Mohammed Rafi & The Nineteen Forties

PUBLISHED IN THE BLOG: RAFI & THE FORTIES:
MOHAMMED RAFI AND THE NINETEEN FORTIES - PART 1.
A Humble Tribute to the Greatest Playback Singer of all times – by

Nasir.
In order to appreciate the genius of the Indian Legendary Singer,

Mohammed Rafi, a very brief survey of the Indian Cinema during the
Nineteen Forties becomes imperative. Regional cinema is out of the
purview.
Dada Saheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra (1913) was the first silent
movie in India, with no synchronised sounds or dialogues. Some of
the well-known actors of the time were Patience Cooper, Ruby Myers
(Sulochna), and Renee Smith (Sita Devi), Zubeida, Fatima Begum,
Master Vithal, Master Nisar, and Prithviraj Kapoor. Improvements in
technology and the synchronisation of the sound with the pictures,
heralded the end of the silent-movie era. Alam Ara, the first “talkie”
film in India, was released in Mumbai’s Majestic Cinema in 1931. Its
producer, Ardeshir M. Irani is therefore considered to be the father of
the “talkie” film. Zubeida was the leading lady. It had the first song
of the Indian cinema, DE DE KHUDA KE NAAM PAR, by W.M. Khan
who acted as a faqir. It was recorded live, accompanied with a Tabla
and a Harmonium. The arrival of sound had serious implications for
the entire generation of film-makers, technicians and artists who
could not adapt themselves to the new system. Many studios closed
down. Now only those actors or actresses could be employed in films
who, besides their acting talent, could also deliver dialogues and sing
many songs. The Anglo-Indians were the worst hit as they could not
speak fluent Urdu or Hindi. Many actors of the silent era lost their job
since they could not sing.
There was no playback system. Direct recording meant that the

actors had to act as well as sing. The many retakes would leave them
dead tired to do either the singing or the acting as desired, with the
mircrophones being hidden with great imagination from the camera.
Not to speak of the perspiration and the repeated dabbing of the
make-up on the singing artiste who had to even sing louder to reach
the overhead mike without being able to hear the orchestra fully. At
times, the microphone, the instrumentalists and the camera had to
follow the walking singer.
During the silvern age of the Nineteen Thirties, the Bombay Talkies,
Prabhat, Wadia Movietone, and New Theatres ruled supreme. These
Houses employed the artistes mainly on a monthly salary. Some of
the reputed names of the talkie-films were Devika Rani, Shobhana
Samarth, Leela Chitnis, Durga Khote, Shanta Apte, Sadhna Bose,
Padma Devi and Kananbala, as well as Ashok Kumar, P.C. Barua,
Prithviraj Kapoor and others. It was also the era of the “Fearless”
Nadia who performed daring stunts in Homi Wadia’s movie. Her
name became synonymous with her role in Hunterwali which is
remembered to this day.
With the dawn of Saigal era (1932-1947) new techniques evolved

that could allow the actors to just mimic the off-camera song that
had already been recorded in the voice of the playback singer. Even
here, the songs used to be played on the loudspeakers for the actors
to mimic the songs. These songs could also be broadcast on the radio
and also made into flat discs called “records” whose production, by
1931, was in the hands of a a single record company, EMI.
It was R.C. Boral (d.1981), a stalwart of the New Theatres at

Calcutta, who had introduced the first playback singing for a movie
called Dhoop Chhaaon (Bhagyachakra in Bengali version) in 1935.
Punkaj Mallick, his colleague and an all-round figure, had earlier
made his debut as Music Director in Yahudi ki Ladki (1933) and
introduced the use of western instruments such as piano and
accordion in songs and also introduced the background musical score
to enhance the action, the mood and the tempo of the film scenes,
just as Naushad was to mix the clarinet, the flute and other musical
instruments and improve the background music. The Thirties could
boast of many fine movies that included Shantaram’s Amrit Manthan
(1934), Bombay Talkies’ Achhut Kanya (1936), Mehboob Khan’s Ek
Hi Rasta and Aurat (1939), and Minerva Movietone’s Pukar (1939). It
was also the time when there were many gramophone stars. A 1938-
movie was even named Gramophone Singer (Music Anil Biswas)
which had K.L. Saigal.
By 1940, many gramophone stars who could not make it to the film
music as playback singers soon lost their standing in the music
world. In the Forties, some memorable films were made such as
Shantaram’s Dr. Kotnis ki Amar Kahani, K.A. Abbas’s Dharti Ke Lal,
Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar, Uday Shankar’s Kalpana, Mehboob
Khan’s Roti, Wadia’s Court Dancer, Sohrab Modi’s Sikandar and
Prithvi Vallabh, Raj Kapoor’s Aag and Barsaat, and Vijay Bhatt’s Ram
Rajya and Bharat Milap.
Mumbai had the lineup of highly professional music directors such as
Shyam Sunder, Khemchand Prakash, Timir Baran, R.C. Boral, Datta
Kogaonkar, Husnlal-Bhagatram, Sajjad, Naushad, Ghulam Haider,
Hansraj Behl, Khursheed Anwar, Vinod and Anil Biswas. It was usual
for the orchestras to be on the exclusive payroll of the individual
music director. Mumbai had replaced Calcutta as the leading film city
of India and had become the base of composite culture where a new
amalgam of music was born.
Naushad Ali of Lucknow, who had made his debut in Prem Nagar in
1940, brought the fusion of Hindustani music and the classical ragas
and introduced many innovations in his musical compositions and
system of recording. If Ghulam Haider had the opportunity of
introducing Baby Noor Jahan in Gul-e-Bakavli a Punjabi movie of
1939, as Baby Noor Jahan, and later in 1941 as a playback singer in
Pancholi Art Pictures’ super-hit, Khanzanchi, Naushad too, made the
13-year old Suraiya playback in his second movie, Sharda, for the
heroine Mehtab. Pandit Amarnath had discovered Zeenat Begum of
the Gul Baloch fame (S.Mohinder). Around this time, Mukesh and
Habib Tabani (Habib Wali Mohammed) won the audition test meant
for aspiring singers. It was for Meena Kumari to appreciate the
Ghazals of Habib and play them on Radio Ceylon, thus making Habib
a celebrity in the mid-forties. Around 1941, Ghulam Haider “changed
the complexion of the Indian film music” especially with the
stretching and breaking of the lyrics to enhance the beauty and the
weight of the rhythm and giving peculiar charm to his musical
compositions. He introduced the Dholak and other instruments in
films. Ghulam Haider employed ‘Taals’ (beats) very prominently in
his films, including Khazanchi (1941), Khandan (1942), Zameendar
(1942) and Poonji (1943).
The playback singing in the movies gained ground and by the mid-
forties it became predominant. According to Naushad, initially, in the
early forties, a single mike was meant to be used by singers as well
as the musicians who used to take turn coming to the mike and doing
their bits. Besides, the mike called “Fedler Tone” needed the heat of
the fire before it could function. No sound-proof recording studios
existed. Recordings were done in the parks at the dead of night so
that there was no disturbance or echo.
As before, music, songs and dance, became an integral part of Indian

