Guest article by Hans Jakhar extending the centenary celebrations of Rafi (b. 24 Dec 1924 – d. 31 July 1980)
(Hans Jakhar, an SOY regular, is an avid Rafi fan and a Master of Data. Therefore, when I decided to celebrate 2024 as Rafi’s centenary year, my thoughts first went to him whether he would like to write a couple of articles on him. When he was more active on SOY he had written some guest articles, some of which were predominantly on Rafi. But of late he has been busy. This article came to me late when I had tightly packed the last months of 2024. My concluding article in Rafi’s centenary celebrations was on his evolution over the years with his duets. To highlight his versatility I had taken one duet a year with the condition that no music director was to be repeated. Even with this restriction I could get 25 gems over 25 years, composed by 25 distinct music directors.
Hans focusses on solos without any filters of a song in a year and a distinct music director. Therefore, you may get gap years and more than one song by a music director. However, with all the data Hans takes you on an interesting journey, and you discover many gems from Rafi’s early career. Some more articles on Rafi came late and I was happy to extend the centenary celebrations to 2025. This is in continuation of the celebrations.
Hans is a retired government official. He spends his post-retired life with his family in Haryana. Thanks a lot Hans for this nice article. – AK)
AK asked me in April last year whether I would like to write for Mohammad Rafi’s Centenary in 2024. Normally he would not have asked but I have been extremely irregular in the past one year. I had, always in mind, this topic about progression of Rafi’s career, his struggles and his evolving as a top singer. Since the start of 2024 I thought it was the right time for presenting my thoughts. So I suggested and he agreed. It would be in two parts, the first part covering the time upto 1955 and the second from then to 1970. The time limit is kept up to 1970, it being the span of SOY’s primary interest. Even if that has not been the case it would have been impossible to cover his whole career in two parts. It is hard to cover it in two parts, but we will have to adhere to some limit.
A lot has been said about the singing ability of Rafi. He was without doubt the best singer among golden era singers. The period under review is upto 1970 and in that period Mohammad Rafi alone sang more songs than the total of six golden era main male singers Mukesh, Manna Dey, Talat Mehmood, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Mahendra Kapoor. It would be a mistake to think that these singers were not capable. They were great singers in their own right and rose to the heights on the strength of their talent. So what was the reason for this utter dominance of Rafi. Versatility, singing as per the actor and situation, bringing the right emotions and modulating his voice may be listed among the attributes. But, according to me the most important of them all was his ability to take the compositions to another level. There were a number of great composers who were vying with each other or even with themselves for reaching great heights and they identified Rafi as a talent to take them to another level. With Rafi they could compose without thinking about any limit and he would in turn enhance the composition which no other singer was able to do. Usha Timothy who had sung a few duets with Rafi, and was with him in many concerts, said in an interview that other singers sang in ‘Sur’ but Rafi sang in ‘Shrutis’. I don’t know anything about Surs or Shrutis, but that is a beautiful way to express singing of Rafi. (There are seven ‘Surs’ or pure Notes. There are 22 Shrutis or micronotes – about 3 or 4 clearly audible different frequencies between two adjacent Notes. Some scholars mention reference to 24 Shrutis in ancient texts. – AK)
PART ONE: 1944-55
We all know that Naushad was the person who introduced Rafi in the 1944 film Pahle Aap with two duets with occasional singer Shyam Kumar and he also had a small contribution in a third duet with Shyam in the same film. We know Naushad was a big influence on Rafi’s career. But he was also a credit grabber. It is said he once said that he used Rafi less in the early part of his career because there was a tinge of Punjabi in his voice which he corrected. I don’t know whether he said this or not, but for quite some time I believed in what Naushad said. But, after listening to Rafi’s early songs on YouTube my views changed. I have selected songs for the first phase of 1944-50 to show how Rafi worked with even the least known composers to create gems and his singing was great even in the earliest period.
But first some data.
First Phase: 1944-50
Year No of films No of songs No of MDs
1944 1 2 (0+2) 1
1945 7 12 (6+6) 6
1946 19 40 (18+22) 15
1947 15 27 (12+15) 15
1948 22 49 (25+24) 19
1949 49 124 (51+73) 28
1950 37 90 (22+68) 20
Total 150 344 (134+210) 62
In these seven years Rafi sang 344 songs which is far more than any other playback singer. Durrani, Mukesh and Khan Mastana have for this decade songs since 1941 and have 180, 161 and 106 songs respectively. Chitalkar and Manna Dey ended up with 89 and 57. Talat Mahmood and SD Batish had 28 each and Kishore had 18 songs. Of the 62 MDs 23 ended their association with Rafi in this period itself and 16 of them had just a single song for him. Songs from 6 of these 23 MDs figure in the list for this period.
