Rafi Sahab has become a nostalgia and love for many
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.
I wake up everyday with a great melody of Rafi Sahab on my lips and I do not feel calm until I have listened to that number sometime in the next 14 to 16 hours. May Allah forgive me, but I cannot stop sleeping after listening to his voice and waking up with a beautiful line of one of his songs on my lips. Just today, I caught this line…..hum ko to barbad kiya hai, aur kise barbad karoge…..O my God…..I will die sipping eternity from his voice…..I request you all to help me get the songs that he sang in breaths like one that I remember ….in Heer Ranjha…but I am sure there is at least one more song like that…..Please help somebody.
— By M.S.Zaman
Mohammed Rafi.. The Incarnation
There is not a single day that goes without listening to this divine voice of our beloved Rafi sahib. Close to 33-34 years of my 40 years life have been with this voice. As a son of one of the die hard fans, I always loved this voice from my childhood days. In fact, as a 5-6 years old child I used to think that Dharmender is Mohammed Rafi. And this was because whenever a Dharmender song was played on Doordarshan, my father would tell us that this is sung by Mohammed Rafi. I don’t recollect when did I recognize Rafi sahib from his own picture, but the love continued. After we lost our father, our maternal grand father took care of us. As we’d listen Rafi even while studying, he’d scold us, saying that first complete your studies and then spend whole life with his songs if you will. It went on so on, we finished studies, started working, got married have families, went through ups and downs of life, and we proudly say that Mohammed Rafi sahib’s voice has been with us, like the hand of God on our head.
Mohd Rafi
The reason for sharing this note in this forum is that, this forum is like a Gurudwara to me, where are Rafians appreciate this worship of our God. Rafi’s love started as an admiration for a beautiful, sweet voice, and graduated to we treating him to be an angel who came down to take care of all kind of people by participating in everybody’s good and bad moments. Further, I think, this angel in my life, has gone beyond that status, and I think he is an incarnation of God himself who came to carve out an era for the mankind, to be remembered for hundreds and thousands of years.
While, those in his family are special ones whom God chose to be close to him, we are no less blessed to have been part of his extended family.
In the end, as Salim Khan has written in the famous book, “Mohammed Rafi, my Abba”, by Rafi sahib’s daughter in law………”There cannot be another Mohammed Rafi, because God does not repeat himself”.
May Waheguru shower his blessings on all those are, have been and will be, directly or indirectly associated with Mohammed Rafi.
— By Mahender Singh
Mohammed Rafi, Not Before, Not After
I was just eight years old when I heard very sad news on 31/07/1980. I was at a village. It was a village but I remember exactly, every body was talking with sorrow that Rafi Saheb is no more. Even at the age of eight I preferred to listen him.
Dear friends, even at present my eight year old son likes the song “Kahaniya Sunati he pawan aati jati”. He is listening some of his songs daily. What is that ! that is miracle of his holy voice. Rafi Sahab is eternal. Rafi comes just once in many thousands of years. He proved at the time when he was just young in the years of 1951/52 when Baiju Bawra released. At the young age, can anybody sung the song like “O Duniya k rakhwale” !. it was his mastery, his knowledge, his ability, his maturity, his uniqueness, and above all, bless of God. Time is lessen whenever we are sitting to remember and praise his songs. Kis Kis gane ki tariff kare aur samje !. thahariye honsh me aa le to chale jaiyega, sun meri sanwri o, tu ganga ki mauj me jamna ka dhara, simti hui yeh ghadiya, tum jo mil gaye ho, hui sham unka khayal aa gaya, kuchh kehta he yeh sawan. We do remember his lots of songs. Rafi sahab’s versatile voice and technique changes mood of many crore people. It gives enough power, goodness, innocence to many crore people. I am getting many information through the site mohdrafi.com, thanks the people of this site. We miss Rafi Sahab. Listening him is greatest experience. Why he should not honoured with Bharat Ratna ! we should do something about that. How ever in other words I will say that He is ‘Bharat Ratna’.
— By Dharmendra Vyas
To all you wonderful mohd rafi fans please look at comment 18 and please vote for the great mohd rafisahab as soon as possible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Many thanks
Dear M. S. Zaman Sahab,
One such song is
“Tum se kahoon ek baat paron se halki
Raat meri hai chhawon tumhare hi aanchal ki”
from the film “Dastak”, picturised on Sanjiv Kumar and Sharmila Taigor (if I remembered correctly). The extremely sweet composition is by Madan Mohan and extra ordinary beautiful lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri; whereas Rafi sahab singing is, as usual, simply out of this world (Pardon, out of this universe!). It is a gorgeously and majistically melodious song; one of my personal favourites (well those personal favourites are many – limitless; you know Rafi Sahab’s every third song is greatest, every second song is greater and every song is great!).