films, as they also pushed the film-story ahead and could portray the
inmost emotions of the performers who could now not be bothered
about singing their songs on-screen. The songs could either make or
break a movie. The genres of romantic songs, patriotic numbers, the
sad songs or laments, devotional songs, the ghazals and the
qawwalis were recorded, once the scenes were finalised in most of
the cases. The fragrance of folk songs came from the soils of
Rajasthan, Bombay Province (i.e. Gujarat, Saurashtra, Kutch, and
Maharashtra), and the United Province (U.P.). All this and the
Rabindra Sangeet of Bengal, found their way to the home of the
common man through films and gramophone records and through
the radio stations as and when they came to be established. New
technology also made it possible to have the songs released before
the movies, which in fact worked as an ad. New talents in the fields
of music, singing, acting, and producing and directing movies came
to the fore, impacting on the socio-culture of the indigenous
population that extended from the Hindukush mountains to the
Brahmaputra river and beyond so that a time came when the heroine
could sing, MERE PIYA GAYE RANGOON WAHAAN SE KIYA HAI
TELEPHOON... Yes, Rangoon, where Indians formed half of the city’s
population.
At least till 1942 the singing actors held on to their own since there
was a dearth of the playback singers. Ashok Kumar used to sing his
own songs with heroines such as Devika Rani, Leela Chitnis, etc., in
early career. Some of his famous songs are: MAI.N BAN KI CHI.DIYA
sung along with Devika Rani(Achut Kanya -1936), CHAL CHAL RE
NAUJAWAAN (Bandhan – 1940), NAA JAANE KIDHAR AAJ MEREE
NAAV CHALI RE (Jhoola – 1941), and his songs with Leela Chitnis in
the same movie; BOLO HAR HAR MAHADEV ALLAHO AKBAR (Chal
Chal Re Naujawan – 1941) to name just a few. Many times there
used to be different versions of the same song: one in the film by the
actor, and on the record it used to be the playback singer as
happened in the case of Ashok Kumar in Kismet when Anil Biswas
made Arun Kumar playback for him.
Some of the singers of the decade between the Nineteen Thirties to

the ‘Forties were: K.L. Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, R.C. Boral, Pahadi
Sanyal, Ashok Kumar, K.C. Dey (Manna Dey’s uncle), Mumtaz Ali
(Mehmood’s father), Arun Kumar, Ahmed Dilawar, Bashir Qawwaal,
Master Parshuram, S.N. Tripathy, Balwant Singh, Minu the Mystic, R.C
Pal, Vishnupant Pagnis, Kantilal, Master Suresh, Govindrao Tembe,
Akbar Khan Peshawari, Eruch Tarapore, Utpal Sen, Rafiq Ghaznavi
who was also a composer, Ashraf Khan the actor-singer, Pradeep
who continued to sing and write lyrics for at least three decades
thereafter. Some other singers were: Kamla Jharia, Indubala, Shanta
Apte, Gauhar Sultana, Umrao Zia Begum, Saraswati Rane, Hameeda
Banu, Kaushalya, Rehmat Banu, Zeenat Begum, Bina Chowdhary and
Munawwar Sultana. Filmy ghazals were popularised by Ameerbai
Karnataki, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Kajjan, Jaddanbai, Goharbai and
K.L. Saigal. Non-filmi ghazals were rendered by Akhtaribai Faizabadi
(Begum Akhtar), Jankibai, Kamla Jharia and Malika Pukhraj.
Some other singers who were mainly in the Forties and whose songs
were commonly heard in the Fifties were G.M.Durrani, Surendra,
Shyam Kumar, Jagmohan, Khan Mastana, Zohrabai Ambalewali,
Amirbai Karnatki, Noor Jahan, Suraiya, Raj Kumari, Shamshad
Begum, Shanta Apte, Meena Kapoor, S.D. Batish, Lalita Dewulkar,
and Surinder Kaur.
Coming to the contemporaries of Mohammed Rafi, we have Talat

Mehmood, who had popularised light ghazals and was known for his
“velvety or silken voice.” Manna Dey was known for his “manly”
voice and great classical background and the ability to take down the
musical notations. Mukesh who belonged to the Saigal School was
excellent in low tones; Kishore Kumar was an actor who could sing.
C. Ramchandra was the music director who could sing. Hemant
Kumar, who had been singing since 1937 in Bengal, was known for
his heavy-moulded and sonorous voice. He too was a musician. C.H.
Atma who had deep voice like Saigal’s made his debut in 1945. These
were the stiffest male competition that Mohammed Rafi had to face
and overcome. The others who would keep him company would be
Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Geeta Dutt, Sudha Malhotra, Suman
Kalyanpur, and a few others.
NASIR
To be continued...

Nasir.
Let’s now have some glimpses of the Mohammed Rafi’s pilgrim

progress that began in Nineteen Forties amidst a multitude of talents
and competitions and went on to establish a lasting memory of his
name and fame well up to the next century.
Haji Mohammed Ali was the native of Kotla Sultanpur (or Kotla
Sultan Singh) near Amritsar, India. Pheeko, the youngest of his six
sons, was born on 24 December, 1924. As a seven-year child, Pheeko
used to listen to the songs and hymns of a faqir who frequented his
locality and neighbourhood. Destiny was at work here. So much
enchanted was he by those hymns, that he began to sing them and
thus showing his great musical inclination.
Now, there used to be lot of vehicular traffic between Amritsar and

Lahore those days, undivided as they were by any of the rivers of the
Punjab. Fortunately for Pheeko, in 1935, his father shifted to Lahore,
then a great centre for Punjabi culture, educational institution, music
and film industry. Lahore had become a centre for the aspiring
actors, singers, writers, poets, lyricists, producers and directors.
Prithvi Theatre was established here by Prithviraj Kapoor while
Dalsukh M. Pancholi had the largest studio in south east Asia. He
made many famous movies at Lahore before he ruefully left for
Mumbai during the the partition of India in 1947. It was at Lahore
that Pheeko, who was to earn his name and fame as Mohammed Rafi,
got his Hindustani classical music training from Ustad Bade Ghulam
Ali Khan and his younger brother, and from the towering figure of the
Kirana Gharana, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan (d.1949). He also took
music lessons from Feroze Nizami and Pandit Jeevanlal Matto
Kashmiri in Lahore.
These music lessons and the classical music training stood him good
stead when he was asked to give his first public performance in
Lahore. The legendary K.L. Saigal had come to Lahore to sing in a
concert that was held to felicitate King George VI’s coronation in
Britain in May 1937. As is well known, there was a power outage and
K.L.Saigal refused to sing on the failed microphone. At this time,
since the audience was getting impatient, the organisers, at the
request of Rafi’s elder brother Hamid, put Rafi on the stage to
entertain the crowd till electricity was restored. Rafi had by then
stepped into his thirteenth year barely five months before. But he
was in his elements and such was his confidence that with his sweet
but powerful voice he was able to reach the far corners of the open
auditorium , regaling his listeners who were clamouring for more.
The legendary Saigal Saab was impressed by the potentials of this
young lad. According to Rafi Sahaab, it was here at the concert that
the great Saigal Saab blessed him saying,
“A day would come when you would be a much sought-after singer.”
Thus Saigal Saab has been seen by some critics as “Ruhaani Ustaad”,
or Spiritual Mentor of Mohammed Rafi. Indeed, he had passed on the
keys of the kingdom to him. Saigal Saab had his style of singing; Rafi
would evolve his own, and by November 1977alone, he would sing
some 25,000-26,000 songs.
Rafi’s musical training continued under Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan.

