I used to play the tanpura for Rafi saab: Mahendra Kapoor
This article is written by Harish C. Menon, for Indo-Asian News Service. It’s an old article (2006) republished to refresh our memories.
Neither old age nor the vicissitudes of a long singing career have weakened Mahendra Kapoor’s zest for music. The singer who gave us the soulful “Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se” way back in 1963 is now ready with a collection of Sufi songs. Even at 72, the voice that took high pitch singing to unmatched levels still has a lot to offer. The affable veteran singer says that his sufiana album is something he wanted to do after he had his full in other genres of singing.
Dwelling at length on his relationship with the legendary playback singer Mohammed Rafi, Kapoor says: “Rafi saab had made it very clear, much before my career hit a high note, that we should not sing together, mainly because of two reasons. One because we shared a guru-chela relationship and there should be no competition between us and secondly because our voices are very similar.”
Kapoor crooned some unforgettable Bollywood chartbusters like “Chalo ek baar phir se” (”Gumraah”, 1963), “Aadha hai chandrama” (”Navrang”, 1959), “Neele gagan ke tale” (”Humraaz”, 1967) and “Laakhon hai yahan dilwale” (”Kismat”, 1968).
Even today, he has a music teacher who comes to his Carter Road residence in Bandra in central Mumbai twice a week.
The Amritsar-born singer, who began his career with “Madmast” (1953) is genial enough to sing a couple of lines of that lilting Sahir Ludhianvi gem “Aap Aye to Khayal-e-Dil-e-Nashaad Aaya” without the airs of a veteran for this correspondent.
Excerpts from an exclusive interview with IANS:
Q: How do you feel when you look back at your career?
A: Satisfied is what I would like to say. I have done what I always wanted to do as a child. I have sung in almost all genres - classical, qawwali, bhajans, romantic etc. I perhaps missed out on sufiana music. So this new album will fulfil that aspect.
Q: Your voice was considered best for high pitched numbers like “Na Munh Chupa Ke Jiyo” and “Neele Gagan Ke Tale”…
A: It is goddess Saraswati’s gift and thankfully I could make use of it well in my career. Perhaps that also got me stereotyped as a singer of patriotic songs, making my voice an inseparable ingredient of actors like Manoj Kumar (known as ‘Mr.Bharat’ for his patriotic flicks) and Sunil Dutt saab.
Mohd Rafi with Asha, Mukesh & Mahendra Kapoor
Q: Your reverence of Mohammed Rafi and the subsequent initiation into classical music is Bollywood legend. Something on your relationship with the late singer?
A: In simple terms we shared a guru-chela (teacher-student) relationship. I often used to play the tanpura for Rafi saab during his performances. I used to call him Paaji (elder brother in Punjabi) and we used to speak in Punjabi mostly. Once when we were stepping out of the All India Radio building after a performance and I was holding the tanpura behind him a group of school kids approached him for autograph.
He did not understand and asked me what the fuss was all about. When I told him what the kids wanted he, in a matter of fact manner, asked me to oblige them! And I signed their autographs as Mohammed Rafi! (Laughs) That shows the simplicity of the man. No airs, no arrogance. Just simple human being.
Q: What about your spat with him in connection with the B.R. Chopra-Yash Chopra clan? Is there any truth to it?
A: There was indeed a spat. But the problem was not between us. It was between Rafi saab and the Chopras where the latter totally ignored Rafi saab after he refused to sing a duet with me in one of their movies. Rafi saab had made it very clear much before my career hit a high note that we should not sing together, mainly because of two reasons. One because we shared a guru-chela relationship and there should be no competition between us and secondly because our voices very similar.
Q: Can you pick out favourites in your songs and music directors?
A: In songs perhaps yes. One of my favourites is “Chalo Ek Baar”. I put in a lot of passion while singing it. It is also my favourite because perhaps this was one song that gave me a lot of recognition and a distinct identity. But it is difficult to pick out music directors. It would be an injustice to others.
Q: So can we have a small list of favourites?
A: It’s still difficult. All were greats. Naushad saab, C. Ramchandra, Kalyanji-Anandji, (O.P.) Nayyar saab.
Q: You rarely mention Ravi although most of your best songs were his creations and the Ravi-Mahendra Kapoor-B.R. Films combination held sway for a long time…
A: See this is what happens when I start listing out. It reminds me of the old story where while inviting relatives for a wedding one tends to forget the closest mostly as their presence is considered a ‘given’.
In fact I would say nobody understood and made use of my calibre as much as Ravi saab did.
