Rafi Sahab and Pancham, the combination that was adored by all alike classes to masses
This article is written by: Zaheen Danish
Rafi Sahab with RD Burman
When we talk about the combination of Rafi Sahab and R.D. Burman and about their partnership, some of the finest songs that were composed by RDB trying to resurface on the thin layer of memory instantly such as – “Tum bin jaoun kahan”, “Ni sultana re pyar ka mausam aya” “ kitna pyara wada” , “Arrey ho goriyan kahan tera desh re”, “Chura liya hai tumne jo dilko”, “Yeh ladka hai alla kaisa hai diwana”, “Hai agar dushman zamana gham nahi”, “Kya hua tera wada”, “Chand mera dil”, “Pal do pal ka saath hamaara” and Maine poocha chand se. RD Burman started his journey with Chote Nawab in 1962 with the help of the man with the golden voice, Mohammad Rafi.
Major songs in the film was sung by Rafi and RD Burman commanded respect in the musical community of that period, who were still mesmerised with the classical compositions of Naushad, folk songs of SD Burman, western effects of Shankar Jaikishan, OP Nayyar, Salil Chowdhury, Ghazals of Roshan, Madan mohan. RD Burman had other skills like playing the mouth organ, tabla and other related instruments and he showed his skill while playing the mouth organ for Laxmikant Pyarellal in the film Dosti, 1964 where Rafi had galvanised the silver screen with his tragic andaz.
RDB created western composition in “Ao Twist Karen” for Manna Dey in Bhoot Bangla. But he received the maximum appreciation from music lovers with his compositions in the film Teesri Manzil, 1966. All the songs were sung by Mohammad Rafi. All the songs were superhits, including “O haseena zulfonwali”, “Aja aja”, “Dewaana mujhsa nahin”, “ janeman janeja, tumne muhhe dekha hoker meherban”, “O mere sona re sona re sona re.” However, let us not forget that RDB used Rafi extensively during late sixties as his main playback singer right from the first movie. He gave hit music with Rafi in Teesri Manzil, Chhote Nawaab, Caravan, Pyaar ka Mausam, Chandan ka Palna, The Train, Abhilasha, Adhikar, etc. Later during late seventies he returned to Rafi and gave hits like Shaan, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, Abdullah, Zamane ko Dikhana Hai, etc.
Today when people remember RDB, they remember him as a great musician and a greater human being. It is a curious thing that R D Burman also goes by the name of Pancham. Story goes that when veteran Ashok Kumar saw Sachin Dev Burman’s newborn uttering the syllable ‘Pa‘ repeatedly, he nicknamed him Pancham. And the name stuck. To many, he’s still Pancham Da. The man who added his unique dash of pep and verve into Hindi film music starting with the 60s. The first music director who added a pinch of Rock ‘n’ Roll to lilting Hindi tunes. And created a brand of music so distinctly his own, that even his father, the older Burman came to be proud of his son’s unconventional music. Tublu!! That’s what RDB was called when he was born. If you see his early pictures, he quite did justice to this name.
Mehmood Saab had gone to sign Sachinda for his first production but it is said that Sachinda was not convinced about working with a new production house and Mehmood Saab signed RDB for his aptly titled debut, Chhote Nawab! When Chhote Nawab was released, 1961, Sachinda was one of the biggest names in the industry. Already a legend, with a huge fan following and a queue of producers waiting to sign him for their next venture. Amidst all this, Rahul Dev Burman made his quiet entry into films. Not many would have noticed this film and its music and those who did, may not have realized that this album and this man, will be discussed for ages to come.
Rafi Sahab with RD Burman
Starting independent music composing in 1961 with Chhote Nawaab, he did 331 Films and 4 Non-Film Albums. Before coming onto his own, he assisted his father S.D. Burman for long. Out of his 331 released movies 292 were in Hindi, 31 in Bangla, 3 in Telugu, 2 each in Tamil & Oriya and 1 in Marathi. RD also composed for 5 TV Serials in Hindi and Marathi. He also scored a large number of non-film songs in Bangla ((also known as Pooja songs or modern songs), which are available in different albums. He did a song for a small documentary film called Maa Ki Pukaar too, in 1975. R.D. Burman made his acting debut in Mehmood’s ‘Bhoot Bangla‘. Later in ‘Pyar Ka Mausam‘ too he gave a hilarious performance as Mr. Popat Lal. RDB was appreciated, loved, respected & adored by all alike Classes to Masses.
TRIVIA:
- Pancham introduced the twin track effect in ‘Baharon Ke Sapne‘. which he later used to create the mesmerizing ‘qatra qatra miltee hai‘ (Ijaazat) and a few more songs.
- He also pioneered the use of electronic organ in Indian Films with the song ‘O mere Sona re‘ (Teesri Manzil).
- RD was, as Gulzar says, as good a craftsman as he was a musician. He picked the sounds for his songs from very indigenous sources.
- In ‘Chura liya‘ he used the sound of a spoon hitting a glass.
- For the Kitaab song ‘Master jee kee aa gayee chitthee‘ he brought some desks from a classroom in the studio while recording and used them as percussion.
- In Abdullah he used the sound of a bamboo whistle with a balloon tied to it for a song.
- Once to get the sound of raindrops, he spent a whole rainy night in his house’s balcony recording the sound he wanted.
- In the song ‘O Manjhi Re‘ from the movie ‘Khushboo‘, R.D. Burman used bottles with water filled at different levels and created a hollow sound by blowing into them and this sound effect was used with the orchestra.
- During the recording of ‘Hum donon do premee‘ (Ajnabee) the musicians were on strike. So he improvised the song with emptied-out musical interludes and just listen the song!
- The mouth organ played in the song ‘Hai Apna Dil To Awara‘ sung by Hemant Kumar in the film ‘Solva Saal‘ is played by R.D. Burman himself.
- R.D. Burman played the mouth organ for his friends Laxmikant-Pyarelal in a song in ‘Dosti‘ and also in a movie for Kalyanji-Anandji.
- Dada Burman used Pancham’s tune ‘ai meree topee palat ke aa‘ in ‘Fantoosh‘. Pancham was only 9 when he composed the tune.
- Again next year, for Pyaasa, SD used his son’s ‘Sar Jo Tera Chakraaye‘, which became a big hit.
- Both Lata and Bhupinder won a National award for the song ‘Beeti Na Bitaayee Raina‘ from ‘Parichay‘, and this song was composed in a hotel room in no time.
- Aarti Mukherjee won a National award for the song ‘Do Naina Ek Kahaani‘ from ‘Masoom‘.
- Gulzar (best lyricist), Asha Bhosle (best female singer) won National awards for the song ‘Mera Kuchh Samaan‘ from Ijaazat.
- RDB was the first to introduce the Brazilian bossa nova rhythm in Hindi film music – the song was “Maar dalega dard-e-jigar“, sung by Asha, in “Pati Patni“. That rhythm has since been endlessly used for film music.
- R.D. Burman won the Filmfare Award only 3 times (Sanam Teri Kasam, Masoom, 1942-A Love Story) while being nominated 16 times for the award.
- Amit Kumar, Abhijeet & Shabbir Kumar were given their first breaks by Pancham.