This was the time that the singing spree of Rafi began. By the time
he was 15, he would often be invited to sing at his friends’ places.
According to one account, on one such occasion, he was spotted by
Nasir Khan, a film Producer-Actor, who offered to take him to
Mumbai to groom him as a singer in films. It was only with great
reluctance and prodded by Hamid, that the head of the household
agreed. Saigal Saab’s blessing was realised earlier than thought.
On 28th February, 1941, Rafi was to record a Punjabi song for his
first movie, Gul Baloch, under the musical direction of Shyam Sunder
who had heard the young prodigy sing in that K.L. Saigal concert. The
Gul Baloch song, GORIYE NEE, HEERIYE NEE, TERI YAAD NE AAN
SATAYAA...was a duet which Rafi sang with Zeenat Begum who had
herself made her singing debut in a Punjabi movie, MANGTI, which
was released in 1942. So much impressed was Shyam Sunder that he
gave an invitation to young Rafi to come down to see him at Mumbai.
Most sources say that the release of Gul Baloch was delayed and it
finally came to be released on in 1944. Some unconfirmed reports
even attribute Rafi’s debut under the musical direction of Pandit
Govindram for the blockbuster Platinum-Jubilee hit, MANGTI. This
has not been corroborated by Rafi Sahaab when he was asked about
his debut song. According to him, his Mumbai debut was in 1942, in
the Nazir-Swarnlata starrer, Laila Majnu, where he did a bit role and
also sang a qawaali as part of the chorus under Pandit Govindram.
Whatever that may be, both Shyam Sunder and Pandit Govindram
utilised Rafi Sahaab around the same time. Laila Majnu was released
much later in 1945.
Otherwise, too, 1942 was an important year not only for the Indian
political Quit India Movement, but for the world at large. The sneak
attack on the Pearl Harbour in December 1941 had now drawn the
U.S. into the arena of World War II. Japan was growing stronger so
much so that it came right upto Burma which bordered India. During
the years 1930-1941 the number of Burmese films was 600 and this
number dwindled considerably. After the Japanese invasion of 1942,
half a million Indian fled on foot. Thousands died on their way to
India via Assam.
Film production was hit owing to the shortage of raw materials and
conservation. Gone were the hay-days of Bombay Talkies, Prabhat,
and New Theatres as many artistes sought their own independence.
There was a formation of independent studios such as the Filmistan,
Kardar Studios, Rajkamal Kalamandir, and Basant Pictures. Mehboob
Productions came out with the banner of a sickle and a hammer, and
the ominous lines: MUDDAI LAAKH BURAA CHAAHE TOH KYAA HOTAA
HAI, WOHEE HOTAA HAI JO MANZOOR-E-KHUDAA HOTAA HAI.
C. Ramchandra made his debut in Sukhi Jivan. Baby Mumtaz

(Madhubala) made her debut in Basant, lip-synching a Parul Ghosh
number. Manna Dey sang for the first time under his uncle, K.C. Dey’s
baton in Tamanna, including a duet, JAAGO AAYEE USHA, with Baby
Suraiya who had found an actress’s opening in Taj Mahal (1941). Her
song in Sharda, as well as the songs of Kanan Devi (TOOFAAN
MAIL..) in Jawab, Noor Jahan’s under Ghulam Haider in Pancholi’s
famous movie, Khandan were the rage of their days. In Zamindar,
Qamar Jalalabadi penned his first film lyrics which was sung by
Shamshad Begum for Ghulam Haider. Akhtari Faizabadi (Begum
Akhtar) sang six songs under Anil Biswas in Mehboob Khan’s Roti. All
these songs were very popular. Suraiya was lucky to have the music
directors who enhanced her singing career: Naushad, Husnlal-
Bhagatram, Khursheed Anwar; plus the stalwarts such as Anil
Biswas, Ghulam Mohammed, S.D. Burman and some others.
After the Japanese occupation of Burma in 1942, the year 1943 saw
a horrendous, but largely man-made, famine in Bengal where more
than 3.5 million people died. The dying destitutes, scouring for rotten
remains in trash-cans, were removed to the rural Bengal so that the
cities such as Calcutta and Dacca might look clean. Not to speak of
the massive sexual abuse of starving women and young girls by the
civilians and the military that could put even the Japanese
exploitation of the “comfort women” to shame.
In the film annals, 1943 is remembered for the blockbuster movie,

Kismet, starring Ashok Kumar and Mumtaz Shanti. Kismet ran for
more than three years continually at the Roxy Theatre in Calcutta.
This record would only be broken by Sholay (1975) and Sholay’s
record would be broken by Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge (1995).
Anil Biswas’s music and all the songs of Amirbai, Arun Kumar, Parul
Ghosh in Kismet were superhit and are still unforgotten. Amirbai had
become a rage reaching her peak in 1947. The song: DUUR HATO AY
DUNYAA WAALON HINDUSTAN HAMARAA HAI had almost got the
film banned by the British Government.
Sohrab Modi of the Pukar (1939) and Sikandar (1941) fame was not
as successful in Prithvi Vallabh. A 14-year old Fatimah Rashid
(Nargis) was groomed as the heroine of Mehboob Khan’s Taqdir,
opposite hero Motilal by Sardar Akhtar. Shakuntala was another
blockbuster film of the year and the heroine Jayshree sang her own
song. Incidentally, this was the first movie of V. Shantaram’s own
studio. There are also more firsts: Ghulam Mohammed made his
debut in Mera Khwaab. Similarly, Najma was the first film of
Mehboob Khan under Mehboob Productions. Mahasati Anusuya was
the first musical venture of Avinash Vyas. Some other popular songs
of the time were by Ram Apte and Madhusudhan (Ram Rajya),
Khursheed and Saigal (Tansen), G.M. Durrani (Nai Kahani), Parul
Ghosh (Namaste), Raj Kumari (Nurse), Kanan Devi (Hospital),
Shamshad Begum (Poonji) and Suraiya (Qanoon). Manna Dey’s song
in Ram Rajya made him famous.
There in Lahore, not knowing what the future will have in store for
him, a lad had by this time transformed into a handsome but humble
youth of charming manners, and was much more mellifluous and
knowledgeable in the field of music and singing. He was Mohammed
Rafi! While still in his teens, Rafi got married to the thirteen-year old
Bashira, the sister of his brother’s wife. She vouches that Rafi used
to sing even when he was ten. By March 1943, thanks to Feroze
Nizami who was himself a competent vocalist of the Kirana Gharana,
the young Rafi began singing on the Lahore’s All India Radio which
was the fifth in the country and a home for Shamshad Begum, Zeenat
Begum, “Fateh Din” (Actor Om Prakash) and other worthies since
1937. Kaur sisters were to follow a little later. This radio station had
become a local even as far as Amritsar. According to Bashira, even at
that time Rafi was well into singing ghazals which were a craze at
that time, though she herself being a conservative Muslim it didn’t
matter to her since music was not her forte. In retrospect she
remembered that those were such happy moments for her that she
could never forget them. When Rafi was around there were no
troubles. They would just vanish! Even decades later she would say
that Rafi Sahaab never lost his temper even once with her. As for
Hamid, a good brother that he was, he knocked on every door to
ensure that work kept coming to his little brother Mohammed Rafi.
NASIR
To continue...