Husnlal-Bhagatram topped the list with 46 during the period from 1941 to 50. Hansraj Behl with 36 was another big contributor. Numbers of both of them fell down considerably in the following years. C Ramchandra with 29 and Naushad with 22 were other major contributors. Shyam Sunder and Gobind Ram with 14 each and Ghulam Muhammad and Chitragupta with 10 each added to his tally. Master composers Khemchand Prakash and Ghulam Haider gave him one song each in 3 and 2 films respectively. Four major contributors to Rafi tally in the later years were Shankar-Jaikishan, Madan Mohan, Roshan and Chitragupta. They debuted in the last two years of this period.
1949 was a special year for Rafi in which he sang 124 songs in 49 of the 157 films. He was there in every major film where a male song was included, except Lahore and Shabnam. Ten other male playback singers had a combined total of 138 songs in this year. The major MDs’ contribution came from HB 20, Naushad 12, Hansraj Behl and C Ramchandra 10 each and Shyam Sunder 9 (8 of them in a single film).
Now the songs.
1. Ae dil-e-nakaam ab jeene ki tamanna chhod de – Hamara Sansar – 1945 – Gobind Ram – Ramesh Gupta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imGpQi1r3RE
Gobind Ram was quite an accomplished composer in the vintage era. He produced a very good song in which Rafi showed his talent. This was his first song for Rafi. Another famous song he composed was a background song ‘Wah re zamane kya rang dikhaye‘ on Dilip Kumar in the film Ghar Ki Izzat. He gave Rafi 21 songs in 12 films. Jeevan is shown at the head of the cast. Was he the hero of the film?
2. Main jab gaaun geet suhana – Amar Raj – 1946 – Firoz Nizami – Pt. Fani.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU95UkXAG0E
This was a Wadia Movietone film with Naseem and Trilok Kapoor in the lead. Firoz Nizami was the composer who composed the famous duet ‘Yahan badla wafa ka‘ in Jugnu. In Main jab gaaun geet suhana Mohammad Rafi shows what an accomplished singer he was even at that time. There was also a duet version of this song with Mohantara Talpade.
3. Karte hain ab wo humse muhabbat ka bahana – Ghunghat – 1946 – Shankar Rao Vyas – Ramesh Gupta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2ARYbB0bv4
As we all know Rafi was the best when it came to slow recitals. He shows this special quality of his in the couplet before the main song. SR Vyas gave 14 songs to Rafi in total.
4. Honthon ki hansi kya hai kya ashq bahana hai – Hawai Khatola – 1946 – Basheer Dehlavi – Qaiser Sabai.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNqfYSC5sIY
Basheer Dehlavi had only this song with Rafi and see how expertly he has rendered it.
5. Rahein to kaise rahein dil pe ikhtiar mujhe – Room No 9 – 1946 – Rasheed Atre – J Nakhshab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7NDYmWRN5s
You do not find any traits of a new singer singing this song. A masterly performance. Rashid Atre was also a composer who has only one song with Rafi.
6. Dus na jayein tujhko zulfein kaaliyan – Malika – 1947 – Alla Rakha Qureshi – Tanveer Naqvi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G17LtTPY_o
This beautiful song is composed in Punjabi tappa style, which is Rafi’s home ground. Nice lyrics fitting the tappa style. AR Qureshi had 26 songs in 14 films for Rafi upto 1970.
7. Ae dil meri aahon mein itna to asar aaye – Actress – 1948 – Shyam Sunder – J Nakhshab.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O68dK6g0c4
Shyam Sunder and Rafi produced two gems in the film. The other one was ‘Hum apne dil ka fasana unhein suna na sake‘. Shyam Sunder was the composer who gave Rafi first chance in a Punjabi film Gul Baloch. He gave Rafi 22 songs in 8 films of which Actress, Bazaar and Dholak are well known. His early demise deprived us of good music.
8. Nigahein milane ko jee chahata hai – Parai Aag – 1948 – Ghulam Mohammad – Tanveer Naqvi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnlit5040T4
Ghulam Mohammad is well-known and highly respected. He opened his account in 1948 and gave him 55 songs in 22 films, including two songs in his last film Shama (1961). Now we know that the mukhada of the famous qawwali Nigaahein milaane ko ji chaahta hai from Dil Hi To Hai (1963) goes back to 1948, written by Tanveer Naqvi.
