Remembering Mohammed Rafi: A great maestro of all times

The first Indian vocal superstar K L Saigal (active: 1932--1947) came to Lahore in May, 1937 to sing in a concert that was held to felicitate Britain's King George-6's coronation. But due to power outage K L Saigal refused to sing without microphone. And the audience stood in a rage when the organizers, at the request of a person named Hamid, put his younger brother on the stage to regale the crowd till the electricity is restored.

The young lad was then barely 12 years and 5 months. The lad was confidently able to reach his sweet powerful voice into the thirsty ears of the audience even up to the farthest corner of the open auditorium without the help of microphone. The audience, at the first sweetening spell cast by the  young lad,  stood stunned and burst into emotion and were clamoring for more in presence of Saigal who was highly impressed to observe the young lad's unprecedented talent, hitherto unknown and unimagined  both to the audience and Saigal. Saigal blessed the lad saying 'A day would come when you would be much sought after singer.'

However, the audience could smell the blessing of Saigal much earlier when the lad successfully led the concert without the use of microphone. The blessed youth was none but the great Muhammad  Rafi, the man with the golden voice possessing unimaginable heights, who jolted the musical kingdom of the subcontinent by singing as many as 7 ever green songs, notably" O dunya ke Rakhwale, sun dard bhare mere naale " in super hit movie Baiju Bawra (tuned by Naushad in 1952).

Rafi's greatest asset(having the highest range of the voice) was fully extracted and utilized by Naushad in the song and In the middle  a little touch of classical raga further flourished and sweetened the song. In every concert at home and abroad Rafi, inter alia, used to sing this song which is seemingly his best performance of his long career. After Baiju Bawra Rafi became the highest paid and most sought after male singer and dominated till his death.

Later on, in the early sixties when the wind of westernization just started to sway the domain of Hindi music in utter satisfaction of the teenaged music lovers, Rafi successfully adjusted his sail to the wind robbing the hearts of millions of teenagers by singing the blockbuster song 'Yahoo, chahe koi mujhe jungle kahe' (film Junglee, 1962) tuned by Shankar Jaikishen. Only for this song Shammi kapoor came to the lime light and strengthened his foothold queued after Dilip Kumar, Rajkapoor, Devanand and Rajendra Kumar. Besides, Rafi demonstrated his versatility in the song' Ehsan tera ho mujpar' in the same film which is completely different in style, tune and character which proves his capability to win the heart of music lovers both of younger or older generation.

Among his contemporaries, seniors as well as juniors almost all notably, Saigal, Talat, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Kishore, Lata, Asha, Shamshad, Noor Jehan, Geeta, Suraiya, Suman happily partnered with Rafi in many duets and chorus. Rafi's long path of career(1941--1980) is stated in brief. Born in Amritsar on Dec 24, 1924 Rafi was trained under Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Ustad Abdul Wahed Khan and music director Feroze Nizami.

Again Rafi produced many talents trained under him notably, the reputed singer Mahendra kapoor and Pakistani singer Masud Rana who proudly imitated Rafi style. Rafi initially migrated to Lahore, but for greater success he settled in Mumbai in 1943 and met music director Naushad. Naushad gave him first chance to sing only a chorus in film Pahele Aap in 1944. The first solo was in film Anmol Ghadi (1946) only after adjusting Rafi's Punjabi accent under Naushad who also did the same for Lata's Marathi accent. Rafi's talent in singing having vast range of voice was sadly suppressed by all music directors including Naushad during the pristine days of Saigal when slow and easy songs were popular.

It is Naushad who first utilized Rafi's talent in the excellently tuned song 'ye zindegi ke mele '(film Mela 1948) Naushad remarked "Rafi is the Tansen of the modern era". Manna Dey remarked "All singers including me have their own limitations. It is Rafi who is exceptionally fit for any song". On listening to Rafi's song 'Raat bhar ka hai mehman andhera' in film Soni ki Chidya of 1959 Mehedi Hasan remarked "This must be a divine gifted voice". Surprisingly  enough, Rafi's voice was borrowed and lip Synched by Kishore kumar for his character role in film Raagini of 1958 (Rafi song ' Mann mora baawra')  and in film Shararat of 1959 (Rafi song'Ajab hai daastan teri')which I  discovered after viewing the video from the internet.