Nasir.
By 1944, lots of things were happening on the filmy scene.
Dadasaheb Phalke, the “Father of Indian Cinema” died. Mumbai
began to attract the Punjabi musicians. With the exception of Pandit
Govind Ram and Pandit Amar Nath, the other musicians of Lahore
such as Master Ghulam Haider who left Pancholi Arts, Shyam Sunder,
Feroze Nizami, Khurshid Anwar, Hansraj Behl, Rashid Atre , and
Pandit Husnlal-Bhagatram who were the younger brothers of Pandit
Amar Nath, came over to Mumbai.
Devika Rani selected a youthful peshwari Pathan named Yusuf Khan

for a role in Jwar Bhata. Devika Rani who had earlier named Mumtaz
as Madhubala, launched him as Dilip Kumar for that was one of the
three names selected for Yusuf Khan. This name, Dilip Kumar, was to
cast a magical spell of its own for three generations.
The Jwar-Bhata song by Arun Kumar, SANJH KEE BELAA PANCHEE

AKELAA, was a hit. Anil Biswas who provided the music also sang a
song, and others included Manna Dey, Parul Ghosh, Amirbai,
Surendra, and C.Ramchandra.
Some other popular songs were by Raj Kumari in Panna, Amirbai in
Bharthari, and Manju in Chaand. Manju’s song in Chaand, DO DILON
KO YEH DUNYAA was the first hit of Husnlal-Bhagatram who had also
made their debut. With their lilt and rhythm they popularised the
Punjabi folk tunes. More on this later. Around this time, Hemant
Kumar recorded his debut song in Hindi in Iraada for music director
Amarnath.
Noor Jahan gave hit songs, including BADNAAM MOHABBAT KAUN
KARE under Sajjad Hussain in Dost. Bulo C. Rani made his musical
debut in Pagli Duniya. Another great musical hit was Meri Bahen. K.L.
Saigal’s DOH NAINA MATWAARE and KYAA MAINE KIYAA HAI among
other songs are the more memorable ones. Pankaj Mullick was the
music director.
But the year 1944 clearly belonged to Naushad for his trend-setting
musical compositions in Rattan, starring Swarnlata and Karan
Dewan, which was directed by M. Sadiq. The songs penned by D.N.
Madhok and sung by Zohrabai Ambalewali, Amirbai Karnatki, Manju,
Karan Dewan, and Shyam Kumar, were highly popular. Just hear the
beats in MILKE BICHHAD GAYEE ANKHIYAN (Amirbai)!
The superhit duet, O JAANEWAALE BAALAMWAA
(Amirbai and Karan Dewan) is parodied in the 1965 flick Padosan
where the hero who is a non-singer finally settles down to sing this
number to win the heart of his beloved, Saira Banu. Old timers surely
remember that ANKHIYAA.N MILAA KE, JIYAA BHARMAA KE of
Zohrabai, where the beloved tries to prevent her lover from leaving.
The movie as a whole, had such an impact on young girls of
impressionable age that many of them were emboldened to elope
with their young lovers. The signs of Life imitating Art had begun for
the better or worse. No more the puritan standards of the Thirties,
not withstanding the smouldering smooch of Devika Rani and
Himansu Rai in Karma (1933)! Rattan was a box-office hit across the
nation, with everyone humming or singing its song. S.D. Burman was
to find his formula for success when he heard his servant singing a
Rattan’s number, JAB TUM HI CHALE PARDES LAGAAKAR THESS...
Though annoyed at first, he soon realised that it’s the simplicity of
the song that makes it popular. Thereafter, he would hum his tunes
to his servants and obtain their feedback. This struggler was thus
able to obtain a firm foothold in Mumbai thereafter with a thundering
success for decades to come.
In April that year, two heavy explosions occurred, one after the
other, when a ship carrying inflammable material, such as cotton,
TNT and gold bullions caught fire. The explosions rocked the Victoria
Harbour of the Bombay Docks, killing 800 people and scattering the
debris around. Since World War II was ongoing, people thought it
was the work of sabotage or that Japan had bombarded Mumbai. But
the explosions were accidental around which many tales have been
woven. Many firemen who rushed to the scene after the first
explosion had pay with their lives when the second explosion took
place after some time. Eye-witnesses tell us that the impact was
such that those who were on the scene of incident had their heads
severed by the impact. Eye witnesses who came later even chanced
to see the bodies of headless firemen running around in the line of
duty. Owing to the explosions, many other ships were destroyed.
Gold bullions from the ship flew all around, either sinking in the
waters or falling in the homes of the nearby residents. A 28-lb gold
bullion was found a mile away from the accident site.
The above incident fanned the fear that the Japanese would be
coming to the Mumbai shore. The Japanese did not come but the fear
resulted in a mass exodus of people from Mumbai. Ghulam Haider’s
musicians too made their exits to Lahore and no amount of coaxing,
salary advance or double-salary, and secured shelter could hold them
back. This incident also had an impact on Naushad Saab, so two
decades later he explored it as the theme for his 1967 movie, Palki,
where the hero is given up for dead in the explosions. In passing, it
may be mentioned here that the incident was predicted three days in
advance by a naked faqir known as Nange Shah Baba. This faqir who
had never spoken before, suddenly began shouting, “Bhaago
Bhaago” as a warning to the residents around. The faqir lies buried
in the Chhota Sonapur Qabrastan of Mumbai.
Gul Baloch the Punjabi movie, which had featured the first filmy song
of Rafi with Zeenat Begum was released in 1944. Now with the bulk
of musical talent having shifted to Mumbai, it was time for
Mohammed Rafi too to follow suit. When Mohammed Rafi migrated to
Mumbai sometime in July 1944, little did he himself realize that his
immigration from Lahore to Mumbai was to catapult him in future as
not only the best playback singer of the sub-continent but also the
most revered one.
NASIR
To continue...
PART 4: MOHAMMED RAFI AND THE NINETEEN FORTIES.

