In the Hindustani film music, there were Navratna Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt, Hemant Kumar, Talat Mahmood, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey after singer Kundanlal Sehgal. Nobody’s singing style was found in them from others. Everyone had their own style. Rafi Saheb alone had such a range of range and modulation that he used to sing and play the song of any mood easily. Rafi could easily sing songs of all range. Rafi’s specialty was that he used to catch the rhythm very quickly. The composer used to sing to him and Rafi Saheb would immediately understand the mood to sing. He did not take much time to recording. Filmmakers like this quality very much. This saves time and saving time is the saving of money.
Rafi’s specialty was that he could sing in a different way for different actors. The style of his singing on any two actors was the same. If you listen to the songs sung for Dilip Kumar, then he will get different from the songs sung for Shammi Kapoor. This was Rafi Saheb’s magic. Whether Rafi, whether singing songs for the lead actor of the film or for a character actor, his dedication was 100 percent. Whether you listen to the song filmed on Dharmendra or on Johnny Walker, you will see their proficiency in both songs. This quality of Rafi Saheb was very useful for him to be meaningful in Hindi film music for a long time.
Talat Mahmud’s popularity was at its peak in the early years of the fifties. Mukesh was also very much discussed by the end of that decade. In this decade, Rafi continued to demonstrate his talent, but the entire decade of sixty was named after Mohammad Rafi. In the seventies, Rafi Saheb decreased slightly. There were many reasons for that. The first is that Kishore Kumar came out completely in the playback singing. There was freshness in his voice, the young feeling. This is the reason that actor Dev Anand started losing his song Kishore Kumar. Dev Anand was the choice of youth. He resorted to Kishore to highlight his young image. In the same period, Hindi cinema got its first superstar as Rajesh Khanna. The pair of Rajesh Khanna and Kishore Kumar were hit by the film Aradhana. After that Rajesh Khanna gave the hit films as long as Kishore’s pair remained with him. Rafi also sang songs for Rajesh Khanna, but many times Rajesh Khanna had to say clearly that he did not want the voice of any other singer other than Kishore Kumar. One of the specialty of Kishore was that he was an actor. He used to dissolve the style of acting in his voice while singing, so he also presented ordinary words with great style.
Despite this, Rafi stayed in the seventies. He did not get very good songs at that time as Kishore Kumar was the first demand for actors. There were some musicians who chose Rafi even at that time. For example, actor Rishi Kapoor was advocating Kishore Kumar for the songs of the film Laila Majnu, but composer Madan Mohan believed that Rafi would be better according to music. Laila Majnu’s songs were sung by Rafi Sahab.
But it is also worth noting that Rafi Sahab and Kishore had a very deep friendship. Both respected each other. Once someone told the teenager that he had left Mohammad Rafi behind. Kishore found the style of the saying that he became enraged. The knowers say that the teenager slapped the man.
There is another such funny story. Music composer R.D. Basudev Chakraborty was the main assistant of Burman. He was a resident of North Kolkata. There was a shop “Malon Cho” where delicious fish were made. By filling the spices etc. in the fish from the shop, it was filled in a snow box and sent to Mumbai by airplane. Basudev Chakraborty or RD in Mumbai When the fish reached Burman’s house, Kishore Kumar would be sent information that the fish came from Kolkata’s “Malon Cho”. On hearing this, Kishore Kumar used to leave with Rafi Saheb immediately. Such friendship was such closeness in Kishore and Rafi. Not only this, Kishore’s son Amit Kumar used to do live programs then. Kishore often took Rafi Saheb with him to Amit’s program.
To understand the deep friendship of Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Kumar, it is necessary to mention another incident. Once Kishore Kumar went to South Africa in connection with a program. During that time, black people were discriminated against in Africa. When Kishore reached the program, a Muslim organization objected to his presentation. Kishore Kumar was very angry. He opposed this discrimination in the name of religion. Kishore Kumar gave an example of Mohammad Rafi from the stage and said that when the temple was being built in Juhu, Mumbai, Mohammad Rafi did a charity show for the temple. This is the character of Muslims of our India. How are these Muslims who are erecting the walls of Hindu and Muslim in music.
Kishore Kumar was deeply shocked by the death of Rafi Saheb. He did not believe that Mohammad Rafi has left the world. He kept distance from the song for some time. After some time when the teenager went to sing, he took a small picture of Rafi with him. He started the program with Mohammad Rafi’s song “Man Re, Tu Kahe Na Dheer Dhare”.
Everyone talks about Rafi’s goodness and humanity. Many times he helped many people of the film world. An anecdote is associated with the film Balika Vadhu, which director Tarun Mazumdar told me. A song in the film was based on the Swadeshi movement. The lyrics of the song were “These bangles are not….” This song was sung by Mohammad Rafi. After the recording, Tarun Majumdar told him that the song was written by Bengali poet Mukund Das for the freedom movement. Rafi Saheb became very emotional after hearing this. He returned the payment of songs taken from Majumdar. Tarun made a lot of money to take money from him but he said, how can they take the fees of singing the lyrics of the Swadeshi movement. This shows that he was not only a singer, but also a person thinking for the society. One thing is important to mention here that Rafi Saheb was the heroes of the freedom movement and especially Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru. There is a deep put of freedom and sensations in their voices and sensations. The era was really wonderful when one to one talent emerged in the film world, Rafi Saheb and Kishore Kumar are full of images.