- Jatin of Jatin-Lalit used to be in Pancham’s children’s choir.
- Nasir Hussain, for the first time after Teesri Manzil, did not sign R.D. Burman, in ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak‘.
R.D.B did give Rafi Sahab best numbers that are still fondly remembered. One song which basically can be philosophy to many people is Pal do Pal ka saath hamara. I’ve noticed, be it any program that is a tribute to Rafi Sahab, it either ends with Tum Mujeh Yun Bhula Na Paavoge or Pal Do Pal Ka Saath Hamaara.
Some unforgettable Solos of Rafi with RDB:
- Tumne Mujhe Dekha, Hokar Meherbaan – Teesri Manzil (1966)
- Zamane ne Mare Jawaa Kaise-Kaise – Baharon ke Sapne ( 1967)
- Tumhe Dekha hai Maine Gulsitaoon Mein – Chandan ka Palna (1967)
- Wadiyaan Mera Daman – Abilasha (1968)
- Tum Bin Jaoon Kahan – Pyar ka Mausam (1969)
- CheKhush Nazare,chekhush Nazare – Pyar ka Mausam (1969)
- Mere Liye Aati Hai sham – Raton ka Raja (1970)
- Gulabi Aakheen Jo Teri dekhi – The Train (1970)
- Rekha O Rekha, Jab se tumhe Dekha – Adhikar (1971)
- Koi Aur Duniya Mein tumsa hasin hai – Pyar ki Kahani (1971)
- Ae Jaanewafa Aisa bhi kya tum to khaafa – Chhalia (1973)
- Jab ek kaaja se gujro to ek aur kaaja mil jaati hai – Devta (1978)
- Jaag devta, naag devta – Shalimar (1978)
- Aa gaye yaaro Jeene Ke din – Phir Wohi Raat (1980)
- Aate Jaate hue main sab pe nazar – Shaan (1980)
- Maine Poocha Chand Se – Abdullah (1980)
- Kaun Kisi ko Bandh saaka – Kaalia (1981)
- Dukh Sukh ki har ek Mala Kudrat hi piroti ha – Kudrat (1981)
Some unforgettable duets of Rafi and Lata with RDB:
- Matwaalee aankhon waale – Chhote Nawaab (1961)
- Nagma Hamara Gaayegaa Ye Zamana – Bundalbaaz (1976)
- Kitnaa Pyaaraa Waadaa Hai – Caravan (1971)
- Kahe Ko Bulaya – Humshakal (1974)
- Gori Ke Haath Mei Jaise Ye Chhallaa – Mela (1974)
- Rut Hai Milan Ki Saathi Mere Aa Re – Mela (1974)
- Mohabbat Mein Ajii Kyaa Apnaa Imtihaan Denge – Phandebaaz (1978)
- Ni Sultana Re Pyar Ka Mausam Aayaa – Pyar Ka Mausam (1969)
- Mujhse Bhalaa Ye Kaajal Teraa Nain Base Din Rain – The Train (1970)
- Lehra Ke Aayaa Hai Jhonka Bahaar Ka – Waris (1969)
- Kabhi Kabhi Aisa Bhi To Hota Hai – Waris (1969)
Some unforgettable duets of Rafi and Asha with RDB:
- Aaja Aaja Main Hu – Teesri Manzil (1966)
- Haseena Zulfon Wali – Teesri Manzil
- Mere Sona Re – Teesri Manzil
- Chura Liya Hain Tumne – Yadon ki Barat (1974)
- Hai Allah yek ladka – Hum Kisise Kum Nahin (1978)
- Hai Agar Dushman Zamana – Hum Kisise Kum Nahin
- Pal do Pal ka Saath – The Burning Train (1979)
- Aa raat jaati hai chupke se mil jaaye dono – Benaam (1974)
- Rakkassa Mera Naam,Ae Sahib sabko salaam – The Great Gambler (1978)
- Pucho na yaar kya hua – Zamane ko Dikha Hai (1981)
The only duet RDB sang with Rafi Sahab was “Yamma Yamma” from Shaan.
Mohammed Rafi received the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the song Kya Hua Tera Wada from Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin (1977), composed by RD Burman.
For all the glory he had earned, RDB was an introvert when it came to self-publicity. This resulted in his losing out on many prestigious ventures. Directors who dropped him without any tangible reason included greats like Ramesh Sippy and Shekhar Kapoor. Subhash Ghai had once assured him that they would work together. In reality, he never did. Yash Copra dropped him even after the grand success of Deewar. Manmohan Desai, having used RD for Aa Gale Lag Jaa, his best musical by a mile, never said a word in RD’s favour in the future. But these were not isolated incidents. RD was in reality an inarticulate dipsomaniac whose world revolved around his music and his close circuit of friends. Even when he got cheated, he had no real clout in the Bombay film circle to voice his opinion, let alone bloat it. His last years were rooted in disappointments that were directed at various levels, mainly at the way the music industry promoted non-talents for reasons other than music. Like every superstar, RDB needed to be constantly reminded of his greatness, the lack of which forced him into a self-appointed seclusion. Sachin Bhowmick, his chum and confidante, summed it up as, “It was loneliness which killed him. Loneliness which is supposed to be the critical foe of heart patients.”
1994 had finally arrived. The New Year had begun with a big bang. High hopes, high spirits and great expectations for happiness, peace and prosperity. There was no place left for sadness or gloom. And yet, it found its insidious way into our hearts on that unfortunate winter morning. January 4,1994, 3:45 am R.D.Burman, one of the greatest music directors of all times passed away after suffering two heart attacks, one after the other. Indian cinema had lost another genius.
Rafi was undone and pushed back for sometime by the Bengali clout… There is no comparison between Rafi and Kishore, undoubtedly both were Great but when Rafi was ruling Kishore was nowhere near… On personal front Rafi was a thoroughly gentleman whereas Kishore was known for asking for his pay packet before singing his songs. If you leave aside the commercial success of the songs and go by mere quality of playback singing, undoubtedly Rafi would be far ahead. Dome of the most difficult songs ever sung were sung by Rafi Sahab
The Best of the GreAtest music directors Shankar Jaikishan, Naushad, Madan Mohan, Roshan etc. was sung by Great Rafi Sahab
But kishor da songs are still more popular than rafi.
Read how S. D. Burman stole Jaidev’s tunes:
What happened to Jaidev after Hum Dono is the kind of heart-wrenching cruelty that film industry keeps inflicting on its best talents. After the mega success of Hum Dono songs Jaidev was the natural choice of Navketan for their next film Guide starring Dev Anand. Jaidev composed and recorded two brilliant songs and all persons in Navketan management were extremely happy with the songs. But all of a sudden, mysteriously enough Jaidev was thrown out of Guide! It is said that Dev Anand pressurized Jaidev to work as S.D. Burman’s assistant in Guide. It was a cruel event where a sensitive creative genius like Jaidev was suppressed by the heartless mighty. Jaidev was never again invited by Navketan to compose songs. Dev Anand used both the Jaidev songs in his film Guide. It is said that those two songs were ‘Din Dhal Jaaye’ and ‘Tere Mere Sapne’ sung by Mohammad Rafi. ‘Din Dhal Jaaye’ was composed in Jaidev’s favourite Raag Bilawal and ‘Tere Mere Sapne’ in another favourite Raag of him, Gara. Being cast out of Guide was a very big setback in Jaidev’s film music career. He never really recovered from the shock. Jaidev used to frequently narrate such incidents to his friends, wracked by inconsolable grief
Well said Asif Saab and Shammi Saab, both father and son with their copied tunes pitched their favorite Noise Kumar(a light-worm) against Rafi Saab(The sun). Need not mention they fell flat on their face. Rafi saab was light years ahead of everyone else who did playback singing (and to rub it in) especially a few extra light years ahead of Kishore Kumar, as a singer. A movie produced by Kishore’s brother Ashok Kumar, starring Kiku himself had Rafi playing back for Kishore in one song. Rafi created more room for Kishore’s mannerisms than Kishore himself!
