Remembering Mohammad Rafi on his birthday
This article is written by Mr. Souvik Chatterji
The listeners of quality music in India and all over the world remember Mohammad Rafi on his birthday on 24th December, 2008. He had died in 1980 and 28 years passed after his death. Yet he had created an everlasting appeal during his 35 years illustrious career which has not faded away at all.
Whenever his reference comes music-lovers imagine about “suhani raat dhal chuki” composed by Naushad, “ehsaan tera hoga mujhpar” composed by Shankar Jaikishan, “zindagi bhar nahi bhulenge woh barsaat ki raat” composed by Roshan, “chaudavi ka chaand” composed by Ravi, “abhi na jao chor kar” composed by Jaidev, “chahunga mai tujhe saanz sawere” composed by Laxmikant Pyarellal, “mai pyar ka rahi hoon” composed by OP Nayyar, to name a few.
Very significantly he was associated with all the leading actors of bollywood industry in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, which starts with Bharat Bhushan, Pradeep Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Rajender Kumar, Raj Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Joy Mukherjee, Biswajeet, Guru Dutt, and extends upto Big B, Rishi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, etc. Even comedians like Johnny Walker, Mehmood were indebted to the maestro for his modification of the voice in favour of them which entertained the audience to a big extent.
Articles after articles have been devoted to the legend of legends Rafi, and if we look back at what he had left for us we will realize that he had created a tradition which was difficult to follow but which has enhanced the singing standard of many singers of later generations. Singers like Anwar, Shabbir Kumar, Mohammad Aziz, struggled to maintain the singing gharana of Rafi and were categorized as clones of Rafi.
But Sonu Nigam, the best singer of the country, had idolized Rafi and carried his legacy forward. He had created his own style of singing and had been the idol of the younger generation for the last 10 years. But whenever any musical concert like “Rafi resurrected” is organized abroad (UK), the first name that comes in the minds of the organizers include Sonu Nigam.
Rafi had sung 26,000 songs in 35 years and that covered the creations and compositions of the most talented composers and lyricists of India. Hardly any singer can be compared or equated with the giant singer. Audience of the modern generation try to equate Kishore Kumar, or Mukesh with the legend, but their comments does not create any scratch on the stardom of the legend, because he had adequate classical training that is required to sing ghazals, thumris, qawallis, mujras, etc., which the contemporary singers did not have. The only two singers who had the depth of voice and classical control who were equated with Rafi in the 50s, 60s, include Lata Mangeshkar and Manna Dey. If reference relating to any other singer comes into picture it addresses the concerns of the non-musical crowds.
Regarding Sonu Nigam, after lending his voice in westernized creations and traditional classical songs which includes songs like “saathiya” composed by AR Rehman, “piyu bole” composed by Shantonu Moitra, “sandese ate hai” composed by Anu Malik, “tenu le” composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, are compared, it can be said that he could have entered in the list of legends of any generation. In fact had he entered the film arena in the 80s, the shuffling of singers from Shabbir Kumar to Anwar and others would not have taken place. Rafi would have been proud himself to hear Sonu Nigam these days, whose legacy is followed by upcoming singers like Imon Chatterji, Rahul Vaidya and others.
Rafi’s admirers expect the media to highlight the greatness of the legend as those who interacted with the giant had said he was a greater human being than a singer. Sonu Nigam’s challenge will be to carry forward the human qualities of Mohamad Rafi. Rafi’s creations should be restored, preserved and the ones which did not get publicity should be unearthed. The listeners pay their respect and regard for the departed soul on his birthday.
na fankar tujhsa tere bad aaya mohd rafi tu bahut yaad aaya
RAFI IS THE LEGEND, HE WILL ALWAYS BE THE GREATEST SINGER OF THE WORLD. NO ONE COULD EVER COME HALF WAY TO HIS MAGICAL AND BEAUTIFUL VOICE
HE IS GOD OF VOICE AND A PURE SOUL
WE MISS YOU ALWAYS
WE LOVE YOU
Nice little piece and it was indeed great on your part Mr Souvik to note your views on the charming Sonu Nigam. We all welcome you on this site.