Nasir.
One of the prestigious train services in India was the Frontier Mail
that even had air-conditioned coaches. This train used to run
between Peshwar and Colaba Terminus. Lahore was one of the halts
in between. In 1944, while Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was using it
for escaping to Peshwar and then Afghanistan, Mohammed Rafi and
Hameed boarded the III Class compartment of the train, to a tearful
send-off by relatives, friends and well-wishers.
After arriving in Mumbai, Mohammed Rafi took up a modest

residence first at Dongri and then in Bhendi Bazaar, a bustling
commercial area with narrow lanes and crowded tenements. The
‘Victoria’ i.e. the horse driven carriages, the taxis, and the electric-
trams running even in narrow lanes and by-lanes, added to the
congestion. Not to speak of the bullock-carts and the hand-carts
used to transfer the goods in the city. Only when things would get
better for him, that he would shift with his family to an apartment in
the posh Colaba area and finally to Bandra.
The era still belonged to actor-singers. For a person who wanted just
the job of playback singing, the time was still not ripe. Rafi had to
face a bitter struggle to make ends meet in the beginning of his
career. It is said that Rafi would walk from Bhendi Bazaar up to
Dadar, the centre of filmy activities then. Since non-Mumbaikars
would have no idea of this distance I would like to take the initiative
of providing an idea of this pretty long stretch. Dadar was then the
hub of the film personalities. Mahim was considered a suburb. In
order to reach Dadar on foot from Bhendi Bazaar one has to first
reach the junction of the J.J. Hospital, (15 minutes), from there
walking straight ahead, passing the Richardson and Cruddas, the
Jewish synagogue, Hume High School, and The Traffic Institute, one
would reach Khada Parsi which falls in Byculla (20 minutes). Again,
going straight from the Khada Parsi one would reach the Byculla
Market, Anthony D’Souza High School, Palace Cinema, Byculla
Railway Station, Rani Baagh or the zoo that was known as the
Victoria Gardens (another 20 minutes or so). Then further, we need
to reach Lal Baugh area by passing the Jaihind Talkies, (say 15
minutes); going from Lal Baugh to Parel would take another 20
minutes. Then from Parel we need to pass the Surya Talkies (wonder
if it’s still there), then further towards the Hind Mata Talkies, then
Chitra Cinema and the Kohinoor Mills and finally Dadar in maybe 25
minutes. So that’s about two hours walking distance at a fast pace. A
bagful of ‘Chana’ (grams) kept him and his brother Hamid, company.
Such were the days of struggle for Rafi Sahaab. The other probable
alternative must have been the electric-tram which was the cheapest
form of conveyance. From the Sassoon Dock which was to the
extreme south even further down than Colaba, the tram fare upto
Dadar was just One and a Half Anna (9 paise). From Bhendi Bazaar to
Dadar, it must have been One Anna (6 paise) at the most. In fact,
even as late as 1964 when last of the trams were removed from
Mumbai, the fare between Museum (the Regal Cinema) and King
Circle which is still further than Dadar, was just 6 paise.
In order to make the ends meet, Rafi also used to sing in the ‘Mehfils’
usually of the Punjabi fraternity. According to an account by Syed
Abid Ali, after Rafi’s arrival in Mumbai, he performed in his sprawling
bungalow on the occasion of the sister of Syed Abid Ali. Roshan Ara
Begum had shifted from Calcutta to Mumbai in the late ‘Thirties. She
came to be known as “Bombaywaali” Roshan Ara Begum (1917-
1982). She used to live with her police-inspector husband in one part
of the Bungalow. Hearing the young Rafi sing, she was duly
captivated. She predicted:
“The man with the golden voice was destined to go far in life.”
This observation was significant as Roshan Ara Begum had herself

been a student of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan (d.1937) who was the
cousin and brother-in-law of Mohammed Rafi’s Ustad, Abdul Wahid
Khan. After migration to Pakistan she was later conferred with such
titles as “malika-e-mausiqee.” She was an exponent of the Kirana
Gharana style of Khayal singing. Indeed, her early predictions about
Rafi Sahaab proved to be true. Roshan Ara Begum sang for films too,
such as Jugnu and Siskiyan.
Tanvir Naqvi, the poet and lyrics writer, (who after migration to
Pakistan married the elder sister of NoorJahan) also introduced the
young Rafi to Producer-Director Mehboob Khan, Actor-Director
Nazeer, and Producer-Director Abdul Rasheed Kardar who had made
the first silent movie in Lahore and was to produce and direct many
more movies in India. For his film, Pehle Aap, A.R. Kardar had signed
Naushad Ali as the music director. Naushad used the young Rafi for
what has been sometimes termed as the first Hindi/Urdu song of Rafi
Sahaab in this 1944 flick. The song was HINDUSTAA.N KE HAMM
HAIN/HINDUSTAA.N HAMAARA/ HINDU-MUSLIM DONO.N KI
AANKHO.N KA TAARA, accompanied by Alluaddin, Shaam Kumar and
chorus. Since this was a marching song, Naushad had a pair of shoes
bought from Mumbai’s infamous Chor Bazaar for Rafi who was to
sing the song while marching with the boots on at the microphone
itself. Two more songs followed: EK BAAR UNSE MILAA DE, and TUM
DILLI MAI.N AAGRE MERE DIL SE NIKLE HAAY. All the three songs
were penned by multi-facet personality, Dinanath Madhok. Shaam
Kumar was the co-singer in these songs.
Music Director Shyam Sunder who had given Rafi his first break in
Punjabi film, Gul Baloch, and promised to record more songs once
Rafi came down to Mumbai, made good his promise. Shyam Sunder
recorded Rafi’s songs for the Noor Jahan starrer, Gaon Ki Gori
(Village Belle). These were the duets with G.M. Durrani: AJI DIL HO
QAABOO ME.N, and MAI.N KHETO.N KA PANCHHEE. Noor Jahan had
four songs, including BAITHEE HOON TERE YAAD KA, in this movie.
According to Rafi Sahaab, his songs in Gaon Ki Gori were his first
Hindi songs. However, since the serial number on the records of his
Pehle Aap songs precedes the serial number on the records of his
Gaon Ki Gori songs, Naushad technically steals a march over Shyam
Sunder for the credit of introducing Mohammed Rafi to Hindi films.
World War II was over in 1945, leaving over 60-million dead. There
was an emergence of a new world order as U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R
rose as the world powers, with U.K. relegated to the background,
with heavy losses and wartime debts. United Nations Organisation
was established and the League of Nations was history. These events
accelerated the freedom struggle in India that eventually led to the
Independence in 1947. The Indian film industry was still suffering
from wartime restrictions and shortages.
Here in the film circle, in the meantime, word was out that there was
a young Punjabi singer who had immense singing potential and
whose enormous talent did not betray his youth. Under Pandit
Govindram, Rafi Sahaab sang in Vijay Bhatt’s Hamara Sansar AY DIL-
E-NAKAAM TAMANNA, said to be his first solo, and along with
Zohrabai and Shamshad Begum, CHHOTI SI EK BANAAYENGE
NAIYAA. Again for the Pandit, Rafi Sahaab sang a Qawwali, TERA
JALWA JISNE DEKHA WOH DEEWAANA HO GAYA along with S.D.
Batish and chorus; and another one with S.D. Batish: SAKHEE KEE
KHAIR, MAI-BAAP KI KHAIR in Laila Majnu (1945) where he also had
an acting stint. Of course, his name was not mentioned in the credit.
The same year, Rafi rendered a duet with Zohrabai in Kulkalank:
TOPIWAALE BABU NE DIL CHHEENA RE for A.R. Qureshi; and a duet
with Mohantara Talpade in Begum: DIL DIYE CHALE DIL LIYE CHALE
under the musical direction of Hari Prasanna Das.
Homi Wadia of Wadia Movietone was tremendously impressed with