9. Kismat se koyi kya bole – Rahnuma – 1948 – Dhumi Khan – lyricist not known.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6pjazpgydY
Dhumi Khan gave Rafi 4 songs in this only film where he used him. To my knowledge this was the only film in which he gave music independently. He gave music in two other films jointly with other composers in 1949 and 1956.
10. Ae dil tujhi ko neend na aayi tamam raat – Shahnaz – 1948 – Amirbai Karnataki – Akhtar Pilibhiti.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a-wslmY_d8
This was the only film in which Amirbai Karnataki gave music to 12 songs in which she just used Rafi and herself, Rafi getting 6 songs of which 2 were solo.
11. Thukra ke humein chal diye begana samajhkar – Baalam – 1949 – Husnlal-Bhagatram – Qamar Jalalabadi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L62OXrkRkbg
HB were the top composers for Rafi in this period and continued to give him songs till the last. They were composers in many of Suraiya films and both of them were riding a wave. This combo had their first song ‘Ek dil ke tukde hazaar huye’ in 1948 which was the only song in that year. In the next two years they gave Rafi 45 songs in 13 films. The last film for this combo was the 1963 film Shaheed Bhagat Singh in which Rafi sang 4 of the 5 songs. Rafi had 88 songs with them.
12. Lo rukh badal raha hai phir zindagi ka dhara – Banoo – 1949 – Ram Prasad – lyricist not known.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTvKQ6Fz3ss
Ram Prasad was the father of Pyarelal of the LP fame. Details of only 4 of the 10 songs of this film are known and Rafi is in 3 of them. Ram Prasad later gave one more song to him in the 1964 film Magic Carpet. This song is sung in the Punjabi Heer style which is difficult to master and Rafi has sung it perfectly.
13. Is wade ka matlab kya samjhoon – Duniya -1949 – C Ramchandra – lyricist not known.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv3mIuH_Wlc
CR gave early support to Rafi and had given 29 songs in this period. He gave in all 77 songs to him which was 2nd for male singers after himself. Despite the differences the combo flourished till CR stopped using Rafi after the1960 film Sarhad. Later he recalled Rafi in the 1970 film Rootha Na Karo in which he used him for 3 songs.
14. Ek dil ne kaha ek dil ne suna – Parda – 1949 – Khayyam – Ramanand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE9PdDTUafc
This was the first film for Khayyam as Sharmaji which he did independently. The relationship of these two was special, though Khayyam does not have many songs with Rafi. They had a number of non-film songs together. ‘Akele mein wo ghabrate to honge‘ is famous for this duo, but this song is equally good. Rafi had 4 songs in this film out of which two were based on Heer style.
15. Jin raton mein neend ud jati hai – Raat Ki Rani – 1949 – Hansraj Behl – Aarzoo Lucknavi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzIyeLRYaeQ
Hansraj Behl was one of the main contributors to the Rafi tally during this period. Later in the 50s as Punjabi films gained more popularity after partition he moved to Punjabi films where he was the undisputed no.1 for quite some time. This song shows Rafi’s mastery over slow recital songs. Behl gave 76 songs in 33 films upto 1970.
As can be seen the above list does not contain his most famous songs from this period which are above 20 in number. In addition there were a number of other songs which almost as good as those selected. This is an indicator of the early talent of Rafi.
Second Phase: 1951-55
Year No of films No of songs No of MDs
1951 35 69 (25+44) 20
1952 32 77 (29+48) 21
1953 33 77 (26+51) 22
1954 32 89 (36+53) 27
1955 66 161 (65+96) 35
Total 198 473 (181+292) 62
As will be seen 1955 was a special year when Rafi’s songs had a big jump. This increase was not sudden; it was the impact of the performance in the first four years. The two most important MDs in this period were Naushad and Chitragupta. Chitragupta had 50 songs with Rafi with two highly successful films Tulsidas and Shiv Bhakta. Naushad decided to minimise the number of films. He gave music in 12 films in the decade 1951-60, out of which 8 came in this period. Though he had just 29 songs for Rafi in this period, yet they had such an impact that Rafi reached new heights. The other composers who gave more than 20 songs were Ghulam Mohammad – 34, CR – 28, HB – 25, Vinod – 22 and Madan Mohan – 20.
