafi saab is going on in one malayalam channel “kairali tv”
on every sunday at 9 am.as all know kerala is a fertile land
for rafi saab’s songs.people from various walks of life is
participating and sharing their views about rafi saab and his
evergreen songs.
ashok desai sahab namaste and thanks for sharing such interesting and wonderful news about sandeep nadkarni sahab. it is great to know that this website has now unearthed some of the industry’s musicians who had worked alongside the great mds and playback singers of the golden era and we are enriched with the information being given by you. long back when i had penned an article “clarion call to bollywood” i had exactly this very idea – that people who had worked with the legendary rafi sahab must come out and share their views and also take up the cause of rafi sahab who deserved more than what he got both from the industry as also the government. the industry must pay back to rafi sahab, if not in equal measure, atleast in great style for all that rafi sahab had given to them. we appreciate the views of ashok desai sahab and sandeep nadkarni sahab and hope they continue to share interesting anecdotes of their close associations with rafi sahab.
Aadarnya Sandeep Nadkarniji:
Aapke likhe hue shabd padhkar bahut anand mila man ko. Rafi Saab ka saadharan jeevan aur oonche vichar aur vyavahar ke baare mein jitna bhi padhe utni hi prerna milti hai.
Suman was a singer, a class apart and there was much beauty in her singing, especially in songs like ke jaan chali jaaye jiya nahi jaaye from anjaana… baad muddat ke yeh ghadi aaye – jahanaara…dil-e-betaab ko seene se lagaana hoga – paalki …where her voice combination with that of Rafi Saab’s was pure melody. Interesting to know that Rafi Saab actually modulated his voice to suit hers.
I would like to mention here a couple of songs of one of my favorite singers Suraiyya, the singing beauty..the few ones that she sang along with Rafi Saab…the catchy taraari araari araari..yeh saawan rut tum aur hum…from Dastan and Shaam-e-bahaar aayi from Shama Parwana.
Sandeepji aapne Rafi Saab ke saath itni nazdeeki se kaam kiya hai…un lamhon ki jhalak hum bhakton ko dete rahiyegaa.
aapko pranam,
Bina
Thanks Sandeep Sir and Nitin Sir and thanks Ashok Desai ji too.We are fortunate enoug to have such amazing people interacting with us guys (kal ke chhokre) .Wish you all to keep writing whenever you can.
Regards
dear sir, ur article shows light to the real simple & humble life that rafi saab had led. he had kept away from all vices like liquor,club dance and un decent behaviour and dirty politics.he hadn’t interfere in other people’s life.if he had had tried he could have stop the growth of some singers like kishor,mahendrakapoor .anwar etc at their very begining stage.instead rafi sab patronize all these singers.rafi sab should not had shown any discrimination between caste,creed and religion. that is is why he had sung songs like nava kalpana nava roop mai..,sive shanker mil … ,hariyoom.., sai baba bohlo..such type bajans and hindu devotioal songs.he was a firm belivour of Allah and the life here after death.
Hello Sandeepbhaiyya,
Your small article is fantastic. One of my friends in the States informed me of this beautiful site and after surfing the same for a couple of days I got in touch with your article & other comments on various issues. On a couple of occasions you have mentioned of our other good old friend Mr Peter in your comments but seem to have all together forgotten me. How is Peter & where is he at present.
Anyway we are probably meeting in words after several years since I clearly remember the last one was when we both were recording the evergreen song from the film titled “Dil ne phir Yaad Kiya†and the beautiful song was “Dil ne phir yaad kiya barfasee lehearaiye mein – who bhee kya din thhe ke hume dil mein basaya tha kabhee aur hass hass ke gale tum ne lagaya tha kabhe†with beautiful music by Sonic Omi (Darling amongst music directors)
Thereafter as you are aware I migrated to the States and you were still continuing in the industry. Dost it was indeed very sad to note & read that our dearest bhabi Shubhangee and your 2 beautiful sons Roheet & Prakash are no more with us. Hats off to both your sons for their brave decision in joining the army service and offering their precious lives in the service of our Country
Sandeep Sir for a couple of months I am with my brother at Arera Colony, Bhopal and thereafter will be flying back to the States for my usual routine. Since you are aware of this residence please arrange to contact me immediately.