Another musical talent O P Nayyar remarked "where there is no Rafi there could be no O P Nayyar". In the first independence anniversary of India in Aug, 1948 at Red fort, Delhi for singing an inaugural song only Rafi was selected. On hearing the 1st spell of melody showered from the golden throat the audience stood overenthusiastic and were clamoring for more totally forgetting the time bound of 3 minutes which had to be extended to 30 minutes. Everyone, instead of watching their watches, was watching the face of the newly discovered vocal talent. Rafi was a religious and saintly person having pearls of smile and impeccable courtesy and was fond of charity to the needy. And he had strong aversion for smoking and alcohol. Rafi also played a small role in film Jugnu (1947)which is the first hit for both actor Dilip Kumar and singer Md Rafi.

The glory of singing in maximum number of languages goes to Rafi. Indian languages including Bengali and Hindi and 4 foreign: Arabic, English, Persian, Dutch). Rafi's maximum duet was with Asha. But still Rafi-Lata duo is branded as true melodious pair in listener's heart as most of the super hit duets of the golden era belong to this duo. Rafi's total playback songs are 26000 (source; Bangladesh Observer Aug 2, 1980)and total songs both on and off the screen are 30000(source: the Statesman, newspaper of India Aug2, 1980).

Whatsoever, it is not the quantity, but exclusively the quality of his voice which crowned him vocal king. Researchers have so far discovered his 517 different vocal characters in movies. Rafi always sang disregarding payment issue. In the blockbuster film Mughal-E-Azam(1960) Rafi was paid Rs.25000 .Later in 1964 Rafi was paid Rs 30000 for a song which created a news during the time. But generous Rafi also created a news by charging only Rs one for a song tuned by NisarVasmi for reasons not known. In Mughal-E-Azam while singing with his thunderous voice "Eh mohabbat  zindabad",100 male voices joined Rafi in singing chorus with him. But still, while singing together with 100 male voices, Rafi's voice was distinctly identified only because of his singing in the scale which no other singer could rise and reach.

During his singing career he travelled the world 36 times. In 1977 in a concert at Royal Albert Hall, London he regaled the audience with many songs including  immortal  "O dunya ke Rakhwale" in which he demonstrated his greater skill singing in a different style with various shades of tuning and ending in the highest scale which was stunningly even one step higher than what he did while originally recording the song in 1952. The audience stood stunned and spellbound showering thunderous claps during and after the song. After Rafi died many aspiring singers(Shabbir, Md Aziz, Anwar and much later Sonu Nigam)jumped on  to imitate Rafi's style. Some of them could attain only one shade out of multiple shades created by Rafi's powerhouse talent.

Only after Rafi's death Lata expressed her remark saying "Darkness has spread around us, the full moon has set". Most of the music lovers contend that Indian Govt. failed to do justice by depriving Rafi of the highest civilian award 'Bharat Ratna' which Lata could get. They are still insisting upon awarding Rafi the posthumous accolade. On the 31st July, 1980 while rehearsing for a Bengali Bhajan, Rafi had a chest pain which ultimately locked him in the sleep that never breaks right at 10-25 pm.

On the following day prior to the Jumha prayer, the ever biggest funeral procession thronged the street of Bombay and was moving to the Zuhu graveyard where he was laid to rest. On Rafi's death, three days of national mourning, the entire Bharat from Kanyakumari to Kashmir came to an abrupt halt reeling in profound shock and grief. Along with thousands of mourners the nature also seemingly mourned Rafi's death. Mumbai was soaked to the bones as the heaven opened its door with torrential shower to lament over the funeral procession of unprecedented size.

The overcrowded procession braved the incessant downpour only to bid adieu to this man with the golden voice. Later on, in the cinema halls the video was shown on his last journey playing his song in the background (film Mela,1948 ) "Ek din parega jana, keya waqt hai keya zamana, bigregi aur banegi dunya yehi rehegi, jayenge ham aakele, ye zindegike mele". On death, Mohammad Rafi is gone from peoples' eyes but his memory is permanently riveted in the people's heart. His unforgettable songs will resonate in the air for long and long years to come.  Along with his innumerable fans and admirers, on his death anniversary, I raise my two hands and pray, may Allah rest this great soul in eternal peace.

The writer is a former General  Manager of Credit Information  Bureau, Bangladesh Bank