the singing voice of the young Rafi so much so that he insisted that it
would be only Rafi who would sing for his film Sharbati Ankhen
(1945) and other movies for which Feroze Nizami was slated to give
music. The solos thus recorded were PYAAR KARNA HI PADEGAA EK
DIN; BAHOT MUKHTASAR HAI HAMAARI KAHAANI; and AB NA BEEN
BAJAA SNEHEE.
Some of the other music directors who utilised Rafi Sahaab in 1945
were Hafiz Khan for whom he soulfully rendered HAAY RE DUNIYA in
Zeenat. Speaking of Zeenat, this movie created a coup of sorts, with
Noor Jahan, Zohrabai, Kalyani singing AAHEN NAA BHAREEN SHIKWE
NAA KIYE with chorus. This was said to be the first kind of zenana
Qawwali in a movie. This Qawwali was always the hot favourite of
Radio Ceylon which I distinctly remember hearing it often on the
radio a decade later.
Mukesh who had earlier did not make it as a hero in his maiden
venture, Nirdosh '41, made himself known by his Pehli Nazar song,
DIL JALTA HAI TOH JALNE DE which he sang in a K.L. Saigal style for
the screen hero, Motilal. Talat Mehmood, who was known as Tapan
Kumar in Bengal and was already an established ghazal singer,
recorded his first Hindi film song in Raj Lakshmi in which he also had
the acting assignment. Madhubala, too, sang two songs in Dhanna
Bhagat with Brijlal under Khemchand Prakash. Noor Jahan, besides
acting in films, continued her spree of being a top playback singer.
Her DIYA JALAAKAR AAP BUJHAAYE in Badi Maa was a hit; while the
Khursheed-Mukesh duet, BADARIYA BARAS GAYEE USS PAAR from
Moorti was a super-hit number. Jagmohan’s Meghdoot number, O
VARSHA KE PEHLE BAADAL proved to be popular. Ghulam Haider and
Mehboob Khan came together for the first time in Humayun '45 but
the former charm of Ghulam Haider was missing here.
NASIR
To continue....
, SEPTEMBER 27, 2009
PART 5: MOHAMMED RAFI & THE NINETEEN FORTIES.

A Humble Tribute to the Greatest
Playback Singer of All Times - by Nasir.
Looking outside of India, the use of atomic bombs by the USA in

August 1945 over Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan no doubt forced
the surrender of the Imperial Japanese forces, but the devastating
power of the bombs and the resulting annihilation and long-term
suffering of the survivors also shocked the world, leading to the
protests for abolition of nuclear weapons ever since. Many movies
were produced on the subject and in recent memory one Indian
movie Aman (1967) comes to my mind.
In India, by 1946, winds of change were blowing more and more

with the coming years. The two-nation theory was gaining ground
and there was a general unrest in the Indian populace at the
prospect of the division of the country. Worst Communal riots broke
out in Calcutta and this spilled over to other regions of Bengal and
Bihar and to some extent in other provinces too.
Sometimes, when the law and order situations prevailed, the

theatres had to be closed down. I remember my parents telling me
that once they were in the midst of watching Mehboob Khan’s Anmol
Ghadi at the Minerva Theatre in Mumbai when the Management
stopped the screening and asked everyone in the hall to go home as
communal riots had broken out in Mumbai. It was with great
difficulty that my parents reached home alive at the nearby Nana
Chowk and so must have others who stayed alive. It was not the kind
of Calcutta communal riots fortunately. So such unfortunate things
used to happen then.
The theatres or rather the “Talkies” which exhibited hundreds of

movies were one place where all people irrespective of the castes,
creeds, and communities could sit together as one family and enjoy
the movie. The themes of the movie were such which portrayed the
social problems that affected one and all, irrespective of the religion
of the community. Just as the blood of all the communities is red,
even of the so-called ‘blue-blood’ aristocracy and nobility. The filmy
themes dealt with poverty, child marriage, widow re-marriage,
women’s emancipation, patriotism, evils of usury, palace intrigues,
chieftan’s revolts, some war movies, cruelty of step-mothers, family
values and ideals - which were common to every one. It appears that
Indian movies were the great catalyst in restoring normalcy and
keeping the people together.
Before 1946 the cutting of records was in the hands of a single

company, EMI Ltd. This Company was incorporated as the
Gramophone Co. (India) Ltd., in 1946. There were subsequent name
changes too, the last being in the year 2000 when the name was
changed to Saregama India Ltd. But it is the brand name HMV (His
Master’s Voice) that the old timers are nostalgic about. Anyway,
during the early years when playback singing was beginning to make
waves, the names of the playback singers were not mentioned but
the names of the character of the movies were mentioned on the
gramophone records. Still worse, while the names of the female
singers were mentioned, Rafi’s name was not mentioned. Therefore,
Rafi Sahaab never got the credit for many of his early songs. Since
before then, all along, the actors had themselves been rendering
their voice for the songs, the actors did not relish the idea of making
the cine-goer believe that they were just lip-synching the song which
had been playbacked by another person behind the screen. The old
films did not list the playback singers even in their credit titles of the
movie. Thus many songs of Rafi Sahaab were lost, especially during
the conversion from the old 78RPM records to the newer versions, as
and when they came into vogue. Generally, the original soundtrack of
the movies and the masters of the 78RPM records were also
destroyed to reuse for newer songs. Needless to say, the selection
being subjective, many Gems of Rafi Sahaab’s songs were lost –
some of which were found only in private collections. It is also
known that disinterested members of family throw away the old
records once the avid collector of the family ceases to exist. Akbar
Shah, who came from the line of avid record collectors, during his
collection spree came to the Kabaadi (Junk) Market of Hyderabad
and found a record which he thought no longer existed. It was the
song of Mohammed Rafi where he had soulfully rendered SABAK
RAZA KA DE GAYE KARBALA WAALE which was from a 1954 flick,
Shaan-e-Haatham. If such could be the state of the songs of the
Fifties, what must have happened to those of the Forties?
On the positive note, the Hindi film production which had dropped to
74 in 1945, shot up to 156 in 1946.
It was in 1946 that Geeta Roy made her debut in Bhakta Prahlad
under Hanuman Prasad and later became famous with Do Bhai
(1947) under S.D. Burman who had made his Hindi musical debut
with Shikari in 1946. Geeta Roy had the looks more of a film heroine
than that of a playback singer. Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar is
exhibited at the Cannes Film Festival. Meena Kumar bagged her first
role as an adult person after a score of baby roles. Kishore Kumar
made his first appearance as an actor in Shikari. Meena Kapoor made
her debut in Eight Days which had music by S.D. Burman. Music
Director Sudhir Phadke, too, made his appearance in his first Hindi
movie, Gokul. Chitragupt came out as an independent music director
in Lady Robinhood. Ram Ganguli, an assistant of R.C. Boral, made his
musical debut with Maharana Pratap. Hansraj Behl too came into his
own after assisting Khemchand Prakash, Rashid Atre, and Pandit
Gobindram. He made his musical debut in Pujari in which Baby
Madhubala had a song to sing. Lata Mangeshkar appeared in Jeevan
Yatra and also sang a solo under the baton of Vasant Desai. As far as
actors were concerned, Dev Anand, Rehman, and Rehana made their
debut appearances in Hum Ek Hain which was directed by the
debutant P.L. Santoshi. Abhi Bhattacharya acted in a Hindi film for
the first time. This movie was Milan which starred Dilip Kumar.
Neecha Nagar lauched the careers of Chetan Anand, Kamini Kaushal
and others. Dharti Ke Lal, directed by Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, won
critical acclaim at home and abroad. K.L. Saigal’s Umar Khayam was
released. This was his second film with Suraiya. His third film with
Suraiya, Parwana(1947) would be his last.
The visually-challenged musician and singer, K.C. Dey was an

