#365DaysOfWriting – Day 230
Happy birthday, Mohd. Rafi!
What a beautiful, beautiful voice. Rafisaab had this mesmerising quality in his songs, no matter the type – sad, happy, romantic, patriotic, drunk – when you listen to a Rafi song, your head will invariably tilt towards the source of the voice. It’s like a magnet.
Not many used this ethereal quality of his voice better than Madan Mohan. His haunting tunes perfectly complimented Rafisaab’s crooning, and the duo’s combined effect was like the Pied Piper – it could lead people to wherever they liked, if they so wished. My favourite song of the duo? तेरी आँखों के सिवा दुनिया में रखा क्या हैं from चिराग़।
His greatest work though probably came in partnership with SD Burman. प्यासा, काग़ज़ के फूल, तेरे घर के सामने, गाइड… the list just keeps going on and on. Burmanda, as he was fondly known, had this knack of keeping the music to a minimum and allowing Rafi’s voice to take over entirely – giving it a more monologue feel, so that the protagonist’s point comes across. The music was just incidental in these cases. One of the greatest examples of this is ये महलों, ये तख़्तों, ये ताजों कि दुनिया from प्यासा। You can feel Guru Dutt’s hopelessness, his utter disgust and pain – it’s his monologue, his message to society. And yet, it’s a song. That was the magic of the SD Burman-Mohd. Rafi combo.
No Rafi conversation can be complete without Shammi Kapoor. Therefore, by extension, no Rafi conversation can be complete without Shankar-Jaikishen. I believe this duo brought the lively side of Rafisaab to the fore. Take the songs of ब्रह्मचारी for instance, like चक्के में चक्का, चक्के पे गाड़ी। But my favourite is and will always be the mellow में गाऊँ तुम सो जाओ, which happens to be Yesudas’ favourite Rafi song.
Roshan took full advantage of Rafi’s classical training and made him sing some of the best Bollywood songs with classical undertones. None more potent than the चित्रलेखा classic, मन रे, तु काहे ना धीर धरे। This song was voted the best Bollywood song of all time in an Outlook music poll in 2006. Listen to the song to find out why.
He made an unusual, but beautiful playback duet/combination with Asha Bhonsle. One person who used this pairing to great effect was OP Nayyar. His falling out with Lata meant that he preferred Asha, and us mortals got to hear some of the finest Rafi-Asha duets in the process. Take for instance दीवाना हुआ बादल from कश्मीर कि कली। In the words of SP Balasubramaniam, listening to Rafi sing this was like running your hands over silk, or velvet. Smooth.
Finally, before I bring this Rafi tribute to a close, we have to talk about Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Their body of work with Rafi is as impressive as, say, SD Burman. पारसमणी and दोस्ती are two that come to mind almost immediately. And the song I like? वो जब याद आए, बहुत याद आए।
As you already know, this is by no means an exhaustive list. Just a few of my favourites. Happy birthday Rafisaab. Thanks for all these beautiful songs.
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