Woh jab yaad aaye

Sadly,someone who lent his voice to three generations of actors of all hues – not just the heroes – and has regaled as many generations of all kinds of music-lovers – not just film buffs,stands to be reduced to an idol who,like Mahatma Gandhi,must be recalled and praised as a ritual but need not be emulated. It’s no ordinary coincidence that Rafi had left us on July 31,31 years ago when the melodious mood of film music had just started slipping into the degenerative mode that only got worse with time.

Those who grew up listening to Rafi belong to today’s old-to-middle-aged generations. In another two decades or so,there won’t be many of them left behind to proudly recount the stories of the Rafi era. We don’t know if Rafi songs would still play out then to popular delight or whether the Rafi story will be recounted even as a ritual,but that hardly takes anything away from someone who is inarguably India’s greatest music idol of all times.

And it is not just his musical talent or the repertoire of renditions that he wielded with natural elan and simplicity that makes him the greatest,but it is the way he conducted himself as an individual that sets him so distinctively apart from most others of his ilk.

Born to Haji Ali Mohammed (a barber by profession) and Alla Rakhi on December 24,1924,at Kotla Sultan Singh village near Amritsar,Rafi had no formal education worth the name – it was as if he was destined to be a singer,so he had nothing else on his mind for a pursuit in life. With no music in family,as a child,he would go miles after a fakir in Lahore – where the family had later shifted – who would sing to get alms. The fakir’s voice so haunted Rafi that he learned the songs and the tunes by heart,something he would ruminate later on in his life whenever in nostalgic mood.

A local senior classical singer heard a six-year old Rafi humming a song at a shop where he had accompanied his elder brother Hamid. The man was impressed and he told Hamidbhai that the child had a potential to become a great singer. Hamid took the advice seriously and put Mohammed under the tutelage of the likes of Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan,Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Pandit Jeevanlal Mattu.

At 14,Rafi had an impromptu opportunity to sing in front of Kundanlal Saigal,the greatest music idol of those days,at a programme in Lahore. Actually,it was Saigal who was to sing there,but as the electric power went off,Rafi was called out to sing by some locals. Despite there being no microphone,Rafi’s voice carried to the farthest end of the crowd. An impressed Saigal hugged him and uttered the prophetic words,“You will become one of India’s greatest singers.”

Saigal also recommended his name to Lahore’s radio station and Rafi soon found himself clutching at the microphone there. He was heard there by music director Shyam Sundar,who gave him his first break in Punjabi film Gulbaloch in 1944. A career in music was to be,and eventually became,Rafi’s destiny.

In the next 36 years,Rafi went to scale heights that none could match in terms of voice quality,treatment,presentation and a simply unparalleled range of songs. Rafi’s voice had natural silken softness with which very few are blessed. Combined with a taiyyar voice through his rigorous training in classical music,the softness enabled Rafi to modulate his voice to hauntingly-melodious effect: check the ease with which he takes a small winding taan on the word gulab in the opening sher from Amar Akbar Anthony’s famous qawwali,Parda hai parda hai,or how he unwinds on the word rona in the repeat rendition of the line Baraha aise sawalaat pe rona aaya from the Hum Dono classic Kabhi khud pe,and mark how he offers varied tones on the word sawaal towards the end in Hui shyam unka khayal aa gaya (Mere Humdum Mere Dost).

Rafi’s ability to take fine,subtle-frequency taans was simply amazing. He was probably the only singer,who would modify the stress and weight on every single word of a song to bring out the mood of the lyrics. This unique ability resonates brilliantly in Tum kamsin ho (Aayi Milan Ki Bela),Ae phoolon ki rani (Arzoo),Chaudhavi ka chand’s title- song and Kaun he jo sapnon mein aaya (Jhuk Gaya Aasmaan). As Biswajit,one of those actors who benefited because of Rafi’s voice,says,“The actor would simply have to do the lip movement. Rafi’s voice would take care of the expression.”

Then there is also a completely different genre of song that Rafi has sung,ghazal or nazm,with masterly command. Like “Kahin ek masoom naazuk si ladki (Shankar Husain),Tumse kahoon ek baat paron se (Dastak) and Main yeh soch kar usske dar se uthaa tha (Haqeeqat). The effortless rendition of the Dastak nazm achieves an effect that has arguably remained unmatched till date.

Contrast these with the high-pitched,high-energy numbers like Akele akele kahan jaa rahe ho,Chahe koi mujhe junglee kahe,Baar baar dekho,Govinda aala re,Mast baharon ka main aashiq and Yeh chand sa roshan chehra. In the Hindi heartland folk,Nain lad jahiye from the classic Ganga Jamuna,Rafi perfectly combines softness with a teasing playfulness. In Sar jo tera chakaraye (Pyaasa) and Bade miyaa diwane (Shagird),playfulness takes a naughty form. That playfulness and ebullience could sound so natural in the voice of a shy,soft-hearted individual remains one of Rafi’s unsurpassed capabilities.

His Midas touch would elevate even the most ordinary songs like Savere wali gaadi se chale jayenge (Laat Saheb) to heights they did not have a potential to gain by themselves. Rafi struck a stark contrast in personality with Kishore,who upstaged him professionally in the ‘70s,and could belt out songs that more than matched him in energy and vigour. Aaja aaja,main hu pyar tera (Teesri Manzil),Gulabi ankhen jo teri dekhi (The Train),Main jat yamla pagla diwana (Pratiggya),Kaan mein jhumka (Sawan Bhadon) ,Afu khuda (Jab Jab Phool Khile) and of course,the wild Junglee title-song – the list is too long to be reproduced here. In the same Junglee,he gets into his characteristic sublime mood and produces the magical Ehsaan tera hoga mujhpar.

