This information is shared by Mr. Binu Nair, Sargam Music

Mr. Nanji Bahadur veteran musician of the hindi film industry and colleagues to legendary K.L.Saighal, Mohd Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar cut the inaugural ribbons of SARGAM magazine brought out by Mohd Rafi lovers in Mumbai on Oct.2nd.

A musical extravaganza of ‘evergreen’ Mohd Rafi numbers followed the Sargam launch programme.

Songstress Mubarak Begum the guest of the evening applauded the SARGAM team in bringing out a ‘Rafi Special’ issue in her address and rendered two of her popular classics : ‘Mujhko apne galle lagalo’ and ‘Kabhi tanhaiyon mein, hamari yaad aayegi’ to the sounds of encore from her fans.

It was Gandhi Jayanti day (Oct.2nd) and it was fitting that Dr.Ashok Khare the singer extraordinaire from Mumbai who has been giving Rafi tribute programmes every July 31st for the last twenty-seven years also pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. He rendered the evergreen number : ‘Suno Suno ai duniya waalon bapuji ki amar kahani’ – taking the audiences to the events which unfolded on January 30 , 1948. It was a soulful rendering and one could see emotions running high all-around. Dr.Khare then shifted gears and went on to render another fitting beauty ‘Bura mat suno, bura mat dekho, bura mat kaho’ to a round of applause.

It’s customary for singer A.Narayan to start with the mukhdas of three Rafi immortals in his stage shows. He started with ‘Jaane waale kabhi nahin aate, jaane waalon ki yaad aati hai’, ‘Tum mujhe yoon bhula na paaoge’ and ‘Badi door se aayen hein pyaar ka tohfa laayen hein’. ‘Chaahunga mai tuzhe saanj savere’ too was taken up on audience request.

After the tributes, the audience was expecting some lilting numbers and in stepped Fahad the youthful singer from Calicut now regaling music lovers with Rafi classics in various cities. ‘Dil ka bhanwar kare pukar’ was the entry number chosen and no sooner than the mukhda started, one could hear rhythmic clappings in the hall. In the antaras the audience had joined “in” loving every word of the rendition. An encore was requested and Fahad didn’t disappoint. More numbers such as : Shirdi waale sai baba, Donon ne kiya pyaar magar from Mahua and Koi jab raah na paaye from Dosti followed. Fahad won many hearts for his superb renderings.

How can The Rafi Foundation supported program ‘not’ take the best hindi number of the last 60 years? In came Dr.Khare once again with his remarkable rendition of “Mana re tu kaahe na dheer dhare”, “Chaundvin ka chaand ho” and the Naushad duet : “Do sitaron ka zameen par hai Milan aaj ki raat” to a generously applauding audience.

Sargam Magazine Preview

Mohd. Hanif ( the Rafi of South India ) specially flew down from Mangalore and he belted two great numbers: ‘Gulaabi aankhen jo teri dekhi’ and ‘Taarif karun kya usaki, jisne tumhe banaya’ to the sounds of ‘encore’ once again..

Now, it was Aparna’s turn to sing a duet : ‘Isharon isharon mein dil dene waale’ with Fahad.

Sargam Magazine Preview

It was nearing 12.20 p.m. and time was running out; a few mukhdas and antaras of evergreen songs followed before the ‘compere’ of the evening Ronnie Pinto called curtains and promised a longer show for the benefit of music lovers.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 6:42 am and is filed under The Rafi Foundation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.