This article was featured by buzz18.com.

The Good Samaritan

Mohd Rafi believed in giving as much as he received. Many industry veterans still recall his good deeds. Not only was he humble, but also very helpful to the needy — which did not necessarily mean the urchins on the road, but his colleagues, his friends, anybody. A close friend of Rafi said that every month, packets of Rs 200/300 or more used to be dispatched to the singer’s struggling friends, upcoming music directors, and the like. It was all between Rafi and the person. Nobody knew where the money came from!

Music director Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal also remembers how “Rafisahib” had given Rs 500 to his father in their “bad times”. Like that, Rafi has sung for many producers for a minuscule amount and sometimes completely for free. When Pyarelal worked with Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar later, Rafi didn’t even remember lending the money, while Lata did. But both of them didn’t take any money from him and blessed him. The duo is known to be the mentor of Laxmi-Pyare, but it was Rafi who unconditionally helped them all the way, according to industry insiders.

Pyarelal further adds, “We (Laxmikant and he) worked with Rafi in our debut film Parasmani…Rafi agreed to do it despite low budgets and unknown names. We considered Rafi as our mentor. The whole world knows we shared the best working rapport with Rafi and Lataji.” According to him, perhaps Rafi has sung the maximum number of songs with Laxmi-Pyare. During the Kishore Kumar wave in the ’70s, the musician duo stood by Rafi.

Before Kishore Kumar started on playback, it was Mohd Rafi who sang for him in movies like Raagini, Baaghi Shehzaada, and Shararat.

Rafi also sang three songs for only Rs 100 for Roshanlal, assistant of music director Ravi. He said, “Mera toh ho gaya, abhi tum aage badho (I’m done with (in terms of career), now you go ahead).”

An interview with Rafi’s son

The singer’s only surviving son, Shahid Rafi, spoke to buzz18.com about his legendary father. Excerpts from the chat:

How was Rafi as a father?
Dad was very down-to-earth, as everybody knows, and a fantastic human being. He was an excellent father. He did everything for the family. Whenever he had free time, he spent with the family, and never socialised much.

As children, were you made conscious of his status as one of the country’s best singers?
He kept the family away from the limelight. He always used to say, “Nobody is great in the world. It all comes from God. Whether you are rich or poor, always be down-to-earth”.

Did he ever compel you to be a singer?
Not at all. In fact, he kept us away from it all. He encouraged us to do whatever we wanted to. We were seven siblings, and brought up in a very normal way.

Do you do anything special on this day? Do you have a foundation in Rafi’s name?
We just pray at home. We don’t do anything special as such. There are thousands of foundations in my father’s name around the world.

What does his greatness mean to you?
He was a great person, a great father, a great singer, and all I can say is, I’m very proud to be his son.

Was he religious?
He was very god-fearing. He was a very busy man so although he didn’t read the namaaz five times a day, he did it whenever he had the time.

Mahendra Kapoor, veteran playback singer, on the legend

On his contemporary, Mohd Rafi
I haven’t exactly been Rafiji’s contemporary. I have been his student. Rafisaab used to stay in Bhendi Bazaar (Mumbai) when I first met him as a 13-year-old. He was a noble soul, simple and down-to-earth and I have learnt a lot from him. He had no vices and never did he haggle over money with his producers. I have tried to emulate him as much as possible.

On Rafi overshadowing his contemporaries like Talat Mehmood
You cannot hide talent. And he was far better than any of his contemporary singers. I am not saying this because he was my guru. I mean it.

When Kishore Kumar took over
The ’70s were all about Kishore Kumar. There were times when Rafisaab had little or no work. Those days were very bad. He had withdrawn into his apartment and refused to meet anyone. When I went to see him, he sounded very dejected and told me how the producers who would earlier come knocking at his door are now with Kishore Kumar.

He may have felt hurt, but he wasn’t ever bitter about this. In fact, Kishoreda and he were very good friends. They never discussed work when they met.

It was Manmohan Desai who brought Mohammed Rafi back. He was Rafisaab’s fan and got him to sing in Amar Akbar Anthony and Dharam Veer.

Fondest memory
Rafisaab’s career was at its peak. Baiju Bawra had just released. I had won some singing competition at that time. Rafisaab’s brother, Hamidbhai told him about it. He was so happy, he promised to fly me down to Calcutta. I had never travelled by air before. It was an experience I will never forget. He had a performance in Eden Gardens. 25,000 people had gathered to listen to him. Hamidbhai suggested that I should sing with him. It was the first time I sang in public and the icing on the cake was that it was with Rafisaab.

Mahendra Kapoor picks his favourite songs of Rafi
There was a bhajan, Tere bharose aye nandlala, which was a private recording. Besides that, there is also a ghazal, which was composed by Khayyam: Ghazab kiya tere wade pe bharosa kiya.

Controversies

In 1960, there was a rift between Rafi and colleague Lata Mangeshkar. She wanted him to support him over song royalty issues, but he didn’t believe in getting royalties from the producer and was happy with getting only his fees.

Another controversy arose when Lata Mangeshkar’s name was entered in the Guinness Book of World Records for singing the maximum number of songs in a lifetime by any singer – over 25,000. Rafi challenged the claim and said that he’d sung more than that – nearly 28,000. His name was later added to the Book. As of now, both names have been removed from the records. But in spite of their differences, we cannot help but notice that the Lata-Rafi duo have delivered the greatest hits and sung almost 500 songs together.

Also, there is a lot of resentment among Rafi fans that he was not honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award. A Bangladeshi journalist in the newspaper Daily Star rued the fact that Rafi was only honoured with the Padma Shri, while Lata Mangeshkar had been bestowed with the Bharat Ratna.

Rafi Trivia

Rafi was a god-fearing and humble human being. They say when he went to Haj he was given the honour of leading the proceedings. Not even a handful of people get a chance to do that. But his mesmerising voice had made him the chosen one all over the world.

Children of his apartment block in Mumbai used to run after Rafi, asking him to sing for them. They wouldn’t let him go. Rafi would give them tenners to buy chocolates instead.

Such a singer, and human being, is born once in a lifetime.

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