Mohammed Rafi (December 24, 1924 - July 31, 1980) was arguably the greatest of Hindi/Urdu playback singers in Bollywood. Rafi still remains popular in Indian Subcontinent and in many other parts of the world such as the UK, Kenya, West Indies, where people of Indian origin have settled. He continues to inspire new Bollywood playback singers like Sonu Nigam, Mohammed Aziz, Shabbir Kumar and Anwar.Rafi sang many duets with Lata Mangeshkar, but he has also sung a large number of songs with Geeta Dutt and Lata's sister Asha Bhosle as well. His songs ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs, sad lamentations to highly romantic numbers, qawaalis to ghazals and bhajans, and from slow melancholic tunes to fast fun-filled songs. He sung for Rajendra Kumar and Jeetendra, the tragedy heroes Dilip Kumar and Bharat Bhushan, comedian Johnny Walker, and many more. His voice personified the rebellious image of the star Shammi Kapoor and also gave expression to smaller and younger heroes like Biswajit and Joy Mukherjee. Rafi has also sung for singer-actor Kishore Kumar in a few movies like Raagini, Baaghi Shehzaada, and Shararat.
Early years:
Rafi was born at Kotla Sultan Singh Village near Amritsar in Punjab, to a middle class Muslim family. His family shifted to Lahore when he was still a baby. Every day, a "fakir" used to come to their locality in Lahore and sing. The young Rafi was so fascinated by him, that he used to follow him around. His elder brother Hameed was aware of Rafi's love for music and encouraged it. In Lahore, Rafi started taking music lessons from Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan and he also learned Indian classical music from Ghulam Ali Khan. One day Rafi and his brother Hameed went to attend a performance by K. L. Saigal. But the legendary singer refused to sing because there was a power failure at the venue. Hamed went up to the organiser to ask whether his brother could sing to keep the audience quiet. That was Rafi's first public performnce at the age of 13. Among the audience sat noted composer Shyam Sunder, who invited Rafi to Bombay.
Rafi's first song was in Punjabi for the film Gul Baloch - it was a duet with the singer Zeenat Begum. The song was Soniye nee, Heeriye nee, composed by Shyam Sunder. Shyam Sunder was impressed with his voice and gave Rafi seven songs in another film Bazaar. Also, in 1944, Rafi decided to move to Bombay, where Naushad gave him a break in Pehle Aap (1944). Rafi made his mark with Tera Khilona Toota Balakin Anmol Ghadi (1946). Rafi's first hit song was Yahan Badla Wafa Ka with legendary songstress Noor Jehan, composed by Feroz Nizami. It earned Rafi fame. Producer of film Amar Raj, J B Wadia went looking for him because he wanted only Rafi to sing songs for his film.
Rafi also had brief roles in movies like Laila-Majnu (1945) and Jugnu (1947). In Laila-Majnu, he was seen singing Tera Jalwa as a part of the chorus. Most famous film being Neel Kamal 1968. He has sung over 26000 songs . He sang in hindi, english, bhangra, bhajan and more styles.
Rise to Fame:
Rafi's big time came when he met the composer Naushad in Bombay. Rafi's first song for Naushad was Hindustan ke hum hain for the film Pehle Aap in 1944. Rafi and Naushad struck a chord. The first hit for the duo was the soundtrack of the superhit movie Anmol Ghadi (1946). Before Rafi, Naushad's favorite singer was Talat Mahmood. Once Naushad found Talat smoking during a recording. He was annoyed and hired Rafi to sing all the songs of the movie Baiju Bawra. After the Partition of India, Rafi and Naushad decided to remain in India. Whenever Naushad required a male voice in the songs composed by him, he would approach Rafi and nobody else. This attitude of Naushad was criticized by many people, but he continued his patronage of Rafi. Naushad used Rafi's voice for almost all actors of that time including Bharat Bhushan and Dilip Kumar.
Soon, Rafi became the favorite singer of other composers too, notably O. P. Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishan and Sachin Dev Burman. Rafi became the voice of Dev Anand with soul-stirring songs composed by S. D. Burman. Rafi sang songs of all moods for S. D. Burman, picturized on Dev Anand - the romantic dil ka bhanwar, the drunk hum bekhudi mein, the free-spirited khoya khoya chaand. Rafi and S. D. Burman teamed up with Dev Anand's Navketan production house to produce hit tracks in many movies - Kala Bazar, Tere Ghar Ke Saamne, Guide among others. S. D. Burman also got Rafi to sing for Rajesh Khanna in Aradhana and Amitabh Bachchan in Abhimaan. Rafi and S. D. Burman also produced soulful songs for Guru Dutt's Pyaasa, C.I.D. and Kaagaz ke Phool.
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