Dear admirers & fans of the Greatest Ever Mohammed Rafi Saab:
Sandeep Nadkarni was one of the most loved & respected personalities of our times in the Film Industry & in fact very handsomely paid too. He was handsome, smart, tall & well built and hence the industry used to call him by a lovable OR a pet name of Shyam Junior (Remember actor Shyam who died while shooting for the film Shabhisthan by accidentally falling from a horse while enacting a particular scene)
In fact Sandeep was the one who had received several offers to act in various films which he always refused. Remember the great film Haqeeqat and the role of the major was in fact reserved by Chetan Anand Saab for Sandeep. Even the greatest Madan Mohan was eager to do this role but since he was unable to attend the shooting in time Chetan Anand himself enacted the role
Sandeep a great philanthropist & a great human being from the core of his heart and was indeed the beta of our dearest Mohammed Rafi Saab. There are several instances where Sandeep has almost gone out of his way to help many but always with a silent affair.
Hats off to you Sandeep Sir
Mr Ashok Desai
Arera Colony, Bhopal
Pranams, Sandeep Nadkarni sahab. And kudos, Nitinji.
Please keep on contributing to this site. We are all eager to hear more from you.
May I ask you something on Sumanji? Did she sing with her natural (true) voice, or was she modulating it all the time to sound like Lataji? As someone who’d have heard her speaking and singing without a mike, I’m sure you know. And do you think Sumanji’s (vocal) range was higher than Lataji’s and therefore she made a technically better pair with Rafisahab when it comes to duets?
Nice little piece Sandeepjee – indeed beautiful thoughts.
Probably since December 2008 I have seen you submitting your regular comments comprising a few in the form of beautiful anecdotes, a few in the form of explaining the actual circumstances to fellow writers and the balance in the form of properly teaching the so-called stupid monger-makers the true value of their being in this great site. Probably they have become smart enough and have eventually left this site for good.
And in this very short period of your being in this site you have by virtue of your greatness on the subject has indeed become a great hero amongst all of us.
Sandeepjee it is pleasant to note that you can write and indeed write better than few of us especially me. Please maintain the good work continuing & let us have some more dashing articles for all of us to cherish.
Dear Sandeepji,
a very nice article indeed.
rafian like me the name “mohammed rafi”is enough to see in
a newspaper or in a tv programme.
the very special connection of the people or fans with rafi
saab is a wonder and i think and in that way rafi saab is
the 8th wonder of this world.
Dear Sandeep Nadkarni,
Adaab Rafi,
Your article on Legendary Rafi Sahib is excellence & extraordinary. I know that rafi sahib was the best human being on that universe. I listen from my uncle about rafi sahib once rafi sahib going to perform the audience of Shimla my uncle & others were reached late in the show. The show was end and rafi sahib leave the stage. After some my uncle & others people go to rafi sahib and request to rafi sahib for singing then rafi sahib was ready for singing. Rafi sahib singing a lot of songs in their room and enjoy the people.
Thanks & Regards,
Suresh Chauhan
Dear Sandeepji,
Kudos for a great article !!!!
Lesser mortals like us who never had the chance to see our beloved Rafi Saab would definitely like to hear more and more about him. I am particularly thrilled by the experiences you narrated about his adayagees and harkaten.
Good work, Sandeepji,
Keep sharing such experiences with all of us. They will take us to the realm of another world where we imagine watching our beloved Rafi Saab performing live !!!!
Thanks
Saifullah
Dubai
Sandeepji,
A nice and simple article. One fact which is not discussed so much but which you have touched is the combo of Rafi and Suman. True, they gave so many memorable songs out of their 160 odd songs together. Who can forget numbers like,
1. Dil Ek Mandir.
2. Tumse O Hasina.
3. Kehdo Kehdo.
4. Tuzhe Pyaar Karte Hain.
5. Baad Muddat.
6. Dil E Betaab Ko.
7. Tahariye Hosh Me Aa Lun.
8. Tumne Pukara Aur.
9. Tuzhe Dekha Tuzhe Chaha.
10. Na Na Karte.
11. Aise To Na Dekho.
12. Maine Ae Jaane Wafa.
I request you to share some of your experiences in the Recording Studio.