The back stabbing by this father and son returned to the son
as his was a pathetic end.The King of the HFM RDB lost every-
thing during the last days of his carrier.Once MD Anu Malik told
he had seen RDB in a very sad situation asking for a work with
a Producer and it is one of the saddest incidents of HFM.
Yes, asking Kishore Kumar to provide playback singing for the likes of Dharmendra was bad enough especially when I know that Dharmendra would have preferred Mohd Rafi but getting Kishore Kumar to provide the voice for Dilip Kumar was definitely unforgiveable as it just looked so ridiculous on the screen. Mohd Rafi could adapt his voice to any actor but the same cannot be said of Kishore Kumar the only two actors who he was compatible with was Rajesh Khanna and Amithab Bachchan and then with Amithab I would say I loved Mohd Rafi’s Voice aswell and I say god bless Manmohan Desai who himself being a big Mohd Rafi fan insisted as a producer to have Mohd Rafi singing for Amithab Bachchan in many of the films he produced and what big hits they were such as ‘Naseeb’.
The person who wrote this article says that Mohd Rafi was given some good and memmorable songs to sing by R D Burman but I have to say that the only reason that they are classed as good and memmorable is because Mohd Rafi with his amazing style made them sound that way, the same songs could have been given to Kishore Kumar but the results would have been different. I agree whole heartedly with Asif’s comments.
RDB was the biggest loser in the 80s without Rafi. Even with KK present still 87, RDB couldn’t recreate the magic of RDB-KK combo of the Rajesh Khanna era of 70s. There is a reason for that, RDB despite having a strong classical base misused Rafi. Funniest part of his music is, when Rafi was there is the 70s we used Bhupinder for many of his classical based songs along with Lata. Many RDB dedicated websites also misrepresent information Rafi Sahab. I would still give credit to SDB for giving his best work to Rafi. Even the SDB website http://www.sdburman.net speaks positive about Rafi Sahab. SDB often overruled Manna Dey for Rafi. This Manna Dey has himself highlighted in one of the articles in SDB website.
SDB would not have survived the late 50s and early 60s had it not been for Rafi Saab, yet see what he did with Rafi saab in the early 70s when the latter needed him most – he called up Shor Kumar to croon for Shahsi Kapoor, Dharmedra and even Dilip Kumar! I am sure none of them would have objected if Rafi saab had been called. We will never forgive SDB
Moreover, his copying disease too is unpardonable, remember the song “Jane wo kase log the” from pyasa and listen to the line “humne to jab kaliyan maangi kaato ka haar mila “, it’s been lifted from the national anthem: “Punjab sindh gujarat maratha dravid utkal banga” .. and I can come up with many other songs which have been cleverly copied by him. He was a great trickster and used to copy very cleverly from Tagore, Nazrul and Eastern folk.
I would urge others to expose both father and son as much as you can, not only here but on the other platforms as well, these copycats should be exposed and other talented composers should be given their rightful dues.
I agree, both father and son RD and SD Burman were shameless in their attitude and behaviour towards Mohd Rafi. I for one will never forgive or forget the way they used and abused the great man. He gave them so much success and they stabbed him in the back. The great Mohd Rafi may never had any grudges against them or anyone else for that matter but some of us fans are not so forgiving myself included.
I agree, both father and son RD and SD Burman were shameless in their attitude and behaviour towards Mohd Rafi. I for one will never forgive or forget the way they used and abused the great man. He gave them so much success and they stabbed him in the back. The great Mohd Rafi may never had any grudges against them or anyone else for that matter but some of us fans are not so forgiving myself included.
Yes Zaheer is right.. This man RD and his father ditched our Beloved Rafi Sahab. Both of them were copycats…. While SD used to copy from Ravindra Sangeet, Nazrul geeti and eastern folk songs, RD used to copy from the west. Let’s expose them as much as we can….
Nonsense article! RD was a copycat who used to lift western tunes shamelessly. He used Rafi saab to serve his own selfish ends and ditched him later in the 70s. True Rafi saab fans will never forgive this copycat.
Wonderfully written article! Thanks from a fan of golden era of Bollywood Music…
shakar jaikishan
Naushad
O.P nayyar
madan mohan
A. R. Quereshi
Hansraj Behl
Roshan
Vasant Desai
Snehal Bhatkar
Shyam Sundar
Kalyanji, Anandji
Shivram
C. Ramchandra
Ghulam Haider
Basant Prakash
Laxmikant, Pyarelal
S. Mohinder
Ghulam Mohammad
Shyam Babu Pathak
Gulshan Soofi
Vinod
Iqbal Quereshi
Sharmaji (Khaiyyam)
Ravi
Husnalal, Bhagatram
And many more says its our pleassure to compose songs with RAFI SAHAB, his voice gives us name and fame, and Music Directors
who dont want Rafi sahab ends with worst.
guys stop comparing Rafi sahab with specially Kishore as kishore got no singing talent, please find any single bhajan, Naat, Classical raag based, you will not find reason he cant sings nor he stands. kishore songs are easy to sing but for rafi sahab it needs extra ordinary skills to sung this is words of udit narayan,shaan, kumar sanu, KK etc kishore itself admires rafi sahab and you can find alot of his video saying that he cant be compare with rafi sahab as rafi sahab is his GURU.
you still ruling on our heart Rafi sahab..my salute to you !
Dear Haldarji,
Ref: post 126.
Thank you for the informations. Most of them are news to me. I thought both those tunes were initially composed in Bengali. Now I can visualise things clearer.
As for Salil-Lata combo, Your assessment is spot on. Ditto with Salil-Kishore.
Listened to the first two links. The third one is not functioning but I know the song. Here is a functioning link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dImPY7vNbsw
I liked the Lata version immensely but wasn’t too impressed with the Kishore version. How I wish Yesu Das had sung it! Suseela version is pretty good too. If I have to rank them, It’s Lata, Suseela and Kishore in that order.
Hans ji,
From one of your comments, I can tell that you are on the right track. I have been on this forum since its inception and I must say that most of the ire is directed at the easy and sometimes wrong targets. Hindi film music has consumed most of my life, much to the detriment of my professional life, and when I comment on something, I try to stay as close to the truth as possible, even if that is not palatable to some of my friends on this forum. For instance, you will never see me denying the fact that Pancham was the “major” force in the first half of the seventies; if you deny that, you are obviously out of touch with reality.
