By: Dr Souvik Chatterji (Associate Professor in Law and Head of Department, JIS University, Kolkata)

Rafi Sahab is remembered all over the world on his birth anniversary on 24th December, 2019. He had remained an inspiration for numerous singers all over the world. While he received filmfare for best male playback singer 6 times, there were many more songs in which he deserved the filmfare award.

Here is a list of songs where Rafi Sahab deserved filmfare awards.

Year Song Music Director Reason

1953 “O Duniya ke rakhwale” Naushad Ali The filmfare awards started in 1953 but at that time only one singer award was given. Rafi Sahab deserved the award for brilliant bhajan andaz and spiritual rendition of the song in film Baiju Bawra.

1954 “nanhe munne bachche teri mutthi me kya hai” Shankar Jaikishan The song had great philosophy related to children. It was from film Boot Polish which reserved Indian and international awards.

1955 “o door ke musafir hum ko bhi saath le le” Naushad Ali The song had great chorus andaz and tragic andaz. Dilip Kumar’s “tragedy king” image was bolstered by the lyrics and rendition of the song in film Uran Khatola.

1956 “duniya nab bhay” Shankar Jaikishan The song had both classical andaz and devotional andaz. It was a musical film with Shankar Jaikishan portraying different ragas. Rafi Sahab balanced the mood of film Basant Bahar.

1957 “chal udja re panchi ki ab yeh desh hua begana” Chitragupt The song was philosophical in nature. It had great message for society. Rafi Sahab expressed the message of director in the film Bhabhi.

1958 “main soya ankhiyan meeche” OP Nayyar The song was a duet song with Asha Bhosle. But it had great romantic andaz of OP Nayyar in the film Phagun.

1960 “madhuban me radhika nache re” and “zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi barsaat ki raat” Naushad Ali and Roshanlal Nagrath Rafi Sahab won the filmfare award for the song “chaudhvin ka chand ho” but he deserved the award in “madhuban me radhika” for brilliant rendition of raag hamir and “zindagi bhar nahi bhulegi” for excellent ghazal andaz.

1962 “ab kya misaal doon” Roshanlal Nagrath Rafi Sahab should have won the award for excellent rendition of ghazal andaz and soft romantic andaz

1963 “mere mehboob tujhe meri mohabbat ki kasam” Naushad Ali Rafi Sahab should have won the award for the best ghazal and mushaira. Rafi Sahab by Naushad Ali’s tunes and Shakeel’s shayari displayed the urdu ghazal culture of Lucknow, Aligarh.

1964 “kisi ki yaad mein apne ko hai bhulaye hue”, “man re tu kahe na dheer dhare” and “apni azadi ko hum hargiz mita sakte nahi” Madan Mohan Kohli, Roshanlal Nagrath and Naushad Ali. Rafi Sahab brought about the great ghazal culture of Lucknow, Aligarh and replicated the history during Mughal period. Madan Mohan Kohli’s music in film Jahan Aara had great ghazal andaz.

“man re” is considered as one of the best bhajans Rafi Sahab sang in Pradeep Kumar’s Chitralekha having philosophical andaz. “apni azadi” had fantastic patriotic andaz and Rafi Sahab deserved filmfare award for rendering patriotic andaz in Dilip Kumar’s film Leader.

1965 “aye watan aye watan humko teri kasam” Prem Dhawan Rafi Sahab deserved filmfare award for outstanding patriotic in the film Shaheed based on Shahid Bhagat Singh’s life portrayed by Manoj Kumar

1966 “aaja re aa zara aa” and “aapse maine meri jaan mohabbat ki hai” Shankar Jaikishan and OP Nayyar Rafi Sahab deserved filmfare award for western andaz of singing in Joy Mukherjee’s Love in Tokyo in intoxicating mood and waltz andaz song in Biswajit’s Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi

1967 “hum intezar karenge tera qayamat tak” Roshanlal Nagrath Rafi Sahab deserved filmfare award for rendition of royal style of singing during the period of Nawabs of northern India in Pradeep Kumar’s film Bahu Begum.

1968 “babul ki duayen leti ja” Ravi Shankar Sharma Rafi Sahab deserved filmfare award for singing the best song based on getting daughters married. The feeling of the parents of the daughters is brought by Rafi Sahab in Balraj Sahni’s Neel Kamal.

1969 “teri aankhon ke siva duniya me rakha kya hai” Madan Mohan Kohli Rafi Sahab deserved filmfare award for rendition of excellent quality ghazal with romantic andaz in Sunil Dutt’s film Chirag.

1971 “unke khayal aaye to aate chale gaye” Shankar Jaikishan Rafi Sahab deserved filmfare award for singing songs having mujra andaz the way it was sung in royal courts of nawabs in Raj Kumar’s film Lal Patthar.

1973 “tum jo mil gaye ho” Madan Mohan Kohli Rafi Sahab deserved filmfare award because the orchestration was related to movement of star in car in the film and Rafi Sahab brought the romantic mood in rainy ambience in Navin Nischal’s Hanste Zakhm.

1976 “barbad mohabbat ki dua saath liye ja” Jaidev and Madan Mohan Kohli Rafi Sahab deserved filmfare award for presenting style of singing in middle east based on life of Laila Majnu in Rishi Kapoor’s film Laila Majnu.

1977 “parda hai parda” and “shirdiwale Saibaba” Laxmikant Pyarelal Rafi Sahab deserved filmfare award for presenting style of qawwali in “parda hai” and rendering brilliant spiritual song with bhajan andaz in “Shirdiwale Saibaba” in Rishi Kapoor’s film Amar Akbar Anthony.

The lyrics of majority of these songs were written by eminent poets, shayars like Shakeel Badayuni, Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Rajinder Krishan, Sahir Ludhianvi, SH Bihari and others. The standard of singing was very high. The range of Rafi Sahab was unlimited. So the fact that the greatest singer of the century Rafi Sahab receiving only 6 filmfare awards never show the great contribution for those 35 years where he sang immortal songs and gave expression to the thoughts of directors, producers, writers, poets, musicians.

Dr Souvik Chatterji, the author of this article

This blog was published on Tuesday, December 24th, 2019 at 10:52 am and Last modified on Wednesday, December 25th, 2019 at 10:52 am and is filed under Meri Awaaz Suno. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.