Mukesh was the major singer with 161 songs in the previous period. But in this period he had just 55 songs. As he was trying to be a hero, he made the mistake of stopping singing. The main singer besides Rafi during this period was Talat Mehmood. He had 246 songs with 152 solos. When we see that he sang about 430 film songs this number means he sang more than half of his songs in this period. We know Talat Mahmood was also trying to be a hero but he continued singing and reaped a rich harvest.
Now I proceed with the songs. They will contain a mixture of some special songs showing singing attributes of Rafi and also some with lesser known MDs.
16. Aseer-e-panja-e….Hue hum jinke liye barbaad – Deedar – 1951 – Naushad – Shakeel Badayuni.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD6bC-w5_FI
This song starts with a couplet in slow recital which is the first ‘sher’ of a ghazal written by Muztar Khairabadi who was the father of Jan Nisar Akhtar. Rest of the song is written by Shakeel Badayuni. Here is the couplet:
‘Aseer-e-panja-e-ahad-e-shabaab kar ke mujhe,
Kahan gaya mera bachpan kharaab kar ke mujhe‘
The meaning of the first line is ‘after making me captive (aseer) in the grip (panja) of commitment (ahad) to the beauty (shabaab)’ followed by the second line which means ‘where has my childhood gone after ruining me’. This couplet is the essence of the story of Deedar. Rafi takes about 40 seconds for completing this couplet, weaving one word with the other in a string in his inimitable style.
17. Poochhiye na haal ji, palle nahin maal ji – Mukhda – 1951 – Vinod – Azeez Kashmiri.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyYhymR500c
Vinod was sort of a specialist in composing comic songs. He started with Rafi by giving him 5 duets in Ek Thi Ladki and ended up giving him 36 songs in 12 films, ending with two duets in Ek Ladki Saat Ladke. What a coincidence in similarity of the title in the two films.
18. Dum todte hain armaan – Shagan – 1951 – Husanlal-Bhagatram – Mulkraj Bhakhri.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCkR4v5btiY
HB continued to give memorable songs in the 50s upto Shama Parwana after which success eluded them. Other notable films for them in this period were Afsana, Sanam, Rajput, Stage and Aansoo.
19. Takra gaya tumse dil hi to hai – Aan – 1952 – Naushad – Shakeel Badayuni.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AObKlsYMad4
This song also has an alaap at the start which is slightly shorter than the Deedar song, but Rafi takes about the same time weaving magic again. This film had five solos, one duet and two alaaps for Rafi. This was a once in life time film for Nadira.
20. Hari om….Man tadpat hari darshan ko aaj – Baiju Bawra – 1952 – Naushad – Shakeel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c9yzRB5pPc
Although ‘O duniya ke rakhwale’ is more famous, I consider this song better. At the start Rafi chants ‘Hari om’ four times in 30 seconds, each time pronouncing ‘Hari’ and ‘Om’ differently. This type of rendition is can only be done by the singer and this type of modulation is where he beat all other singers. Then he starts weaving the mukhda in a rosary and this time the weaving is different than the Deedar song because now the words are in chaste Hindi. This song is a super marvel in all three facets.
21. Ye duniya paglon ka bazaar – Chacha Choudhary – 1953 – Madan Mohan – Rajendra Krishna.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HARooqWk_fw
This is an absolute gem which tells us why Rafi is so special. In this song of more than 3 and a half minute, Rafi sings only the mukhda in different styles. There is only one antara for about 35 seconds. I think there is hardly any need to say anything about this combo. This type of songs are essentially singers’ as no amount of composition can cover each twist and turn. MM started with Rafi in his first film and had given 132 songs in 40 films upto 1970, which gives a very high average of 3.3 songs per film, considering the predominance of female songs.
22. Jal jal ke shama ki tarah fariyad na karna – Fariyad – 1953 – BN Bali – Muzaffar Orkazai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37rbCOTofMQ
BN Bali was a small time composer who made his debut in 1949. He has 15 songs from 6 films out of which he gave 5 songs to Rafi in 1955 film Mastani, one of which was a comic song ‘Ameeron ke bhagwan gareebon ko sataya na karo, pudine ki chatni se rotiyan khilaya na karo‘.
23. Sulag rahi hai husn ki sigdi….de pachhad dham dham. – Madmast – 1953 – V Balsara – Madhuraj.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGk2XnbnfWo
V Balsara featured in the series of Sculptors on SOY. As per details there he composed 12 Hindi films and many Bengali films. This one is a very good comic song in which Balsara used some special manoeuvres which were executed well by Rafi.