Dr. Ranade is undoubtedly a scholar of great repute. But to understand some of the most interesting events in the music industry, you will also have to understand two P’s: psychology and politics. His comment on Salil’s use, or lack thereof, of Rafi is way off the mark. Salil’s leftist leanings have nothing to do with it whatsoever. “Ajab teri duniya”, as you know very well, was sung by Rafi. Other than the fact that many of the IPTA members were atheists, Rafi would fit perfectly in this group, as he did with Shailendra, Sahir, Guru Dutt, Kaifi Azmi and Majrooh, just to name a few. Here is a man who would distribute his money to the musicians, give away his earnings from a show in a Bengal town because it got flooded and commit countless acts of charity — what is there for a leftist not to like about him? And the leftist that he was, Salil collaborated with the No. 1 capitalist of the music industry, a real Bharat Ratan. If you know the real story behind the Maya incident, it would make your blood boil even more. You need to ask yourself a simple question: what is so difficult about the Maya song that Rafi would have problems in singing? In my opinion, it should be a piece of cake. But so many people, including many Rafians, believe the story because Raju Bharatan’s favourite music director, the great Salil da, whispered that into his ears. The question is, why did he do that? There must be a motive and to get there, you’ll have to understand human psychology.
Life imitates art. And the music industry imitates hindi films.
Regards and no hard feelings,
P. Haldar
Hans ji,
You wrote, “but my complaint against salil is not this. to whom he gave songs is his prerogative. i object to his behaviour at the time of the maya duet and later. he quarrelled over a real petty and fake issue with rafi for lata’s sake and forgot his professional ethics.”
I do not disagree with even a single word you’ve written. In fact, that has been my grouse against Salil all along. If you care to dig out some of my old posts, you will find that I have made this point repeatedly. I was involved in an interchange with the late Sandeep Nadkarni, who used to be a violinist in Salil’s orchestra. I’m sure that what Mr. Sandeep Nadkarni spilled out, a lot of other musicians also knew but never dared to reveal. Before Nadkarni saab could reveal the real reason behind the incident, a journalist intervened and that was the end of the matter. I’ve all along had a hunch of what actually led to the incident, but unfortunately Nadkarni saab passed away a few days later and I couldn’t get my hypothesis validated. But I am 99% sure that my hypothesis is true, and if you analyse the events carefully, you will also come to the same conclusion. But for that to happen, you’ll have to shed your biases and stay away from showing indiscreet valour by saying that Himmat gives you more happiness than Anand (I hope you like the phrasing of this sentence). Because you are a serious student of Hindi music, I would like you to focus on the years between 1957 and 1961, one of the most pivotal periods in the history of hindi film music, and make a dispassionate analysis. I have full confidence that you will arrive at the same conclusion that I did.
Regards,
P. Haldar
post 128:
Hans ji,
You wrote, “but my complaint against salil is not this. to whom he gave songs is his prerogative. i object to his behaviour at the time of the maya duet and later. he quarrelled over a real petty and fake issue with rafi for lata’s sake and forgot his professional ethics.”
I do not disagree with even a single word you’ve written. In fact, that has been my grouse against Salil all along. If you care to dig out some of my old posts, you will find that I have made this point repeatedly. I was involved in an interchange with the late Sandeep Nadkarni, who used to be a violinist in Salil’s orchestra. I’m sure that what Mr. Sandeep Nadkarni spilled out, a lot of other musicians also knew but never dared to reveal. Before Nadkarni saab could reveal the real reason behind the incident, a journalist intervened and that was the end of the matter. I’ve all along had a hunch of what actually led to the incident, but unfortunately Nadkarni saab passed away a few days later and I couldn’t get my hypothesis validated. But I am 99% sure that my hypothesis is true, and if you analyse the events carefully, you will also come to the same conclusion. But for that to happen, you’ll have to shed your biases and stay away from showing indiscreet valour by saying that Himmat gives you more happiness than Anand (I hope you like the phrasing of this sentence). Because you are a serious student of Hindi music, I would like you to focus on the years between 1957 and 1961, one of the most pivotal periods in the history of hindi film music, and make a dispassionate analysis. I have full confidence that you will arrive at the same conclusion that I did.
Regards,
P. Haldar
contd..
you have in your later post said that you have no problem if i did not consider salil a great md. that is not true, i consider him a great md and i only objected to him being called one of the greatest. if you had called him one of the greats, i would have readily agreed. and to refute your claim of anti-bengali bias against me, i would like to declare that i put sdb in the highest bracket i.e. one of the greatest, despite my protestations against his shabby treatment of rafi.
you asked me to ask lata about salil. she would perhaps say what you say, but that she would say for anybody who demeans rafi. as for hemant, talat and mukesh, salil gave hemant just 9 songs and one cant remember any other except ‘ganga aaye kahan se’ from kabuliwala. to talat also he gave only 11 songs and of these 4 were from chhaya and 3 from his own film ‘ek gaon ki kahani’. mukesh also got less than rafi. and i may also tell you that after the so-called super songs of anand by mukesh, salil gave him only 3 songs in the six years that mukesh lived after anand. to manna dey though he was generous and he kept him as his main singer. and i am happy that he gave manna his due, because manna is a truly great singer and other mds did not give him what he deserved.
your line which felt really bad was the last line of your post 118. i do not claim to be any music expert and certainly not of your level, but certainly i can tell the difference between madhumati and khilona. i wont say more than that.
contd..
so far as the music of anand and its comparison with that year’s other music is concerned, i may like to say that the music is excellant but to me it is very hyped and is not of that quality which you proclaim. anand was a very fine film, but, it is not mandatory to praise the music also to the extent the film is praised. i never said the himmat or pkk had better music. i used the words better and popular. there were a lot of songs in that year with better music and also many others which were very popular. ‘hai shukar ke tu hai ladka’ and the two duets of himmat were ringing in the streets that year and nobody was singing anand songs – though they were appreciated slowly by a minority class. i wonder how you talk about pkk in such demeaning terms, calling it joke of the day. pkk had three superb rafi solos ‘aashiq hoon ek mahjabin ka’, ‘tum mujhe yun bhula na paoge’ and ‘ae mere dil yahan tu akela nahin’, one solo ‘meri bhains ko danda kyun mara’ by manna dey and one solo by lata ‘tum mujhe yun’. the music of that film was not inferior in any way, if not supeior, to anand.
you have praised the lata solo profusely, though there is a factual error in that it was duly released. i would ask you to compare this with the three solos by lata in dastak (which forgot to mention in the list). all three will individually beat the anand solo handsomely. there is also the rafi solo ‘tumse kahun ek baat’. i dont want to go into details about other films.
contd..
contd..
you have tried to circumvent the facts given by me in reply to your regularity argument, by giving yearwise list of films in which rafi sang for salil. i would like to tell that there were two more films between biraj bahu and jagte raho in which rafi sang two songs each. but this does not change the facts i gave that after jagte raho in 10 films salil gave only 3 songs in two films. neither was he composing for less number of films. in the first 8 years till 1961 salil gave music for 26 films which comes to about 3 films per year.
