“For example, if a composer composed 5 Lata-Rafi duets, as opposed to another composer who composed 50 Lata-Rafi duets, and those 5 duets were excellent, and of high timeless quality, then those 5 duets from that composer would be as good as (or even better than) all of the 50 duets from the other composer (even if all these 50 duets are excellent, or most are good, or half are good etc.)”.

For example, if a composer composed 5 Lata-Rafi duets, as opposed to another composer who composed 50 Lata-Rafi duets, and those 5 duets were excellent, and of high timeless quality, then those 5 duets from that composer would be as good as (or even better than) all of the 50 from the other composer.

I hope you all get my point.

I have emailed you on your “gmail” address, please check asap.

I was just listening to Lata’s “Betaab Dil Ki Tamanna” composed by Madan Mohan, what an outstanding song, from all aspects, and the tune is just heavenly and haunting. This is one of the best Lata songs from the 70’s imo, MM shows his class yet again with such a magnificent composition.

Compare RD’s Aandhi tunes to this one song from the genius MM, and this one song beats out the whole Aandhi album. If Rafi had sung the songs of Aandhi, they would have been on even terms, its only Lata who is the saving grace of Aandhi, and she adds glory and respect to those RD tunes. The presence of Kishore in Aandhi lowers the quality of the album.

Madan Mohan definitely preferred Rafi and Lata to all other singers, but my question is why did he create less Lata-Rafi songs as opposed to LP, SJ or KA etc. ?. Ofcourse it doesn’t matter if he did, as it doesn’t take anything away from his repertoire or status, but I am just curious. Each one of those Lata-Rafi songs he created is a gem regardless of how many songs he has made for the golden pair. Even SDB doesn’t have as many Lata-Rafi duets but each one is a gem, and same is the case with Roshan, Ravi etc. I think LP, SJ and KA created the most Lata-Rafi duets in that order, followed by Chitragupt, Naushad and others. Ofcourse “quality” matters and not “quantity”.

Most composers from H-B to Bappi Lahiri created duets for the golden pair. Anyone who created duets for Lata-Rafi were very lucky to have them sing for them. Lata-Rafi is the best duet pair in the history of HFM, and they were the two best singers in the history of HFM. I bet all composers wanted this duet pair to sing for them.

Now coming to Pancham, since this is a thread devoted to him, he created less Lata-Rafi duets than the three duo’s, but more than SDB, MM, Roshan etc. and all of them (imo) were gems.

Has RD given these sort of versatile tunes to Kishore or any other male singer he worked with ?. I don’t think so, but I’ll let you decide for yourself.

I’ll just list a sample:

Rut hai milan ki - Mela
Door se tera diwana - Raton Ka Raja
Chand mera dil - Hum kisise kum nahin
Pyar hai ik nishan qadmon ka - Mukti
Ni sultana re - Pyar Ka Mausam
Wadiyan mera daman - Abhilasha
Tumne mujhe dekha - Teesri Manzil
Zamane ne maare - Baharon Ke Sapne
Kabhi kabhi aisa bhi - Waris
Churaliya hai tumne - Yaadon Ki Baarat
Kitna pyaara waada - Caravan
Pal do pal ka saath hamara - The Burning Train
Mohabbat mein aji kya - Phandebaaz
Gulabi aankhen - The Train
Tumhein dekha hai - Chandan Ka Palna

Most of RD’s Kishore tunes were straight with little variations. There are exceptions here and there, but in general they were in a similar category. Even the songs that had more scope for melody, were destroyed by Kishore’s lack of ability. Had Rafi sang these songs, the melody would have been out of this world.

It’s Rafi who brought melody and charm to RD’s songs. RD’s Rafi tunes were better, more versatile, and definitely more melodious. RD knew Rafi’s capabilities which is why he gave him such everlasting tunes. Also, these tunes were melodious by themselves, but Rafi raised them to a whole new level of melody (he made them more melodious) just by his rendition.

A drawback that RD had as a composer was his inability to choose the right singer for a particular song, something his father SD specialized in. Other than that, he was an all-round genius composer, who could compose anything and everything.

Rafian1-ji, I am definitely not furious to/with Sanjay-ji. I was just asking Rafi fans an interesting question, and I wanted to know various opinions from them. Mr. Sanjay thought this was not the right place to ask such a question, and I disagreed. Since this is a thread devoted to Pancham-Rafi, I think its a valid place to ask such questions.

I agree with you, that KK/RDB fanatics have no manners, they treat other MD/singer fans with disrespect, and most of them lack musical knowledge, as can be seen in examples on this site and on the KK site as well.

My Top-20 songs of RDB.

Mere naina sawan(Lata)
Zindagi ke safar mein(Kishore)
Aanewala pal(Kishore)
Naja mere humdum(Lata)
Zamane ne mare(Rafi)
Wadiyaam mera daman(Rafi)
Oh mere dil ke chain(Kishore)
Suhani chandni ratein(Mukesh)
Humein tumse pyar(Kishore)
Musafir hoo mein(Kishore)
Tere bina zindagi se koi(Lata,Kishore)
Tum aagaye ho(Lata,Kishore)
Nagma hamara gayega(Lata,Rafi)
Kya janoo sajan(Lata)
Na koimang hain(Lata)
Agar tum na hote(Lata)
Churaliya hain tumnse(Asha,Rafi)
Do lafzom ki hain(Asha)
Tumhe dekha hain(Rafi)
Kuhc na kaho(Kumar Sanu)

Salil was also talented but let us not forget that his quantity (repeat number of films) was not that great to really compare him with others like Naushad, SJ, LP, SDB, MM, etc. Of course he gave music in four languages, Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada, but people who have listened in all these languages know that he used to make one tune and use them in all the languages. Of course, it was his prerogative.

Ilaya Raja is definitely a Class MD especially if we listen to his Tamil songs, which are so melodious and soft (not loud) that even a non-Tamilian would like the song.

Of course, the above are again my personal opinion.