By Souvik Chatterjee

Music lovers all across the world remember, the unforgettable musical maestro Mohd Rafi, on his birth anniversary on 24^th December, 2015. He had died in 1980 and 35 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 “do sitaron ka zameen par hai milan” composed by Naushad, “mai gayoon tum so jao” composed by Shankar Jaikishan, “ab kya misaal doon” composed by Roshan, “chaudavi ka chaand” composed by Ravi, “mai zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya” composed by Jaidev, “janewalon zara” composed by Laxmikant Pyarellal, “pukarta chala hoon mai” composed by OP Nayyar, “teri aankhon ke siva” composed by Madanmohan, 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, Balraj Sahani and extends upto Big B, Rishi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, etc. Even comedians like Johnny Walker, Mehmood, Rajendranath were indebted to the maestro for his modification of the voice in favour of them which entertained the audience to a big extent.

Rafi had raised us from sleep, he had made us sleep too. Almost all emotions of human beings are captured in the songs of Rafi. Listeners hear Rafi’s songs to keep away from stress and strain. What is important at this point is to revisit his songs and help the new generation to hear his songs. A huge number of the Rafilovers themselves had heard around 10000 songs and still require to hear his private albums, bhajans, ghazals, etc.

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 is more used to hear fast numbers due to the trend of music available at this moment. If Rafi’s songs are prioritized in the media, the taste of melodious music can be revived, because Rafi had taken music to a higher dimension. Rafi had not been substituted. The sweetness of voice that God had given him was unparallel.

The media can devote separate programs on Rafi’s association with Naushad, Shankar Jaikishan, Roshan, Khayyam, Madanmohan, Ghulam Mohammad, OP Nayyar, etc., and also his association with giants lyricists like Shakeel Badayani, Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kaifi Azmi, etc. The landmark musical blockbusters like Taj Mahal, Jahanara, Baiju Bawra, Mere Sanam, Kohinoor, etc., are required to be shown in the popular channels and scanned. Any research on Rafi can only enlighten the listeners about rich music of different class including Hindustani classical, bhajans, ghazals, westernized songs, folk songs, etc. We all pay are best tribute to noble soul Mohammad Rafi.

Souvik Chatterjee, the author of this article

This blog was published on Thursday, December 24th, 2015 at 5:23 am and Last modified on Thursday, December 24th, 2015 at 5:28 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.