unparalleled singer who after earning great fame as actor, singer and
composer in the Thirties, had shifted to Mumbai in 1942 till his final
return to Calcutta in 1946. Once, aided by his protégé, Manna Dey,
K.C. Dey had composed a song for a movie called Justice. When the
composition was ready, K.C. Dey instructed Manna Dey to let Rafi
know that the tune was ready for him to sing. Manna Dey was
flabbergasted. Rafi had worked as a chorus singer under him when
he was the Assistant Music Director. How could this be? Manna Dey
frankly recounts in his interview with Kavita Chibber that he felt very
hurt at that time.
He asked his uncle: “’Why can’t I sing it?’
My uncle said ‘No you can’t! Only he can sing this.’
I swallowed my pride and fetched him and then after he finished

recording, I realised that indeed, I couldn’t have sung it as well as
he did.” (Italics mine).
This great singer has always been a frank admirer of Rafi Sahaab as
many of his interviews show.
First it was K.L. Saigal, and now here was another great singer, K.C.
Dey of MANN KEE ANKHEN KHOL BABA (Dhoop Chhaon) fame who,
on the strength of his inner eye, put a stamp of approval on the
tremendous potentials of Rafi Sahaab! Many years later, the
illustrious S.D. Burman, who was a chela of K.C. Dey, would use the
same ploy with Manna Dey and pass on the song to Rafi Sahaab.
Similarly, there is an incident which does not belong to the Forties

but mentioning it here is a must in order to complete the links of the
Bengali chain. That link in the chain is R.C. Boral. He was a stalwart
of the New Theatres, and the one who discovered and shaped the
voice of K.L. Saigal and the one who had introduced the playback
singing in 1935. To state it briefly, this Dada Saheb Phalke Award
Winner, would come face to face with Mohammed Rafi many years
later for recording of a Bengali Kirtan which the former had
composed. He thought that if he were not satisfied with Rafi, he
could always have any of the well-known Bengal singers sing the
Kirtan for him. Rafi Sahaab had always been conscientious about his
work. He asked R.C. Boral’s permission for a short prayer. After
offering his ‘Namaaz’ in one corner of the recording-room, he came
to the mike to render the Kirtan. The result of the rendition of the
Kirtan was so perfect that R.C. Boral was wonder-struck at the
genius of this non-Bengali singer.
It was after Rafi Sahaab had passed away in 1980 that R.C. Boral
paid a glowing tribute to him in an AIR programme at Calcutta,
narrating that wonderful experience. If he had not told us of this
amazing contribution of Rafi Sahaab at that time, we would never
have known, for the very next year (1981) R.C. Boral, the Father of
Indian Music, too passed away. For the records, R.C. Boral had
utilized Rafi Sahaab in the three movies of the early Fifties:
Mahaprabhu Chaitanya and Dard-e-Dil (1953) and in Swami
Vivekanand in 1955 which is not our subject-matter here.
NASIR
To continue...
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

Nasir.
While we are still in 1946, Noor Jahan was singing a beautiful song
penned by Anjum Pilibhiti and composed by Hafiz Khan in Hamjoli
starring herself, Jairaj and Agha among others. The song was: YEH
DESH, YEH DESH HAMAARA PYAARA HINDUSTAN JAHAA.N SE
NYAARAA/HINDUSTAAN KE HAMM HAIN PYAARE, HINDUSTAAN
HAMAARA PYAARA. This song draws our attention to the anticipated
independence from the British Raj.
It was in 1946 that Rafi’s Sahaab’s name appeared for the first time
in the credits of Arab Ka Sitaara which was Cuckoo’s debut film.
ROSHAN SA IK SITAARA was a duet he sang with Amirbai Karnataki.
Some of the other movies of 1946 for which Rafi Sahaab sang are:
Amar Raj:
Two solos: PRAAN TYAAG KAR TUUNE DEEWAANEE; and TO.DO

TO.DO TO.DO DIL KE TAAR. Another solo was: MAIN JAB GAAOON
GEET SUHAANA, GAAYE MERE SAATH ZAMAANA, written by Pandit
Fani. This must be his earliest semi-classical song. There was also a
duet with Mohantara: MAI.N JAB CHHE.DOO PREM TARAANAA. Music
was by Feroze Nizami. Yes, this was for Wadia Movietone. A curious
thing here is that Rafi Sahaab’s name is missing from the duet. The
78RPM record mentions: “Mohantara Talpade in duet” though she
sings hardly for a minute, while the young Rafi sings for nearly six
minutes for this song which is recorded on both the sides of the
record. In an ordinary 78RPM 10-inch disc, just a little over 3
minutes could be recorded on one side. Such was the limit of the
technology then. In this movie, a young Nirupa Roy, made her acting
debut.
Mera Geet:
MERA SWAPN BA.DAA SUHAANAA; JAAKE PARDES PIYAA BHOOL NAA

