Shankar Jaikishan, Rafi and Dev Anand
This article is written by Mr. Souvik Chatterji
Mohd Rafi, Dev Anand
Dev Anand, the stylish actor of the 50s and 60s was generally associated with towering composer SD Burman as he was preferred under the Navketan banner and contributed in most of Dev’s films from 40s to 60s. The team of Dev Anand comprising of SD Burman, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Lata, Geeta Dutt, Asha Bhosle, Kishore, Hemant Kumar, Talat Mehmood, was different from the team of Dilip Kumar, Naushad, Shakeel Badayani, Rafi, or the team of Raj Kapoor, Shankar Jaikishan, Manna Dey, Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Mukesh, etc.
But when producers and directors approached Shankar Jaikishan for composing music in Dev Anand’s films, they did not follow the existing trend. Shankar Jaikishan either broke the existing trends of music or created a new trend which was followed by the following generations. In the film Patita, in the 50s, songs were sung by mainly Hemant Kumar and Lata. But the combination of SJ and Dev Anand stormed bollywood from the time he used Rafi for almost all the songs in the film Love Marriage in 1959.
Love Marriage became super hit, with Dev Anand and Mala Sinha and the songs became everlasting hits. Rafi’s songs included “kahan ja rahe the“, “dheere dheere chal“, etc. The songs were mostly picturised in the studios but had great appeal. The combination of Rafi, SJ and Dev Anand created storms in the film Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai.
Dev Anand
Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai was a musical film with Asha Parekh and all the songs became super hit in the early 60s. Some of them included “jiya ho, jiya ho jiya kuch bol do“, “sau saal pehele hume tumse pyar tha“, “yeh aankhe uff yummma“, “teri zulfonki“, to name a few. The success of the film Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai was followed up in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s film Asli Nakli.
In Asli Nakli, Sadhna acted opposite Dev Anand, and all the songs were super hit again. Rafi and Lata’s songs included “tera mera pyara amar“, “tujhe jeevan ki dor se bandh liya hai“, “ek budh banayunga“, “asli nakli chehera“, etc. Some songs were picturised on the Bengali actress Sandhya Roy who played the role of the sister of Dev Anand in the film.
In the late 60s Dev Anand’s popularity decreased with rise of new stars like Shammi Kapoor, Rajender Kumar, Joy Mukherjee, Manoj Kumar, etc., so the films like Pyar Mohabbat or Duriyan did moderate business if compared with the hits of the early 60s. So Rafi and SJ’s combination with Dev Anand could not get recognition to that extent. Even then the songs in the film Pyar Mohabbat, like “dil ki awaaz khuda khair Karen“, “pyar muhobbat” and duet songs with Sharda like “sun sun, sun re balam, dil tujhko pukare” were hits.
Music lovers across the country feel that had Shankar Jaikishan not been busy with Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Rajender Kumar in the 50s and 60s, the golden combination of Rafi, SJ and Dev Anand could have given many more number of melodious hits. The songs and the films should be preserved.
Souvik Chatterji, the author of this article
Dear Parthaji, You please stop commenting like a duffer, who is absolutely devoid of any sense of music? How could you attribute Md Rafi sahab’s rise as a mesmerizing singer in Bollywood for being supported by the North-Indian Muslim community? Did Lataji’s indisputed rise to the realm of becoming queen of singing in the 50s being the result of the support of Marathi-west Indian community? Did great SD Burman mentored and patronised talanted KK because both of them were bengalies only? Going by this stupid logic how would you find out the logical coroloary of the fact that since Pyasa in 1957, SD Burman sahab had started totally renouncing Kishore and chosen Md Rafi to be his principle singer till film Guide in 1965? Though he called back his favourite kk in Teen Deviyan once again albeit, Md Rafi sang two great songs for him in the same film Teen Deviyan. And till SD Burman fell sick and went into deep coma during the recording phase of Aradhana, Md Rafi was his prime singer till 1969 in films like ‘Talash’ and ‘Isqe par jor naheen’, both in 1969. Was Ravindra Jain a Muslim, who held Md Rafi’s mesmerizing timbre to be TANSEN of modern music? Was most popular musical duos of 50s and 60s Shankar-Jaikishan were muslims, to whom Md Rafi had become numero uno singer since 1957 till Jaikishanji’s passing away in 1971? Did Manna Dey or modern day’s great male singer Sonu Nigam belong to the Muslim community, who held Md Rafi to be the last world and final beauty of Male singing?Please listen to music assiduously, before making such hyperbolic communal comment about aruguable the greatest modern singer of India. The way you ignored the hypnotic voice of Md Rafi sahab, simply perhaps reflect the fact that, you far from being a avowed listner of great singer Kishore Kumar also, who himself had given an allusion to Md Rafi that he revered him most among male singers and holds him above himself when he visited Md Rafi sahab’s London house in the early 1970s, as has been recorder in the biography of Md Rafi sahab by his daughter-in-law Iazmin Rafi. Where ignorance is bliss, there folly to wise.