Thanks.
Anwar-ul-Haque
Anwarhq25@yahoo.com
“jai Rafi sahab”
Now Rafi Sahab’s lead is 240 votes:-
Everyone can also VOTE TO RAFI SAHAB BY USING YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT.
Click on the link given below and move your cursor on the picture of RAFI SAHAB & CHOOSE THE OPTION “FACEBOOK” FOR VOTE. PLZ HURRY
http://www.historyindia.com/bollywood100/#6
You can vote twice… with your mobile numbers at +918082807871 living
outside India, and on 08082807871 within India.
Can also vote with your facebook account. So, please, do it today itself
and ask your friends to vote Rafi Saheb, it will be very appreciated.
Thanks a lot…
Regards,
Sanjeev
Vote now for the Greatest All-Time Bollywood singer. Per the latest count, Rafi Saheb is now close to the top spot, but still trailing by a few votes. If you want to vote for Rafi Saheb, give a missed call to 08082807871. Additionally, you can vote via Facebook.
The correct link for the page is actually http://www.historyindia.com/bollywood100/nominations/display#6
This is a very popular poll, so the results are going to matter. Many believe and know that Rafi Saheb is the greatest ever singer of Bollywood, but it would help keep his name alive amongst the upcoming generations if these popular polls also confirmed his Number 1 status, and for that you need to vote.
Hi all,
There is a very highly publicized CNN-IBN & History Channel polling in progress for the Greatest All-Time Bollywood Male Singer, and I will like you all to vote as soon as possible before the voting deadline is over. As per the latest results, it’s a very close race for the #1 spot, but Rafi Saheb is trailing by a few votes. If you want to vote for Rafi Saheb, you have to give a missed call to 08082807871. Additionally, you can also vote via Facebook through the links I have given below.
Link to the Best Male Singer Poll : http://www.historyindia.com/bollywood100/nominations/display#7
Link to the Leaderboard that shows the latest vote count : http://www.historyindia.com/bollywood100/nominations/leaderboard
Regards,
Rahul
Read views of Shamim, Pramila, zaman, Aseef Ismail, Bhumesh Sharma , ravi kumar and many others . Their articles are touching to heart. I will submit information about one of the Mohd Rafi’s fan having made Mohd Rafi Sahab’s mandir in his house. Not only this I will also submit information about one of the Rafi Sahab’s fan from U.K. having shrine built in after the name of Rafi Sahab and many more surprise information about Rafi Sahab in my next article.
It also has to be said that when he started his career other artists such as Dilip kumar and sanjay khan felt that they had to hide their religion and change their names to go far in the industry. However, so big was the great mohd rafi’s talent that he proved that this was not necessary for him.
For me my day is not complete until I’ve listened to a few mohd rafi songs whether they’re sad/happy songs depending on my mood. I honestly find listening to mohd rafi’s voice soothing and therapeutic.
rafi sahab is my soul-mate. his voice is so magical so divine i am very unlucky tat i could not see him or hear him live. that would be one of mt greatest regrets of my life.i like him to such an extent that i cant bear to hear anyone’s voice alongside his. there is no need for any other voice if rafi is singing. i wish that i die listening to his divine voice. i just love him to no end.
Rafi sahab is my soul-mate. His voice is so magical so divine I am very unlucky tat I could not see him or hear him live. That would be one of mt greatest regrets of my life.I like him to such an extent that I cant bear to hear anyone’s voice alongside his. there is no need for any other voice if rafi is singing. I wish that I die listening to his divine voice. I just love him to no end.
Thanks MohdRafi.com for uploading my humble views on your pages. It is a great honour and privilege for me that my heart has been chosen by God to save love for Mohd. Rafi Sahab. In fact it is the lifetime earning for me to receive blessings like from Mahendra Singh Ji. I must thank Mr. Taseer also for suggesting one more song, but I remember I have heard one song that was sung fully in breaths like that of Heer Ranjha. Anyway, someday I will find it and sip eternity from it, if I am going to have life for some more time.
