Mohd Rafi and Manna Dey

Music of bollywood films reached its zenith during the 50s and 60s. Composers, lyricists and singers of diversified cultures and came together and produced masterpieces. During that period the classical rendition of orthodox songs sung by Rafi and Manna Dey had made the listeners spellbound and still remain immortal more than 50 years after their creation.

Qawallies were composed in style during that period. In the film Barsaat Ki Raat in 1960, composer Roshan’s qawalli “na to karwan ki talash hai” started by Manna Dey and continued by Rafi with the lyrics “yeh ishq ishq hai ishq ishq”, was the major attraction in the film. Both Rafi and Manna Dey sang the qawalli in their own style and with their own harkats. Barsaat Ki Raat had other brilliant songs including the title song, but the qawalli stood as one of the superlative creations. Read the rest of this entry »

Rafi Sahab with Usha Khanna and Kishore Kumar

After Saraswati Devi who composed music for Bombay Talkies Film during 1930s & 1940s, Usha Khanna is a lone established female Music Director in the Indian Film Industry who was active for 3 decades from 1960s to 1980s. She was born in Gwalior in 1942 and her father, Manohar Khanna was a lyricist and singer. But she had no formal training in music, often take inspiration from Arabic Music. Popular music director O.P. Nayyar introduced Usha Khanna to Sashadhar Mukherjee initially who assigned her to compose two songs per day for one year. Later on Mukherjee hired her to composed music for his films like DIL DEKE DEKHO (1959) and HUM HINDUSTANI (1961). She started her career as a composer at the age of 17. Read the rest of this entry »

Rafi Sahab Ko Bharat Ratna Kyon Nahin?

I have posted the letter requesting Bharat Ratna on 1st July 2010 to our respected PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, Mr. Ramvilas Paswan and Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu. Navjot ji is a MP (BJP) from Amritsar which is the land of birth of our beloved Rafi Sahab,therefore requested Sidhu ji to please put our demand in parliament as well as in media. This letter also has been published in the article form in a magazine “Avijit” of lucknow and I am trying to publish in news papers also. Read the rest of this entry »

Aadab Rafi friends, I visited the House of Rafi Sahab,”RAFI MANSION” and his holy Grave on 5th & 6th june 2010.

I reached mumbai in the morning of 5th june and Miraz ahmed saab (elder son in law of Rafi Sahab) has given the time to visit Rafi Mansion at 7:30pm to me. I reached to Rafi mansion at 7:30pm and met with Nasreen didi (elder daughter of Rafi sahab). Miraz saab could not arrived at time because he was in hospital for delivery of his grandson and Nasreen didi was also going there. Read the rest of this entry »

Mohd Rafi and Sanjeev Kumar

Hari Bhai (Sanjeev Kumar) was my favourite actor. His association with our maestro Pheeko (Rafi Sahab) was great and unforgettable. Pheeko gave innumerable and mind blowing songs to this prominent Indian actor. Hari Bhai, ( Harihar Jariwala ), who was born in Surat, Gujrat on July 9, 1938 and died at a very tender age of 47, on November 6, 1985.

In the early part of 80’s, I remembered reading in “India Tribune” from Chicago, that Hari Bhai had coronary bypass surgery at Baylor’s Heart Institute, in Houston, Texas, USA. Read the rest of this entry »

Mangalore Hanif

A ZIPPY MUSICAL PRESENTATION OF GOLDEN ERA SONGS of Mohd Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar songs enthralled the thousand odd music lovers at Mumbai Ville Parle’s Dinanath Mangeshkar Hall on Sunday May 23.

Star singers of the day Mangalore Hanif, Zee Saregama star Mona Kamath, Star tv awardee Prabhanjan Marathe, singer Aparna, composer Prem Kumar and singer Dinesh Parmar derived non-stop applause for each of their renditions.

The Chief Guest of the evening Mr Pascal Pinto, Managing Trustee of Mangalore Rafi Foundation, who had specially flown in from KUWAIT was visibly pleased and commented ” these talented singers must be in the film industry entertaining larger number of audiences”. Read the rest of this entry »

Mohd Rafi

The music and especially the film songs fascinated me from as early days as I can remember. Those were the days when radio and especially Vividh Bharti was the main source of access to film music. In early days, the songs of all singers like Rafi saab, Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh, Talat Mehamood, Kishore Kumar etc. fascinated me with no specific favorites.

But slowly my liking graph of Rafi took an ascending path. His voice mesmerized me like a magical spell. While all singers were great but I found his voice having that something extra, something indescribable which can only be felt. The most notable feature being the wide spectrum of songs that he sang with seemingly effortless ease. In those days it was quite common that two or three consecutive songs of Rafi saab were played on Vividh Bharti. And more often than not, these songs used to be contrasting in nature. For example: Na kisi ki aankh kaa noor hoon……. followed by Baar baar dekho.… or Nain lad jaee hain to…… followed by ‘Yaad na jaaye beete dinin ki….’. I was wonder-struck by his range. Read the rest of this entry »

Mohd Rafi

I am a huge fan of Rafi. Here is my tribute to him in form of a ghazal I wrote and composed for him. It is only for Rafiana. This song is copyrighted and unauthorized copy or distribution of it is prohibited.

badhawaasi ke is shor mein
ek sukoon ki sadaa hain rafi
mohabbat ke noor ki
ek haseen adaa hain rafi Read the rest of this entry »

Mohd Rafi with Suman and Hasrat

Shankar Jaikishan in the 60s made immense number of experiments in bollywood film music. Right from westernized compositions to Indian classical songs to folk tunes, the compositions had a wide variety. Rafi was the automatic choice of the legendary musical duo, with his tremendous range and romantic appeal. Suman Kalyanpur sang landmark duet song with Rafi under the composition of giant composers during the 60s, including Naushad “dil-e-betaab ko sinese lagana hoga”, in Palki, Madanmohan “baad muddat ke yeh ghari aye”, Jahanara, Roshan “rahe na rahe hum”, in Mamta, Khayyam “parbaton ke pero par sham ka basera hai”, in Shagun, to name a few. Suman Kalyanpur sang many immortal duet songs with Rafi in the 60s and 70s under the composition of Shankar Jaikishan. Read the rest of this entry »