but my complaint against salil is not this. to whom he gave songs is his prerogative. i object to his behaviour at the time of the maya duet and later. he quarrelled over a real petty and fake issue with rafi for lata’s sake and forgot his professional ethics. if he was sure that rafi was not singing the song correctly, then he should have replaced him for the duet. there was also no problem in that because he gave a solo to dwijen mukherjee(who gave a good account of himself) which went on dev anand and he could easily have given dwijen the duet. but he knew exactly that rafi was singing the song in the right manner and defect, if any, was in his composition which rafi had corrected by his interpretation.
and this he did after he had utilised rafi’s expertise for two songs ‘ki main jhooth boliya’ and ‘ae saba kehna mere dildar se’ and particularly the first one. the first was almost a panjabi rendition and in my opinion it was taken to the heights just by rafi and balbir’s rendition. salil’s contribution was perhaps limited only to setting the orchestra. this can be verified from another song which was later composed by him and the mukhda of which contained some panjabi words. this song ‘o gori aaja gaddi wich bahja’ from sapan suhane(1961), was sung by manna dey and lata. this song exposes the limitations of the composer as well as singers in adopting the panjabi words and shows the contrast with ‘ki main jhoot boliya’. the kabuliwala song was also based on folk music of the area around which rafi was born and bred.
contd..
post 118
haldar ji,
i was not hurt but surprised by your response of taking recourse to such a weak argument like anti-bengali bias for putting me on the defensive. you must be knowing that i am right, because you know bengalis better. i wonder how you came to the conclusion that some kk fans and mds constitute the whole of bengal, because i had criticised just them. bengal has much more likeable than these, huge amount of quality literature, tagore, subhash bose, a host of revolutiionaries to be proud of and lot more. i dont want to prove, i am not anti-bengali, because you know that. your post of 2008 supports my claims.
similarly, your comment about daan singh is out of place because i was only replying to your challenge to find any md who could match salil’s high quality music in anand. i listed some films of 1970 and not the 70s as you have tried to make out. as those films were by established mds, i pointed out daan singh, a lesser known md to emphasise my point. no comparison was made with salil or any other md, because daan singh simply does not have enough material. but his talent cant be denied and his two mukesh songs, i reiterate, are much better than mukesh’s anand solos. he had one or two flop films and one was shelved and then he was from rajasthan and did not fit in any of the prevalent bollywood groups of punjab, bengal and maharashtra. salil was lucky in that regard.
contd..
Lightmusiclover,
I agree with your assessment of the two tunes, but let me also point out that in both cases, the Malayalam version was composed before the Hindi version. Salil used to spend a lot of time in Kerala and many of his musicians were from the south (ARR’s dad used to play in his orchestra and, if I’m not mistaken, Ilyaraja also used to assist him). So when he creates an original composition in Malayalam, he would definitely tailor the tune to the demands of the milieu. Also, his tunes often have swift-changing notes and South Indian singers may have a natural proclivity toward his tunes. Yesudas’s “Poomaanam Poothulanje” is a classic; it’s impossible to beat him on such a song. Yesudas was also one of Salil’s favourite singers, and that shows through his songs.
In addition to being a great composer, Salil was also a class music arranger. Listen to his interlude music in the Madhumati songs and see how wonderful it sounds. They are of contrasting styles. The prelude to “Suhana safar aur yeh mausam haseen” with birds chirping and the shepherd herding his flock are great, but then when the hills reverberate in chorus in response to Mukesh’s “Oh ho ho”, it’s just out of the world. There are many other songs where Salil’s use of chorus is excellent; take, for instance, two songs by Manna
Dey: Jaane walo sipahi se puchho and Zindagi kaise hai paheli. If you ask any musician, he will tell you that his chord progressions are very complex. There is a Rafian by the name of Ramakrishna (aka Sabnavees); he plays Salil’s tunes on his harmonica and he would be a good person to comment on Salil’s musical arrangements.
Although Kishore delivered some good songs for Salil, I really don’t think he was well suited for his music. Give me Mukesh, Talat or Manna any day. “Aansoo samajh ke kyun mujhe aankh se tum ne gira diya… jo na chaman mein khil saka main woh garib phool hoon ” — waah Talat, kya baat!
It would be an understatement to say that the nightingale resonated at Salil’s frequency. Theirs was one of the greatest partnerships in music history; whether you like them as people or not, you cannot deny the fact that they created magic together. I’m posting three versions of a tune; the original in Bengali by Lata, and then in Hindi and Malayalam by Kishore and P. Susheela, respectively. I’ll let you judge for yourself.
Lata:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhKfrs3PfKs&feature=related
Kishore:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvBuUofsDt8
P. Susheela:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxThhwbupPs
BEFORE SOMEONE GETS ME WRONG.. I WISH I AM WRONG..BENGALIS LOVE MUSIC WITHOUT DISCRIMINATON…HOWEVER A CLOSE OBSERVATION SUGGESTS THAT HANSJI MAY NOT BE TOTALLY WRONG, ..PL VISIT ANY POOJA PANDAL/FUNCTION AND LISTEN TO THE SONGS PLAYED THERE..
POST 116 HANSJI’ FORCES ME DO A RETROSPECTION..HE IS PERHAPS RIGHT..REALLY BENGALIS DO NOT KEEP RAFI’S CD OR CASSETTE..YOU WILL FIND KK,HEMANT KUMAR , LATA MANGESHKAR,SDBURMAN BUT NOT MOHAMMAD RAFI…IN DURGA POOJA FUNCTIONS YOU WILL HEAR SONGS OF ALL SINGERS BUT NOT RAFI..!
post 113,
Dear Hans ji,
Have to agree with you that music in its purest form, should be made and heard with no prejudices or ideological overtones, but salilda, going by whatever is written about him, seems to be an exception. atleast sometimes. for the listeners however, the resultant enjoyment quotient wouldn’t diminish. The way i look at it, is to try and listen to the music with the same values that we expect from others. That is with no prejudices or ideologies. just good music heard from a pure heart & soul.
We can barely take Dr. Ashok Ranade’s name lightly. He was a master observer, an ethno-musicologist, author of many books on aesthetics of music besides serving as the first director of University of Music, Mumbai. My quoting from his book, was a perspective of Late Dr. Ranade, different from popular belief. How you wish to interpret is left to you Hansji and I respect that, as much as i respect my own.
kind regards,
Nagesh
Binuji,
I totally agree with your opinion that Salilda’s Malayalam output is greater compared to his Hindi outputs. I’ve always felt that his typical style went better with the Malayalm lyrics.
As an example, please listen to the two versions of the same tune
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpl4BAp3Gbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aF14jnBJ3c
The Malayalm version wins hands down.