July 21st, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Ref. post 29, I know only one duet with Rafi sahab i.e. “Ek chand aasman pe hai ek mere paas hai” from film Aadmi.
July 13th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Can anybdy tell us how many songs mahendrakapoor and rafisahab sang as a duet. plz. let me know
July 13th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Nice article by Menonji, quite different and quite interesting to read it. the fact is Mohdrafi is no.1 playback singer till now also. bt comparing rafisahab is comparing god. I want to tell u in the article of mahendrakapoor, he told tht mohdrafi is his guru and cannot compare with rafisahab. He have a very big photo of rafisahab in his house and when he starts to riyaz, first he takes rafis blessings like a god, so there is no way of comparing mk and rafi. whtever will be mahendrakapoor is also a great singer like any other playback singer in tht era. Its nice to read the articles in the newspapers where he has given a brief interview. the fact is mk was a great fan and devote (i will say) of mohdrafi, also he learnt from rafisahab.
July 12th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I agree with Mr Binu Nair that in Boolywood, loyalty is the last thing to be found. It is hard to imagine that Rafi Saab would not have wanted to sing with Mahendra Kapoor saying that their voices were similar. When Rafi Saab has sung many songs with Kishore Kumar, why would he have hesitated to sing with MK? Definately MK is not superior to KK in popularity and range of voice.
We have only MK,s version of the conversation with Rafi Saab. No doubt MK had a good voice, he cannot be compared to Rafi Saab.After the death of Rafi Saab,MK could have come up but by then the whole industry had changed and most of the great music directors who knew MK had left the scene. Atleast MK says many good things about his Guru-Rafi Saab.We should be grateful for that.
July 12th, 2008 at 11:00 am
As mr.anil cheriyan said if we take out some of the singing
qualities of rafi saab it may be mahendre kaoor or sonu
nigam.i think about 30% quality take away it will be yesudasji.
once Mr.jayachandran, the south indian singer who entered
in hindi film music at the age of 64 recently said rafi saab
is part of god because of his range.
the hero of this article used to practice while he was in the
car while going to the recording studio.one day due to irritation,
the driver stopped the car and left the driver job for ever.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
i want rafi’s songs
July 10th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Rafisahab’s voice was heaviness, smoothness, strength, softness, suppleness, sweetness, youthfulness, freshness all rolled together. You take some ingradients out and you’ll get Mahendra Kapoorji’s voice; take some other ingradients away and the output would be Sonu or Anwar.
Mahendra Kapoorji is both right and wrong when he says that his voice resembled rafisahab’s. Similar is the case with Anwar, Mohd. Aziz, Shabbir Kumar, Vipin Sachdeva, Sonu et al.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:20 am
One point to be noted. What would have happened to Mahendra minus BR Chopra, Ravi, OPN and Manoj Kumar? Though a talented Singer, he was lucky to have the backing of these four people. Among heroes, only Manoj had Mahendra as his main Singer, among Producers, only BR Camp had him as their main Singer. Of course, Ravi used him mainly for BR Films and OPN when he fell out with Rafi. Though other MDs like Naushad, CR, SJ, KA, LP, etc. have all used him, but not regularly. Also though he has sung for other heroes like Rajendra, Jeetendra, Dharmendra, Shashi, Shammi, Dilip, Sunil Dutt, Rajesh, Feroze, etc. he was never the main Singer of these heroes.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I don’t know why MK says his voice simliar to Rafi Saab, that was his personal opinion.
Ravi used MK because BRC not want to use Rafi saab. If Ravi could have freedom to choose singer he use Rafi saab. Same as with Manoj Kumar his first choice was MK.
Without BRC & Manoj Kumar Mahendra Kapur nothing. he just like normal singer.
In rafi saab’s clone, I heard/saw about MK & Sonu Nigam regarding their views about rafi saab, both are frequently change their views & hesitate to give real respect to rafi saab.
Last year I met with MK in Toronto & ask about his feelings for Rafi Saab…he change the topic & start to speak in punjabi which I can’t understand & not interested to talk with me.
July 5th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Where were these singers who have the same voice
(if they have) of rafi saab when refi saab passed away?
When rafi saab performed a live programme in royal
albert hall,london lataji with mukeshji perfromed live
programme in the same venu.but rafi saab’s programme
was better than these two veterans.we have rafi bakth
who was in mumbai when rafi saab died did not attend
his funeral.i think there was a cocus against rafi saab
during 70s to vanish him and some of his bakts were
part of the cocus.