24. Tera kaam hai jalna parwane – Paapi – 1953 – S Mohinder – Rajendra Krishna.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O91xBh_O5g8
S Mohinder started his career in 1949 and had 58 songs in 22 films with Rafi until 1970. So he was a regular with Rafi. This song was a super hit. Some of the antics used by Raj Kapoor in the song were copied by some of his family in later years.
25. Kismat fati hui thi taanke laga rhea hain/Allah tere bande daulat kama rahe hain….Fati hui kismat ki chaadar siye ja siye ja – Alibaba Aur 40 Chor – 1954 – SN Tripathi & Chitragupta – Raja Mehdi Ali Khan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcB0cwMqtpk
Obviously the song was created for the situation when Alibaba gets the body parts of his brother sewed up. The song was filmed on the tailor who would appear in just one or two scenes. Could this be thought possible in later films? The song situation did not deter Rafi from rendering a gem of a song and for this he duly studied the voice and visualised the actions of the minor actor and modulated his voice accordingly.
26. Aaj achanak rooth ke mujhse chale gaye bhagwan … Bolo he zameen bolo aasman – Chakradhari – 1954 – Avinash Vyas – Pradeep.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvmiaQGPwkA
This song is a testimony that Avinas Vyas was a very capable composer. The alaap is the life of this song written greatly by Pradeep and perfectly tuned and extra-ordinarily rendered. Rafi executed these alaaps so differently from each other that one wonders whether there was some invisible computer in his head which remembered everything. After the alaap the song suddenly changes tempo. Vyas worked with Rafi in only 1951-60 and had 26 songs in 13 films.
27. Ab wo karam karein ke sitam – Marine Drive – 1955 – N Dutta – Sahir Ludhianvi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73IKQBG1pRU
N Datta debuted in 1955 and straightaway gave good songs to Rafi in Milaap and Marine Drive. He was a Rafi loyalist and a great supporter of Asha. He had a total of 91 songs with Rafi upto 1970. Ajit on whom the song is filmed is in low spirits and Rafi comes up with a soft tone song to fit the situation. This song is one of the iconic songs of Rafi.
28. Meri duniya lut rahi thi aur main khamosh tha – Mr Mrs 55 – 1955 – OP Nayyar – Majrooh Sultanpuri.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJBCp5tjhOk
OPN was a powerhouse for Rafi. Though he had less number of solos than duets with him. This song is a surrogate song depicting the situation of Guru Dutt and lip-synced by a minor actor. Rafi’s grip on qawwalis is manifested in the most appropriate lyrics written by Majrooh for the situation. This song was eclipsed by the popularity of other songs in the film.
29. Ye duniya gham ka mela…Humein bhi de do sahara – Seema – 1955 – Shankar Jaikishan – Hasrat Jaipuri.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31jASRr4qUk
This song filmed on Mumtaz Ali has a great alaap followed by as great a song. You can listen that Rafi again sings the alaap differently from his other alaaps. This film is known for ‘Kahan ja raha hai tu ae jane wale’ and ‘Tu pyar ka saagar hai’.
30. Maya ki uljhanon ko….Humko to tera naam lene se hai vasta – Shiv Bhakta – 1955 – Chitragupta – GS Nepali.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLGKO6lH6hQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDFvYRA-fXU
Chitragupta had a special relationship with Rafi. He had more songs with Rafi than even Lata Mangeshkar who was his favourite after she entered his recording room from this film after the huge success of Tulsidas. Shiv Bhakta was essentially a Rafi film in which he had 4 solos and 2 duets because Shahu Modak was playing the Shiv Bhakta. I have given two links for the song. The first one is for the video and the second one is link from the record. Unless you watch the video song you cannot fathom the impact of the song because it contains a longer alaap which has been curtailed in the audio version.
A large number of gems have been left out. No duet has been given here, because the focus was on showing the singing ability of Rafi which is on display more in solos. But there is no bar on SOY-ers in posting duets which include multiple singer songs.
Acknowledgements and Disclaimer
The song links have been given/embedded only for the listening pleasure of music lovers. This blog or the author has no commercial interest, and claim no copyright over the songs which vests with the original copyright owners.
Source:https://www.songsofyore.com/the-evolution-of-mohammad-rafi-part-one-1944-55/