Here is another case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2829szm0Os
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz_cLdUZYQA&feature=related
Again it is advantage Malayalam.
contd from 120.
btween : the year was 1975 and the emergency period was on.
it was the first time i saw our evergreen hero dev anand saaheb. with a seventeen year old tina munim – hand in hand.
nightingale was invited by salil da but refused. reportedly salil da banged the phone down on lata ‘s refusal to attend his silver jubilee celebrations.
and about the music for amar …. its music is just hyped and the singing too poor. till date i have not understood what’s great about it. same with : ” musaffir hai yaaaron another hyped up song..
whenever i heard this i thought these songs belonged to one and only mohd rafi.
i definitely love salil da for i knew him from some angles when i was a collegian in mumbai.
then, i was a raw music lover (not improved upon it much even now). I had gone to salil da’s house on errands from my dad who was a great lover of salil da/talat/manna dey/geeta dutt and k l saigal.
dad had orgnanised a silver jubilee of salil da for two days at india’s pride place at shanmukananda hall where all singers had come to sing for salil da except salil da favourite lata and rafi saaheb.
the highlight of the programme was asha singing : aajaaare mai to kab se khadi…. beautifully. before the event on a sunday morning asha/dada manohari da (about 45 years) all had troooped in to the mehboob studios at 9.30 am sharp for the rehearsals. what a commitment from the team i must say.
one of these days i hope i will be able to upload some pictures and memories of that great moment and event.
but, the point i am writing is for only one reason.
salil da gave some great music in hindi songs and they are some real jewels.
but, what he gave for malayalam movies is better than the mountains of mackennas gold.
the best song of malayalam is ‘not’ sung by a malayali.
its sung by a bengali singer who is my favourite. manna da saaheb.
tuned by salil da……….incredible and incomparable music for chemeen (Prawns) which won the Presidents gold medal.
Hans ji,
I might have over-reacted in my previous post, and I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. I would request you once again not to make sweeping statements against any specific community, whatever your own beliefs are. Once in a while, we write things out of humour, but in your case, it is more serious. There’s nothing I can do to change your views, but because this site is devoted to Rafi saab, who was above such petty things, it’s best that we refrain from ethnic attacks.
As regards Salil, our opinions are subjective and I have no problems if you don’t consider Salil a great MD. I love Salil’s music, but I also realise that to truly appreciate Salil, you also have to be aware of his output in Bengali. S. D. Burman’s Bangla songs are also great, but Dada is such a giant that he stands tall with his Hindi output alone. Salil also has a great following in the south, especially in Kerala.
Your list of films from the 70s is notable for its exclusions. Foremost among them is the one whose music will remain amar — whether you consider class or popularity, most of the films you’ve listed won’t even have a fighting chance against it.
For my fellow Rafians, I’m posting a favourite non-filmi song, written by Madhukar Rajasthani and composed by Vinod Chatterjee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbxNcdrRud0
Vinod Chatterjee, incidentally, had also composed a few Bengali songs for Rafi saab.
post 116:
You wrote, “neither do i agree that salil used rafi regularly till maya.” You don’t have to agree with me; it’s in the archives. Here are the films in which Rafi sang for Salil from 1953 till 1961 (Do Bigha Zameen to Maya):
1953 Do Bigha Zameen
1954 Biraj Bahu
1956 Jaagte Raho
1957 Zamana
1958 Madhumati
1960 Us ne kaha tha
1961 Chhaya
1961 Kabuliwala
1961 Maya
What I meant by “regular” was that Rafi and Salil used to work together during those years. Given that Salil didn’t compose for that many films during that period, one cannot say that Rafi was not present in Salil’s recording room. I qualified my statement by saying that Rafi was typically used as a second or third singer.
You also wrote that “there were a lot of films in the same year with much better and popular music viz. aan milo sajna, bhai bhai, dharti, heer ranjha, himmat, ishq par zor nahin, khilona, mera naam joker, naya rasta, pagla kahin ka, pehchan, purab aur paschim, safar. there was also a film ‘my love’ by a lesser known md daan singh.”
Himmat and pkk had better music than Anand? That must be the biggest joke of the day. One unreleased song by the nightingale is better than the combined output of some of the films you’ve mentioned. In case you haven’t heard it, I’m posting the original track in Bengali:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ-V8YvUqSM
And there are two gems from Mukesh bhai and one from Manna da. Given your anti-Bengali bias, I’m not surprised that you mention Daan Singh in the same breath as Salil.
You also wrote, “salil gave excellant music in several films, but to call him one of the greatest would mean lowering the bar considerably.” Probably you should go and ask the nightingale why she considers him as one of the very best. Hemant, Talat and Mukesh are no more, but you might want to check with Manna Dey and Yesudas. They definitely know more about music than you or me.
What’s next? Khilona’s music is better than Madhumati’s?
contd..
i have read binuji’s comment. if you reflect again, you will find that singer is the visible figure so far as music is concerned. singer is more known than mds just like actors are better known than directors, producers etc. how many people want to know who composed the song. just like rafi, songs sung by mukesh, lata or manna dey composed by salil are also known by the name of singer. when listening to ‘ae mere pyare watan’ everybody will say manna ne kya gaya hai.
neither do i agree that salil used rafi regularly till maya. salil gave 7 songs to rafi in his first 7 films. then in his next 10 films he gave just 3 to him, 2 of them being the famous madhumati songs. as per my figures he gave rafi 23 songs out of which 6 came in 8 films after maya. he stopped giving him songs after 1966.
you refer to the music of ‘anand’ which came in 1970. there were a lot of films in the same year with much better and popular music viz. aan milo sajna, bhai bhai, dharti, heer ranjha, himmat, ishq par zor nahin, khilona, mera naam joker, naya rasta, pagla kahin ka, pehchan, purab aur paschim, safar. there was also a film ‘my love’ by a lesser known md daan singh. there were two mukesh solos ‘zikra hota hai jab qayamat ka’ and ‘wo tere pyar ka gham’ which will beat the ‘anand’ songs hands down. also in the 70s barring ‘anand’ and ‘rajnigandha’ which had good music and ‘chhoti si baat’ and ‘mere apne’ which had ok music, salil hardly gave any memorable music. i can list more than dozen films from which not a single song is remembered by any music lover.
salil gave excellant music in several films, but to call him one of the greatest would mean lowering the bar considerably and will be injustice to the really greatest mds.
post 115
haldar ji,
you had not written that in exactly the same words, but to the same effect. i had read it a long time ago. you wrote in post 1014 in ‘true voice’ thread in 2008 in reply to binuji “your comment on bengalis is well taken, but i have to admit that they are not what they used to be. when we were growing up, people used to talk about songs like “hari om” and “madhuban mein radhika” in hushed tones.” this i interpret as what i have written.
i know there are thousands of true rafians like you in bengal (out of the crores of bengalis), but it is also a fact that most of the bengalis dont leave any stone unturned to undermine rafi. of the kk fans the most spiteful comments against rafi come from bengalis. i have known more than a dozen bengalis from very close and i havent found anybody having rafi cassettes or cds at home. about 20 years ago one of my bengali friends borrowed video cassette of ‘phir wohi dil laya hoon’ from my collection and the principle reason was the film had many lovely rafi songs. i said why dont you keep some rafi cassettes if you like him. his reply was ‘yaar ghar men jab bengali friend aate hain to tarah tarah ke sawal karte hain, isse bachne ke liye main cassette nahin rakhta.’
hindi films have got so much from bengalis – certainly more than any other region – but it is also a fact that bengali mds have ignored rafi and most of the adverse stories from record rooms emanate from them.
contd..
post 113:
Hans ji,
I don’t think I ever said that it was taboo to take the name of Rafi in my teens. In the worst phase of his career, I and my fellow Rafians would take his name a thousand times. It is also a gross over-generalisation to say that Bengali MD’s did not like Rafi.