Then there are the foot-tapping numbers like Pukarta chala hoon main (Mere Sanam) and Ae dil hain mushkil jeena yahan (C.I.D.) – Rafi sung them all like a specialist. Rafi weaved his magical appeal in every kind of song he rendered,be it patriotic ones like Apni aazadi ko hum hargiz mita sakte nahin (Leader) and Jahan daal daal par (Sikander-E-Azam) or classical ones like Naache man mora (Meri Surat Teri Ankhen),Tu hai mera prem devta (Kalpana),Man tarpat Hari darshan ko aaj (Baiju Bawra),or Madhuban me Radhika nache re (Kohinoor). And despite many other co-sings in the all-time great qawwali from Barsaat Ki Raat,Yeh ishq ishq hain,it was Rafi who anchored the philosophical import of the classic Roshan-Sahir composition with his part.

In the genre of philosophical songs,one cannot miss Dekhi zamane ki yaari (Kagaz Ke Phool) and Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai (Pyaasa). And who could match him in the melancholy effect? His national award for Babul ki duaen leti jaa from Neelkamal (1968) is testimony to the fact that he would pour his soul into any kind of song he was called out to sing.

His songs bring out Rafi’s unique ability to sing with equal felicity in all three octaves,a quality profusely acknowledged by all his music directors. More interestingly,he would sing songs of all hues with a straight,smiling face as if he required absolutely no effort to render them. That spoke volumes about his skills.

But it wasn’t his musical genius alone that made Rafi the icon he was. As a human,his soft-heartedness and soft-spoken nature often manifested into childlike innocence. His son Shahid has recalled how he once came home in excitement and broke the news to the family that he had just recorded a song with Amitabh Bachchan (Chal mere bhai from Naseeb). The son asked him why he was so excited. Rafi said,“After all,he (Amitabh) is such a big superstar.”

Rafi wasn’t ever thinking about his own greatness as he surrendered to all his music directors,always ready to receive learning from them like a true disciple. And the disciplined student that he was,he wouldn’t unleash a single extra note or a taan unless asked for by the director. If on returning home after recording he thought that something was missing from his performance and that he must amend it,he would call up the music director and insist that he must record the song afresh. R.D.Burman wanted Kishore Kumar for his fast numbers from Teesri Manzil but the producer insisted on using Rafi. R.D. did not approve of Rafi’s singing in the rehearsals of Aaja aaja main hoon pyar tera. The gentleman that he was,Rafi worked harder to get the song exactly like R D wanted. The rest is history.

Rafi altered his throw and tone of voice according to the actor. While he was almost like an alter-ego for Shammi Kapoor,Jubilee Star Rajendra Kumar and Joy Mukerji were two more actors who cornered some of Rafi’s immortal renditions. Once he recorded all songs for a film initially for Rajendra Kumar,but when the producer replaced Kumar with Joy Mukerji,Rafi insisted that he must record all songs again. He did it and charged nothing.

As the late Laxmikant once recalled,many directors would often take advantage of Rafi’s diffidence in money matters and not pay him his fees. Rafi never ever asked them for it and continued to sing for them even after that. It was not surprising then that munificence came naturally to the man. Rafi would set aside thousands of rupee every month for artistes fallen on bad times. They would collect sealed packets every month from his Rafi Villa bungalow.

It was his conviction about money matters that put him at odds with Lata Mangeshkar. While Lata insisted on getting royalty for songs,Rafi said that singers can have a claim to it only if they are also ready to share the loss in case the film flopped. The tiff went on for some time during which Lata refused to sing with him. Suman Kalyanpur paired with Rafi till Jaikishen intervened and brought the two greatest legends back together.

But Rafi never held a grudge against her. He would say that whenever he had a recording with her,he would need to go fully prepared since it would be a “tough call” to match her performance. He also said that while he tried to alter his style for every hero,Lata never compromised on her original style and yet managed to fit the bill for every heroine.

Besides Lata, it was the great O. P. Nayyar who had fallen out with Rafi over a trivial matter. The reason was Rafi had once come in late for recording with Nayyar because he had been delayed at a recording for Shanker-Jaikishen. Nayyar told Rafi bluntly that he would never record a song with him again. Rafi,who had got some of his most outstanding combinations of fast and soulful compositions from the master,accepted it with all humility.

With Kishore Kumar,for whom he gave playback in several songs,Rafi enjoyed a great relationship. Kishore publicly rated Rafi far above himself as a singer. After Rafi’s death,a desolate Kishore was seen holding his feet for hours. Personally,it was Manna Dey whom Rafi held in highest esteem. “I listen to his songs,” he would say.

The vast repertoire of Rafi’s classics and the stories around them would take reams of paper to be unfolded. Rafi’s magic continued to cast its spell till his untimely death in 1980.

Javed Akhtar once put it succinctly,“Kishore’s was the voice of an emerging urban India,while Rafi’s was a pan-Indian voice that suited all.” The dawn of action films era with the meteoric rise of Amitabh Bachchan and emergence of the R. D. Burman brand of music decisively changed the course of Hindi film music.

With ghazal,nazm and classical genres fast disappearing with the advent of raucous orchestrations and with rants being mistaken for energy,there was little space left for the likes of Rafi.

That his death came at an unseemly age of 56 in 1980 was a quirk of fate or maybe destiny’s deliberate design. Rafi had,by then,finished the task cut out for him.

As the great Naushad rightly put it: “There may come singers who would sing better than Rafi,but there won’t be another one quite like him.”