Though it would be extremely difficult to fill the void & vacum created by our beloved king of melody — mohammed rafi saab, the charming sonu nigam should make all round efforts from the chore of his heart to continue the legacy & carry forward the everlasting human qualities left behing by the legend mainly since such qualities are rarely seen OR observed in the industry
Ek khoobsoorat sa nagma is sham ko yaad aaya — Ik haseen sham ko dil mera kho gaya pehle apna hoowa kartatha ab kisi ka hogaya!!!
i appriciate your article i want to make emphasis on mohammed aziz saheb .he along with shabeer kumar was leading singer in 80’s even kishore da was present at that time .at that time he has sang more than 1500 songs .he was the voice of sunny deol,anil kapoor,mithun,dilip kumar,amitabh,govinda and many more so you can not say that he was struggling during mid 80’s.yes it is true that in 90’s his songs were in lesser number because of new entries of actors,music director and singers.
I think someone should analyze Rafi’s influence on Udit. In an interview Udit said that ‘I am from the Mohammad Rafi School’. I knew that when I first heard him.
A shameless advertisement exhorting ‘Advani for PM’ appears in the middle of the article. Administrators…kindly remove the propaganda of such fascists from the site if the sanctitity of rafisaab’s name has to be maintained
When reference had been made on the success of Sonu Nigam, I did not want to compare Rafisahab with Sonu Nigam. What I wanted to mean was that at least one singer from the Rafi Gharana has been successful to carry on the rich legacy of the giant singer. Sonu Nigam himself had repeatedly said that his strive for betterment in singing could never reach anywhere near Rafi Sahab and he followed the legend and will follow all along his career. The late 80s were filled up with singers of mediocre capability just because bollywood industry tried to look for replacement of Kishore Kumar who died in 1987. Singers like Kumar Shanu, Abhijeet, did not encourage any classical composer like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan or anyone else to compose any classical songs. Film music was restricted to mediocrity of all times. Sonu Nigam’s presence in the late 90s had encouraged the versatile composers of present period like AR Rehman to compose challenging tunes.
Had Rafi not emerged in the film arena I wonder what would have happened to the creations of outstanding music directors like Naushad, Shankar Jaikishan, Roshan, Madanmohan, OP Nayyar, Khayyam, Jaidev, etc., and also to the lyrics of Shailendra, Shakeel Badayani, Hasrat Jaipuri, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhiyanvi, Kaifi Azmi, and others. I wonder whether they would have at all composed the legendary songs which they created for Rafi.
The media has to play a strong role in publicising the greatest creations of Rafi. There are at least 10000 songs of Rafi which did not get that much attention which also includes his private albums which were rich, melodious and extraordinary.
The present generation of singers should listen to Rafi’s again and again to enhance their own skills and contribute productively to the bollywood industry and music industry.
Souvik Chatterji.
With due regards to Sonu Nigam’s range and versatility, i wish to point out that this whole concept of anointing ‘the country’s best singer’ appears motivated. The revival of HFM in the nineties was greatly contributed to by the totally competent playback singing of Kumar Sanu and Udit Narayan and Abhijeet. They were duly awarded and regarded at that time but there is little acknowledgement of their efforts now. Sonu Nigam benefitted greatly from the exposure and popularity he gained on TV-Sa Re Ga Ma, just around the time satellite TV really boomed-talk about being in the right place at the right time, just like Amitabh who was nowhere before KBC! of late the media too has tended to pick and promote ‘Youth icons’ arbitrarily. Sonu Nigam’s flashy avtars were an obvious choice. A non performing Sania Mirza gets more attention than a steadily rising V.Anand. Without doubt Sonu is a very competent singer, and has an impressive body of work for his age-but his numbers are easily aped by upstarts like rahul vaidya and others on the dime a dozen reality music competitions. Then there are the less acknowledged but equally if not more successful and admirable talents of singers like Shaan, KK, Kunal ganjawala etc. Sadly we cant have a referendum on the issue. but i sincerely believe he has a loooong way to go before he even touches the level of …say – a KK 🙂
Lastly, attempts to sing, modify as per convenience and then SELL the music of your mentor only appear as as efforts at oneupmanship, even if everything is garbed as promotion/revival/resurrection. These vain attempts at upstaging and bettering the musical benchmarks set by ‘the one and only’ and these attempts at deciding the heir apparent………..main inki ghor bhartsna karta hoon!! After all…who the hell wants Rahul gandhi to be the next PM :-/
Long live the music of Rafisaab-he was and always will be-The Greatest
Remembering the ‘baadshah’, not only on his birthday, but on all days. Here’s a haunting number, sung to perfection:
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=OBFkAmN0714
I totally agree with the comments made by Sudhir Kumar.. Happy Days.. I find solace in knowing that someone thinks on the same lines as I do. Lets keep this site dedicated to Rafi Saab alone.