As regards Salil and Rafi, read Binu ji’s post carefully and you’ll get the answer. Salil used Rafi regularly from his first film till Maya, though most often as the second or third singer. His ultimate singer was Lata, both in Bengali and Hindi. In Bengali, his main male singer was Hemanta, and in Hindi, his favourite singers were Mukesh, Talat and Manna.
Salil was part of the leftist IPTA group, along with a host of other famous personalities, including Shombhu Mitra, Ritwick Ghatak, K. A. Abbas, Guru Dutt, Sahir and Majrooh. But, as you’ve rightly pointed out, his leftist ideology had nothing to do with his not using Rafi. Sandeep Nadkarni, who used to be a violinist in Salil’s orchestra, had pointed out the real reason.
Despite everything he did or did not do, I consider Salil to be one of our greatest composers. He was a total all-rounder — writer (in Bengali), lyricist (in Bengali), musician (could play multiple instruments) and composer. He was also involved in both the Calcutta Youth Choir and the Bombay Youth Choir. The only thing he probably had more than his talent was his ego. If he had kept his temper under check, he could have gone much farther in Hindi film music. Listen to the music of Anand and tell me how many composers could match such high quality music in the 70s.
P. Haldar
salil da told a friend journalist and a mohd rafi lover : ” that if i give a song to rafi, it becomes a rafi trademark song, not of salil choudhary “.
said salil da : see both the songs of madhumati one on dilip kumar and the other on johny walker….. rafi ne kya gaaaya was the public comment..
this was the fear lurking in the mind and the ego factor and the lady singer factor kept ‘very few’ composers a bit away from rafi saaheb.
post 112, sidhantiji,
you are supporting or promoting a strange logic that salil chaudhary did not use rafi because of his leftist ideologies. i dont understand how you can identify music as being leftist or rightist. his task was to give music to whatever songs were given to him and he was not a lyricist. his huge preference and siding with lata, who is without doubt the most capitalist minded singer, would bely his claims of being a leftist. if he was a true leftist, then his natural favourite would have been rafi. and if salil thought that his leftist ideas would be lost in rafi’s voice, then he was the biggest fool, because everybody knows, the heights to which rafi took ‘pyasa’ and he always gave a special meaning to songs by sahir, who is declared leftist lyricist.
now to the facts given by you to prove he ignored rafi because of his ideologies. listen to’zindagi khwab hai’ again. there is nothing leftist in that song. but another song ‘ki main jhoot boliya’ is there in the same film, which is based on leftist ideology and that was sung by rafi and balbir. the song ‘ajab tori duniya’ if that was leftist was sung by rafi and chorus. so get the facts right before making such claims. there is another song like ‘ajab tori duniya’ sung by rafi in film chhaya ‘ya kahde hum insan nahi, ya maan le tu bhagwan nahi’. in this film chhaya all romantic songs were sung by talat. i wonder why salil who was ignoring rafi due to his ideology gave such a song to rafi. there are two more songs by rafi in film ‘netaji subhashchandra bose’ based on revolutionary-cum-nationalistic ideas.
this ranade to me is some blind apologist of salil. it is a well known fact that bengali mds did not like rafi, where is the need to hide this fact. mr. haldar has written somewhere in this site that in his teens it was taboo to take the name of rafi.
Post 106, Santhana Krishnan ji,
The other day we wondered why a composer like Salil Choudhary didn’t use Rafi sab’s voice much. I think I have some insights to it. (I quote from Mr. Ashok Ranade’s book on Hindi Film Songs, in which he writes about Salilda’s style of music plus his preference of singers).
Salilda’s music more often than not had an ‘extra musical’ air to it. Some of his staunch leftist ideologies spilled over into his music, whether it was a message as in ‘zindagi khwab hai’ or a mild protest disguised as bhajan in ‘ ajab teri duniya’ but when it came to johnny walker’s ‘jangal main mor nacha’, he went to Rafi sab or in Maya for ‘ koi sone ke dil wala’, which demonstrates that he agreed to his versatility. Perhaps salilda might have felt that his ‘non musical’ objectives would be lost in the melody of the golden voice, so it might just have been a conscious decision, that had nothing much to do with his bengali origins. Perhaps it’s safer to say he was ruled by his ideologies while making music.
Adaab Rafi
Nagesh Sidhanti
sardar malik said harsh words about rafi but his son is a great rafi bakht ( anu Malik).
well. anil biswas said some ‘thrash’ about rafi and people went to manhandle him . then, he disowned his statement said i never did say it.
his daugher is a great rafi fan.
kishore kumar and his son are the biggest ‘rafi bakhts’ of our times .
and, if rdb had a kid he too would have said : rafi saaheb ka jawab nahin. sadly, there were no offsprings from this great music director. so sad that rdb went away a broken man.
Anil biswas ji was top music director in 1940’s if am not wrong, Anil ji liked Talat ji voice but he used mohd rafi for few films also 1958 when it said about mohd rafi that any song going be sing by mohd rafi it going to be hit. What is the problem if some music directors don’t like mohd rafi but what about music directors and actors they said we are because of mohd rafi? Shammi ji was a top actor, manna day top singer, opn to music director and many more they feel that mohd rafi is the best, I don’t know about music but when top singers of today asked to sing mohd rafi they said no because not easy as Shaan and kumar Sanu said….
107, never heard about Sardar Malik say such a stupid thing, if he did, he must be a moron. Others in this category include Anil Biswas and Salil Chaudhry both over -rated by haters of Rafi and both wiped out once Rafi came on the scene.
Rafi is not only the greatest singer ever but also a great noble person who never said bad to anyone.
Post No. 106, Santhanakrishnanji,
If any composer hadn’t considered Rafi sab for ‘non musical’ reasons, I humbly feel it’s entirely the composer’s loss. Rafi sab, was a singer for all seasons and all reasons whose middle name is ‘versatility’.
Personally I’d be shocked if any of those names you have mentioned diluted their work ethics, but if they have then certainly at their own cost!!
Adaab Rafi
Nagesh Sidhanti
Post 106….
I will add one more name to your list of composers a while later before saying that composer ‘who’ tried to show their mettle without rafi saaheb exited from the musical scene without a single tear flowing.
sardar malik was one struggling compoer who said that mohd rafi is no singer at all. a rafi fan told sarder : ” you will be washed away . and that happened.”
sardar malik’s son is a great rafi lover and claims that rafis last song was recorded by him. it could be the second last song.
even rdb had to go knocking to rafi doors when he started losing steam – late seventies.
RD got his acclaim for Teesri Manzil and again by proxy for Aradhana (which he supposed to have composed many of the hits with Kishore), and then Hare Ram hare Krishna – which made RD, Kishore and Asha a successful triplet, Rafi not finding space unless it was a very difficult song (classical base or wide range, songs that required to be sung out of phase with the taal).
But MDs from Bengal ( am I grouping them?) Anil Biswas, Salil Choudhary and RD Burman had their reservations about using Rafi – for which different unauthenticated stories exist – Anil Biswas said, Rafi is not my kind of singer – Salil Choudhary sided with lata during the Rafi-Lata spat and did not use Rafi much, RD once mentioned that Rafi can not be made to change the tune once one version was given to him. Both the reasons, attributed to Anil Biswas and RD Burman are not meritorious, as Rafi has given memorable songs to many lesser known MDs (first timers) and brought lot of colour to songs just by the variations and nuances that he was able to bring (listen to original sound track versions songs from Kajal and Aaj aur kal.).
