By Sonilal Bedasie, Trinidad, West Indies

Mohd Rafi

Good day to every one and devotees of The RAFI Age. This is my humble statement and I think it will be appropriate to say the following: At the present time, I am now afforded the opportunity to make my tribute and I am taking it, for if I miss it now, I will regret it later and maybe I won’t be around anymore.

Being a heavy duty fan and disciple of this great singer is by no means a whim or a fancy.  I am observing every one is paying a dedicated service in their own shrines to this ICON in their hearts, consciousness and otherwise. Lip service  is not an option and in this respect, we stand guard permanently to this GREAT MASTER – MOH’D RAFI. (more…)

Written by Dr. Khaja Aliuddin

The word “ MAA” is the sweetest word in the world. When you express the word “ MAA”, your lips kisses together. This is unique, beautiful and amazing, SubhanAllah.

Although, many “ Mother’s Day  celebrations world-wide have quite different origins and traditions. In America, Anna Jarvis celebrated first time in 1908 on second Sunday of May. After this brief description on “Mother’s Day “ I would like to connect our beloved Rafi Sahab with “ Mother’s Day”. Rafi sahib has sung so many beautiful numbers on “MAA”. Maa hai mohabbath ka naam is one of his masterpiece from the movie “ Maa ka Aanchal “, beautifully composed by Madan Mohan with heart touching lyrics by Kaifi Azmi. When you listen to this song, you get mesmerized thinking about your mother. (more…)

By Vijay Bavdekar

Mohd Rafi

Dear Rafians, it will be great pleasure for you to recollect and listen the following rare gems (in true sense) of our beloved Rafi Saheb.

1. Mai jab gaun geet suhana gaye mere saath jamana-Film-Amar Raj-1946-M. D.Firoz Nizami (This claasical base song is also in duet form. The lady singer with Rafisaheb is famous Mohantara.  (more…)

By Dr. Souvik Chatterji

Joy Mukherjee and Mohd Rafi

There were many bollywood actors who acted in more than 200 films out of which 40 to 50 films were musical in nature. In case of Joy Mukherjee out of his 38 films in a career spreading over 15 years, almost all the films were musical and his everlasting combination with Mohammad Rafi only produced gems after gems. (more…)

By Biman Baruah
( My personal accolade to Shammi Kapoor and his major playback voice Mohammed Rafi )
(This article is dedicated to Rajkumari Neela Devi and Aditya Raj Kapoor.)

Shammi Kapoor

Actor Shammi Kapoor unified with voice of God nearly 1 ½ year back in 2011. Once upon a time, Producer-Director Manmohan Desai remarked about Mohammad Rafi: “If God had a voice, it would be Rafi’s voice’.” Manmohan Desai also remarked, “My first brush with superstardom came when I directed Shammi Kapoor who is India’s first superstar and the most stylish actor ever seen in Hindi Cinema.” Monmohan Desai was a great aficionado of Rafi Sahab who directed the Shammi Kapoor in four films: BLUF MASTER (1963) & BUDTAMEEZ (1966) as a leading hero and PARVARISH (1977) & DESH PREMEE (1982) in supporting role. (more…)

Short articles written by Fans – M.S.Zaman, Mahender Singh and Dharmendra vyas

This picture was taken when he was rehearsing for the song Dono ne kiya tha pyaar from the film Mahua with the music director duo Sonik-Omi.

I feel very frustrated of my inability to put into words my feelings for Rafi Sahab in a correctly transpiring manner, about his style, his experiments with voice, ragas, feelings, sentiments, sensibilities, beauty, eternity, spirituality, nostalgia, vocabulary, and, God knows, what else that I could not write here.

His experiments with singing in breaths, singing on low and high notes, playing around with voice rumblings and lahriyas etc. were simply matchless. I cannot stop dying listening to his voice. (more…)

By Souvik Chatterji

Mohd Rafi with Jeetendra

Jeetender started his career in the early 1960s with the patronage of eminent director V. Shantaram. He was launched as hero opposite Rajashri in the film Geet Gaya Pattharone in 1964. At that time Jeetender had to face the competition from the rulers of bollywood films like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Rajender Kumar and others. Probably Jeetender spend his toughest time of the career to cement his place between 1964 to 1970, when viewers starting recognizing Jeetender and appreciating his acting and dancing skills. (more…)

By Onika Setia

Mohd Rafi Sahab with team

एक प्यार भरा सन्देश रफ़ी साहब के नाम

हम अपने दिल की बात एक ग़ज़ल के रूप में पेश कर रहे हैं उसके नाम जो इस संसार से तो चला गया मगर हमारे दिल से ना जा सका . ( 10 सालों के बाद भी ) जो हमारे ख्यालों में बसा हुआ है उस के नाम दो गज़लें पेश-ऐ- खिदमत है। …. (more…)

By Vineet Kumar Bhatia, Jaipur

Mohd Rafi

Background playback singing is an important organ of Indian Film music. The song in the background represents the synopsis & gist of the very philosophy enshrined into the movie & brings out to the surface its main theme, ethical & moral values as well.  This singing aspect can be termed as one of the toughest facets of singing arena, because in other form of singing, voice ability of a singer is superimposed by the acting i.e lip syncs of an acting artist(s). Therefore, most of the appreciations of the song are taken away by the artist(s) on the screen & the good flavour of the singing voice is just lost & goes in vain. (more…)

By Mahesh Prasad Rijal

Mohd Rafi

It is not so long ago that an angel made a short visit to the Earth to pleasurize mankind with a soothing voice. Although his visit lasted for a very short period of time, his progress in the field of singing was equally swift for he had a significant love for music.The glorious success he achieved in very short period was unachievable by any ordinary singing talent because his success were measured in people’s hearts, more than awards and trophies. His Godhood was visible not only by his sonorous voice, but also his character and never-proud-attitude that reflected the Goodness he had within him. (more…)