If am not wrong Lata Ji stopped singing under SJ music because they were using Suman Kalyanpur .
As said by Suman Kalyanpur on TV once that she got big support by mohd Rafi.
I don’t know about you but I feel Lata ji Voice and Suman Kalyanpur are same and what was said that Suman Kalyanpur copy of Lata Ji as said M Kapoor copy of Mohd rafi but Mohd Rafi never try to stop M kapoor to sing but Lata Ji did,Sorry Lata fans
Sandeepji many thanks for coming up with the latest article on rafi sahab. after reading the entire article, i went back to the initial paras and i must give you all the credit for insisting that the spate of comments on one article ‘true voice’ should come to a halt. needless harping on points beyond rafi sahab have surfaced page after page under that one article which is now perceived as a directionless approach of our understanding of the greatest rafi sahab. anyway, coming back to this article by you, “Rafi Saabs other unique quality lied (should have been ‘lay’ i presume) in his in-built control over his harkates and his great adayagees and this unique feature indeed spelt fear psychosis amongst most of the female singers with whom he performed so brilliantly over the past so many years” surmises it all. rafi sahab knew just exactly what had to be delivered, not just playbacked. he knew the essence of the song, of the scene, of the storyline, of the character on whom the song is being picturised and almost everything that the ultimate listener would relish. to this extent, rafi sahab is indeed unparalleled. he put all the emotions under his command in all his songs and sang with a single minded passion so that the songs are relished by all the music lovers. thanks for giving us all insights of the recording studios and your personal experiences.
ur article about rafi saab is very fine .i also ,like many others, like his duets with sumen.thum ne pukara aur ham chale aaye..filim rajkumar & ,dil ek mandeeru hai are excellent nos.this pairs had sung beautiful songs in filims like bachpan ,shama parwana ,dilne phir yad kiya etc. dear nitin and sandeepji we expect more articles like this to give light to the pious and cent percent decent life and behaviour of our beloved rafi saab.
Dear Sandeepji,
It is indeed a great pleasure to read your article. Nitin sab, thanks for sharing.
we simply worship Rafi sab exactly for the virtues outlined by you sir, leave alone the heavenly music he gave us. What makes your write up even more special is that if offers a ‘ring side’ view of the greatman and rest of the singers/composers with whom you had shared professional relationship.
Suman Kalyanpur somehow added an innocent andaaz to the duets she sung with Rafi sab. I loved the duet ‘ Teheriyen hosh main aloo toh chale jaayiyega’
in particular. The chemistry you spoke about sir, is so conspicuous in this song I consider.
When Rafi sab sings nashaa numbers, we get intoxicated. It is hard to believe that he was a teetotaller. Before knowing this, I used to stupidly imagine that
Rafi sab must be sporting a whiskey glass on one hand and the lyrics book on the other, while doing a song like’ hui shaam unka khayaal aagaya’. Otherwise from where does he manage the sharaabi drawl in the line ‘ is may ko mubaarak cheez samaj’ from choolene do nazuk.!!!
Its a great news for all of us Rafi bhakts, that this write up is the first of many from you sir. If one song review can take three pages, imagine what it takes for the life and works of Rafi sab!!!!! As you said you can write eternally without the risk of being repetitive.
Thanks very much Sandeepji. Please spare a thought on letting us know, the songs on which you had directly worked. It would be fun to evoke tsunami of comments from all the eager and endearing fans of this great website.
with warm regards,
Nagesh Sidhanti
respected Sandeep & Nitin Ji
great article with great experience. nice to read about a great human being our beloved rafi saheb, really he was a great magician of our film industry. we are awaiting to hear more about rafi saheb from you again & again. please keep sharing more with us.
with best wishes & warm regards
biman