This article is written by Mr. A.S.Murty

5TH July, 2008 will be remembered by music lovers in Hyderabad as a day of revival of the vintage music of the hfm. For nearly six months now, we have been trying to organize a grand musical show and also invite some well known playback singer of the yesteryears to Hyderabad. The closest we came to was the name of Mubarak Begum Sahiba and our good friend Samarjit Acharjee was in continuous contact with her. Either the glorious singer with the golden voice was not available when we had wanted to organize a show or we were preoccupied with our normal lives and thus we could not go ahead with the idea that remained in our minds. However, we did not lose heart and kept our trials going. (more…)

This info is shared by Mr. Binu Nair

Saturday Night Rafi Fever - "Part V" at Mumbai’s Naushad Hall. JULY 31, 1980 is the day of Legendary singer Mohd Rafi leaving us and becoming "IMMORTAL". Rafi Saaheb is easily one of those rarest of rare personality who is remembered each passing day with music lovers and fans visiting his final resting place at Juhu Mosque showering petals n flowers all round the year. (more…)

This information is shared by Mr. Binu Nair, Rafi Foundation

MOHD RAFI centric singers will test their singing skills, singing gems from the store-house of two legendary composers of the hfm : Roshan and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Rafi lovers are expected to attend in full strength and lap up the gems on offer "live" at the Naushad Hall in Mumbai’s central district - Sion on June 14, from 6.30 p.m. onwards. The Chief Guests expected to attend are: M/s. Sharada : playback singer and Mr.Padmakar Shivalkar the great Indian leg spin bowler - both of whom are dyed in the wool Mohd Rafi Lovers. (more…)

This article is by Mr. Binu Nair

MUSIC, Melody and Mohd Rafi begs to be said in the same breath say ardent Mohd Rafi fans who have formed the Rafi Foundation - a platform to bring Rafi lovers of the world together and take forward the unparalled singers ‘great works of art’ to the next generation of music lovers. Mr.Binu Nair, an NRI from Dubai formed the Rafi Foundation a year ago and within a year the unit has spread to many states in India and to cities like New York, London and the Gulf states. (more…)

Saturday Night Rafi Fever - Part II ON APRIL 12, AT NAUSHAD HALL, SION KOLIWADA at 6.30 p.m. This information is shared by Mr. Binu Nair, founder, Rafi Foundation.

RAFI FOUNDATION will host a musical evening of Mohd Rafi’s rare and popular numbers live at the Naushad Hall on April 12th. Every second saturday of the month Rafi Foundation host the live musical with eminent people who worked with Mohd Rafi attending the event and singing the maestro’s songs. The guest singers this Saturday includes : M/s.Madhubala Jhaveri (playback singer), Padmakar Shivalkar (leg-spinner and singer) Dr. Hebbar, Javed shakeel badayuni, ACP Syed Mobin, Kakaji Naushad, Sheel Kumar Sharma, Pallavi & Raghav. (more…)

This article is written by Mr. Binu Nair.

ON MARCH 8TH, Rafi singers “sizzled” and Rafi lovers lapped up the magical Rafi melodies at Mumbai’s Naushad Hall located at Koliwada, Sion. Nostalgia and mirth was high in the air on the cool Saturday week-end evening as singers after singers belted out rare, popular numbers from the by-gone golden era of hindi film music. Nanjibhai Bahadur the 87 year seniormost musician and singer who worked alongwith Rafi and Saighal played some very rare music pieces played by him in the original recordings some 60 years back. His zest for singing was in sight too as he sang two Rafi numbers working on the harmonia and delighting the packed audience. (more…)

BY A.S. MURTY (asmurty2@rediffmail.com)

Since the time the Rafi Foundation got going at Mumbai, followed by its Delhi Chapter’s birth, we at Hyderabad were mulling over the idea of forming the Hyderabad Chapter. Likeminded persons got to know one another through the pages of www.mohdrafi.com and also names of probable contacts were forwarded to us from Mumbai and Bangalore. It was by chance that I got to know first Mr. P. Narayanan from Bangalore on the website.

I had all along known only the songs of Rafi Sahab and was influenced since my own childhood by the uniqueness of this legendary singer. While I liked any good composition with good lyrics rendered in a class of its own by any singer, Rafi Sahab scored over the rest by his clarity, diction, softness and full of zeal and emotion in his songs. Such was the impact of his rendition that I had never the difficulty in understanding the mood of the song. Rafi Sahab conveyed it all through his voice. One need not see the movie from which a song was rendered. There it was for the entire world to relish the efforts put in by the producers, the directors, the story writers, the lyricists, the music directors and above all the actors. The entire picture is before our eyes – only the singer had to be Rafi Sahab. (more…)

This info is shared by Mr. Binu Nair

His image hasn’t faded a bit in the last six decades. It’s the most reproduced photo in the world. Music lovers have fallen in love with his “Godly” voice which has transcended many boundaries. People close to him say, he is the greatest singer “ever” but a greater human being too.

People know him as Mohd Rafi. Music, Melody and Mohd Rafi “beg to be said in the same breath” said the Outlook magazine, quite recently in a tribute to the maestro. (more…)