Many of the stories will remain stories as there is no one to clarify – but why should we worry about – all are human beings and are entitled to their opinions and disagreements – they all gave memorable gems which we can hear again and again!
104 posts for a RD Burman article , who says Rafians dont like RD Burman.
mohd rafi fans are used to soft and melodious music. when they hear “loud and non-melodious music” from the other singer, one will blame the composer first and then the singer.
songs – which could be essayed by rafi saaaheb was given to the other singer by rd burman – in many cases. the said composer improvised the song and later gave it to his favourite singer in pyar ka mausam.
there are many instances of mohd rafi statements shared with his close friends – doing the rounds even today. and therefore, every aspect of rafi saaheb is dissected and discussed in various forums.
during the late seventies some people tried to show that rafi is nothing just because two songs became famous . a rajesh khanna wave was turned in to a kishore wave which was ‘artificially’ made a tide by interested people which included two female singers too.
its a fact that singers felt they could never out shine mohd rafi – so they used their clout on composers to give songs to singers other than mohd rafi. these are facts doing the rounds even today emanating from musicians, close rafi fans and friends.
rafi fans are never fanatics. they should never ‘be’. they are rafi lovers. the meaning of rafi is mulayam, – soft.
their are rightful claimants for the ‘tag’ of fanaticism and they are not mohd rafi fans i believe.
i think rafi fans are just articulating the injustices done to rafi saaheb by the cruel music industry i n various discussions .
rafi saaheb survived in the industry – by sheer hard work, talents, honesty and a do good attitude to everyone. he had a saintly disposition which transformed in to his songs. the love of the masses for mohd rafi will never cease.
neither the debates.
mohd rafi fans are used to soft and melodious music. when they hear “loud and non-melodious music” from the singer, they will blame the composer first and then the singer.
songs which rightfully belonged to rafi saaaheb was given to the other singer by rd burman – in many cases. the said composer improvised the song and later gave it to his favourite singer in pyar ka mausam.
there are many instances of mohd rafi statements shared with his close friends – doing the rounds even today. every aspect of rafi saaheb is dissected and discussed.
during the late seventies some people tried to show that rafi is nothing just because two songs became famous . a rajesh khanna wave was turned in to a kishore wave which was made in to a tide by interested people which included two female singers too.
rafi fans are never fanatics. they should never ‘be’. they are rafi lovers. the meaning of rafi is mulayam, – soft.
i think rafi fans are just articulating the injustices done to rafi saaheb by the cruel music industry.
rafi saaheb survived in the industry – by his hard work, talents, honesty and a do good attitude. he had a saintly disposition which transformed in to his songs. and the love of the masses for mohd rafi will never cease.
neither the debates.
Adaab Rafi doston,
Owing to professional commitments, for a long space of time, I wasn’t amongst the very informative articles that are published here, such as this one. Thank you Zaheen Danishji. You seem to be very well informed here.
This forum has some of the gentlest souls, that I have discovered, more closely, during the interactive sessions, subsequent to a couple of song reviews that I presented couple of years ago. Those members here with their positive, musically passionate views make perfect ambassadors for ‘brand Rafi’.
That said, I wish to record my disappointment after reading some of the responses on this thread concerning RDB-Rafi sab works. Initially, I thought I should ignore & move on, but then it’d have been indifferent of the Rafi fan in me. Therefore I go ahead and present my two paise opinions. Choti muh badi baat….
1. Composer-Singer relationship in it’s purest form is comparable to Guru-Shishy Bhaandhavy & whatever little I know of Rafi sab, is ample enough to believe that he was a thorough professional who practiced the rules both written & un-written including treating a composer the way he or she should be.
2. If RDB has used Kishore more than Rafi sab, we have no business to grudge that. He must have had his own reasons or compulsions to act in a particular way at that particular time. The least, we should, is to respect his decisions & look at the ‘glass-half-full’ ethic, the super songs listed by Zaheenji & celebrate what is left behind. RDB has given some unforgettable compositions to Hindi cinema. Besides RDB-Rafi, who can forget the collective brilliance of RDB & Gulzar? Or RDB-Lata combo & his musical body of works with Asha & Kishore? No one made orchestral arrangements & improvisations the way he did. His musicians, even to this day have rock stars status & Pancham is the big reason for that.
3. Rafi sab to me was a human being with divine abilities rather than a divine being in human form. Some of the posts suggest that he was ‘exploited’. To me nothing is more absurd than to assume Rafi sab was that innocent. He was extremely intelligent going by the smooth relationships he enjoyed with dozens of composers & fellow artists (save the spat with Lataji, which was more specific to industry position). The royalty issues are matters of heavy debate even to this day. Aren’t they? Besides, both Lataji & Rafi sab patched up, but some of us still carry the cudgels on behalf of Rafisab which is ‘anti Rafi’ in its spirit. He himself wouldn’t have liked to see that. There’s an air of un-touchablity towards Lata or Kishore admirers that should be first renounced, if this forum has to stand out for high respectability.
4. If Burmans had special affinity to a fellow Bengali, what’s unusual about the same? Let’s not forget, composers have producers as their boss. It’s a common knowledge that certain producers interfere with creativity in the name of trend. Javed Akhtar sab argued exactly that in Parliament last week. He cited an instance when he lost a project, for refusing to change a phrase in a particular poetry. Composers too like all of us, have bills to pay & wages to cover, so they do absorb some professional hazards & in the process may compromise here or there. Also sometimes, as intuitive professionals, you just hit-off with each other & go on to work together happily for a long period. It’s natural to have affinity to someone who is nearer to your own nature.
So, let’s stop judging the legends from what they should’ve been according to ‘our ego’. It’s akin to disputing the river for not flowing to our liking.
Let us remain fans & not fanatics. Let’s encourage differences in musical opinions & learn to rejoice it. After all a true Rafi fan is passionate, musically alert, knowledgeable & non-judgemental. Doesn’t it read like a partial list of Rafi sab’s own virtues??
Tunefully yours,
Nagesh Sidhanti
The discussion on RD and rock and roll in hindi film music in this thread got me wondering – which was the earliest rock-and-roll influenced songs in hindi movies?
was it n datta’s beta dar mat – bhai bahen – 1950
or lal lal gaal from Mr X, 1957,
eena meena deeka – c ramachandra, ’57 –
baar baar dekho makes me feet tap each time – that was in ’62. that was ravi?
RD with aao twist karen, in 1965 and aaja aaja in 1966
read somewhere that SJ got inspired by aaja aaja to follow up with “aaj kal tere mere pyar” in ’68 but i wonder if that is true since they had already done jaan pehchaan ho – gumnaam, in ’66
I’d plump for Lal lal gaal or Eena meena deeka . What is interesting is that by the time those films were released Rock and Roll had moved on from those beats. Must not have been able to get contemporary rock and roll that quickly in India. See the difference between those older type beats employed in Eena Meena Deeka.