To me, Mohd. Rafi is an angel with divine voice that purifies the insides of listeners and seeks to beautify everything that surrounds the soul, may it be the real or surreal world…..Mohd. Rafi must be the reincarnation of Tan Sen or Baiju Bawra that we have only read or heard of, but we have Rafi Sahab……the very real Rafi Sahab…..
great man i am in saudi
rafi shaab is best family member
Allah rafi shap ko jannath farmayaga
rafi shab song continually play in my car
i am lucky
Mohammed rafi’s voice is voice of hero, hero is an individual, with individuality as style of his personality, individuality necessarily means being one with soul(Atma), Soul(Atma) represents God, therefore, voice of mohammed rafi is voice of god.
Just to add few lines in support of Zahir and Shamim’s comments. Rafi was such an versatile singer, he tuned his voice in such a manner, be it Johnny Walker or Dev Anand or Mehmood or Shammi Kapoor or Jitendra or Dharmendra or Rajendra Kumar (the list is endless) it looked as though the actor himself is singing.
Like many I too do not go to bed without listening to few songs sung by Rafi guru
My brother great fan of Rafi introduced to my family members, the GENIUS. When we purchased record player first time in 1970, we bought only rafi saab records and that followed tapes etc.
I visited Bombay for the first time at the age of 19 in May 1980 and Rafi saab left in July. Neither I could meet him alive nor I could match his style of singing despite 30 years of practice. Few would have had the privelege….
I’d like to say I totally agree with the comments that Zahir has made about the great mohd rafi’s voice being so versatile and suiting so many actors.
I have been listening to hindi songs for over 30 years now and fell in love with mohd rafi’s voice from a very young age especially after listening to the songs he sang for the film ‘Do Badan’. His voice is truly amazing and only his voice can give me goosebumps and his sad songs have often left me in tears and visa versa a happy song lifting my mood and spirits no other singer has ever been able to have that effect on me.
What a remarkable singer whose songs are ageless, difinately the best singer ever!
Hello Rafians, My first post on this site. I’m 40 years old and fell in love with Rafis voice/singing about 5 years ago. I’m a lover of films/Music. You must be wondering what took so long for me to like Rafi songs/singing/voice. Well, let’s just say a man becomes wiser as he ages ?
I think we all should separate songs from singing and voice. A song can sound nice but that doesn’t mean the singer sang it good. Wiseversa, a singer could have sung the song beautifully but it doesn’t mean the song sounds good. Then there’s “voice”, a song could be nice, sung well but the voice may not be suitable.
Rafi is one of those rare Singer who had an amazing voice, coupled with singing capability which actually elevated a lot of ordinary songs.
I have always been a movie lover so I have a very good knowledge of movies right from late 40’s to current. I will write more on it later or in some other posts but let’s just say that back in 40’s there was KL Sigal, Talat Mehmood, GM Durrani, Hemant Kumar, Atma, and maybe couple others. All of these great singers career was pretty much over with the arrival of Rafi.
Not just Jeetendra, you can do same write up for many actors from late 40’s thru 1980.
While most singers are associated with one or 2 actors like Kishor with Rajesh Khanna, Mukesh with Raj Kapoor, the list for Rafi is endless…
Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Sunil Dutt, Raaj Kumar, Johny Walker, Guru Dutt, Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Early days of Rajesh Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, and not to forget many less known actors like Bishwajeet, Bharat Bhusan, Pradeep Kumar, etc…
Asha ji said there is no singer than mohd rafi who go from low to high notes and with control on is voice……..I don’t agree that Rafi comes just once in many thousands of years but once at life time.
Mohd Rafi is world ratna so no need award like Bharat Ratna……
Yes Mr. Zaman, one such example of low and high notes is from Film April Fool. Aa gale lag ja mere sapne mere apne, mere paas aa. What an incredible song. This is just one example, there are lot of such songs where in Rafi sab switches from low to high or high to low with ease.
In above picture, Rafi sahab rehearsing for the song “The she i love is the beutiful beutiful dream come true i love her so will you’ with Jai Kishanji & Harindranath Chattopadhyayaji.
I am 40 years old and to that extent I remember that photo of Rafi Sahab with Achakan with song “Chal ud ja re panchi” on 31.7.1980 on first page of Hindustan newspaper. At that time I was very casual listner of rafi sahab with the grace of my father who was a good fan of rafi sahab and regularly singing song “Mere Saathi Khali Jam”. My father given the understanding of Rafi Sahab’s magical voice. After that at the age of 12 years I used to sing Rafi Sahab’s son in School and family gatherings. Now my two sons are good fans of Rafi Sahab. I want my death should occur during listening of my god’s song.
Sanjay Arora, Geeta Colony, Delhi-110031