Respected Rafi lovers,
Till the day I heard Sonu Nigam in ‘ Rafi ressurected ‘ I had also made the mistake of not comparing but atleast placing him close to Rafi Saab. But he literally struggled with the geniuse’s songs, couldnt keep up tempo at many times, also his voice was trembling at unwanted places. It gave a feeling to me that he had to catch a flight as soon as he finished. was very dissapointed . Thus once more proving that The greatest singer ever cannot be even copied properly, forget comparing. Sonu although, technically a very versatile and wonderfull singer , the best in the country is far away from any comparisons with the GENIUS . Mr. souvik I would like to highlight that the only reason the young generation of today likes Kishor Kumar is that the songs Kishorda has sung are more easier to humm and are recorded in much advanced studios with stereo and hi-fi sound facilities ( thanks to R.D.). His songs are an ordinary man’s songs which can be easily sung by many of us as they lack classical touch or aalaapis or harkats as compared to the songs of Rafisaab. Male or female , you simply cannot compare the chastity , emotions , nakhras , the adaaygi of this true King of music to anyone.
Rightly said ” Mujhko mere baad zamaana dhundega ”
LONG LIVE RAFISAAB !!!!!
even hundred sonu nigams can not fill in the void created by great rafi saab…apart fr his singing…..e r those stalwarts of songwriters n music directors who were si dedicated n hardworking perfectionists as regards quality…..all took days to creat diamonds…heal our wounds f our heart n soul…..we like to listen again n again….many times…dont get bore…rafisaab was, is and will be greatest…………….
Mr Sowikji
very nice n informative article…
post 3 Sudhirji….
The shagrid of the legend and who has a great fan following amongst younger generation is today Sonu Nigam and if he sincerely carries his Guru’s tradition we can see a revolution taking place. This is because the gen next is not exposed to the evergreen melodies of 50s n 60s as you know even the TV channels are managed by upstarts who do not think beyond pancham da…
Hence true shagird like Sonu should take it n drive some music sense to the so called music lovers of 2day,s gen youth.
Rafi saab tusi great ho hamesha……….
Praises heaped on Sonu Nigam are out of context and unnecessarily project him as the true and sole inheritor of the maestro’s legacy. His talents have already been exaggerated to a ridiculous extent by his rabid fans who desecrate this site from time to time.
Souvikji congratulations once again for a befitting article on the king of music – rafi sahab. with your knowledge of the music industry, you have very adeptly put forward your arguement that none other than lataji and manna de are even in close league to rafi sahab. your view that “If reference relating to any other singer comes into picture it addresses the concerns of the non-musical crowds” may be an understatement, to say the least. comparisons are bound to come for as long as music remains our passion and one cannot wish it way and while respecting all the singers who have presented to us very lovely musical notes through their songs over the ages, we all know that rafi sahab was from a different world altogether. perhaps a gift to us human beings from the gods themselves. great article and keep writing such stuff.
Nice little piece and it was indeed great on your part Mr Souvik to note your views on the charming Sonu Nigam. We all welcome you on this site.
Though it would be extremely difficult to fill the void & vacum created by our beloved king of melody — mohammed rafi saab, the charming sonu nigam should make all round efforts from the chore of his heart to continue the legacy & carry forward the everlasting human qualities left behing by the legend mainly since such qualities are rarely seen OR observed in the industry
Ek khoobsoorat sa nagma is sham ko yaad aaya — Ik haseen sham ko dil mera kho gaya pehle apna hoowa kartatha ab kisi ka hogaya!!!