JAANAA; both under musical direction of Shankar Rao Vyas.
Rasili:
Rafi Sahaab sang two duets with Shamshad Begum: YEH NAYAN
KYOO.N SHARMA GAYE, and DIL MUJHKO JALAATAA HAI. Hanuman
Prasad was the music director.
Rang Bhoomi:
The music was rendered by Premnath. The songs of Rafi Sahaab are:
SOOYE MANZIL BADHAAYE CHALAA CHAL KOEE along with chorus;
then three duets with Shamshad Begum: AAG LAGEE TANN MANN
DHANN; JO AAGE BA.DHE USSE; and KHUD SAMAJH LO KE ILTIJAA
KYAA.
Sona Chandi:
Tufail Farooqi was the music director. Rafi Sahaab had two solos and
two duets as follows: ABKE BHAGWAAN DAYAA KARENGE and
DAATAA JI TERE BHED NAA PAAYAA; one duet with Shamshad
Begum: BAITHE HAI.N TERE DAR PE; the other duet with Ameerbai:
MANN KI SOONEE NAGARIYAA.
Rupa:
Music was by Gobind Ram. Rafi Sahaab sang two duets with
Shamshad Begum: WATAN KEE AMAANAT MEREE ZINDAGEE HAI with
chorus; and BALA JAWANVAA SAMBHAALAA NAA JAAYE.
Safar:
Music was by C.Ramchandra. The notable solos of Rafi Sahaab are:

KEHKE BHEE NAA AAYE TUM where the tonal quality and style of Rafi
Sahaab reminds us of the mid-fifties. It proved to be a hit song. The
other song was, AB VOH HAMAARE HO GAYE.
Some of the following 1946 movies have a song each of Rafi Sahaab:
Sassi Punnu:
AASHIQ KA KAAFLAA along with G.M. Durrani and chorus. Music was
by Gobind Ram.
Room No.9:
RAHE TOH KAISE RAHE DIL PE IKHTIYAAR, which had music by

Rashid Atre.
Insaaf:
Hari Prasanna Das was the music director. Rafi Sahaab sang a duet
with Hameeda Bano: ROOKHEE SOOKHEE MAI.N KHAA LOONGEE.
Mansarovar:
S.N. Tripathi composed the music for this movie. Rafi sang Yeh Hind
Ki Kahaaniyan with Geeta Roy and Binapani.
Shah Jahan and Anmol Ghadi.

In 1946 Naushad was again at his best
in Anmol Ghadi and Shah Jahan. Both these movies were immensely
popular along with other movies such as the Dilip Kumar starrer
Milan, Saigal starrer Omar Khayyam, V.Shantaram’s Dr. Kotnis ki
Amar Kahani, and Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar.
Noor Jahan and Mehboob Khan had come together for the first time –
and the last time in Anmol Ghadi which was Noor Jahan’s greatest
hit. As for the songs of Anmol Ghadi, Noor Jahan’s JAWAA.N HAI
MOHABBAT, AAJAA AAJAA MEREE, MERE BACHPAN KE SAATHI and
KYA MIL GAYA BHAGWAAN, and the duet AAWAAZ DE were super-
hits overshadowing the good songs of Shamshad Begum and Suraiya.
Noor Jahan at just 20 was at her career-best. Suraiya played the
second lead to her.
The songs of Anmol Ghadi are etched in everyone’s memory. So when

she visited Mumbai in 1982, she was accorded a warm reception by
Dilip Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar and Naushad. Even Suraiya was
present. When Noor Jahan began to sing AAWAAZ DE KAHAA.N HAI,
DUNYA MEREE JAWAA.N HAI, on the stage for the show "Mortal Men,
Immortal Melodies" she and the composer Naushad had tears in their
eyes. The latter exclaimed that she had indeed done him the honour
and “made my song immortal.” Anmol Ghadi had also raised the
stock of Tanvir Naqvi so that he had charged a whopping Rs.5,0000/-
for his work. What an irony of fate that the same talented lyricist had
to go round the studios in Pakistan for merely Rs.200/- in the
Seventies!
Two years had elapsed since Pehle Aap (1944) when Naushad had
given the young Rafi an opportunity to sing a couple of duets. For the
first time, Naushad Ali gave a solo number to Rafi in Anmol Ghadi
(1946): TERA KHILONA TOOTA BAALAK, which was playbacked for an
unknown character of a toy-seller, since the movie had Mehboob’s
favourite singer-hero, Surendra. After this, the team of Mehboob
Khan and Naushad worked in a number of blockbuster movies.
Shah Jahan had the best of K.L. Saigal numbers. Naushad was the
first to record songs and the music on different tracks and then
mixing them together and he also did this in Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan
had excellent songs of K.L. Saigal such as GHAM DIYE MUSTAQIL
KITNAA NAAZUK HAI DIL, CHAAH BARBAAD KAREGEE HAMEN
MAALOOM NAA THAAH, and JAB DIL HEE TOOT GAYAA. The lyrics of
all the ten songs were credited to the debutant Majrooh Sultanpuri,
the young chela of Jigar Moradabadi. However, according to the
article in “Gaata Rahe Mera Dil,” the songs BEDARD NA KAR; CHAAH
BARBAAD KAREGEE HAMEN; AY DIL BEQARAAR JHOOM were written
by Khumar Barabankavi.
Naushad would be fulfilling the wishes of the young singer by giving

him an opportunity to sing in the chorus of a K.L. Saigal song in Shah
Jahan. Naushad himself had been enamoured of K.L. Saigal. Rafi was
happy with just the chorus rendering of RUHEE RUHEE RUHEE, MERE
SAPNON KI RANI, where he can be easily spotted on the screen and
actually sings the entire line towards the fag-end of the song when a
faqir is shown entering the scene. The blessing of K.L. Saigal had
come full circle. Who could have imagined that after nearly a decade
the same lad who sang at the K.L. Saigal Concert in Lahore would
also sing along with the legendary singer/actor in a movie that
would create history of the present and the future legends coming
together in the same song! The RUHEE song is specially remembered
for that reason.
Thus Rafi Sahaab also has the distinction of not only being blessed
by K.L. Saigal but also singing a song with him – the distinction
denied to self-proclaimed fans such as Mukesh, Manna Dey, Kishore
Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Talat Mehmood, and
Shamshad Begum who were already a sensation by mid-Forties. All
of them and also Geeta Dutt, would be dominating the Indian
playback scene along with Rafi Sahaab in the decades to come.
NASIR
To continue...
Nasir.
The year 1947 was a very eventful year. Politically, India got
independence from the British Raj and a new country of East and
West Pakistan also came into existence.
Millions of people were dislocated on either side. At least a million

died in the beastly and brutal communal riots that followed. Saadat
Manto has graphically chronicled the holocaust of the Partition but
from a humanitarian view. Amrita Pritam in her Ode to Waris Ali
Shah, the Sufi Saint and Poet known for his legendary Poem, Heer
Ranjha, has lamented the division and burning of Punjab. The
historical account has been rendered in Freedom at Midnight by
Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. Deepa Mehta’s movie, 1947
Earth (based on Ice Candy Man) and Gaddar a Prem Katha are
depicted against the background of the horrendous consequences of
the Partition.
The why’s and wherefore’s of the Partition have never been openly
discussed, or if discussed they, just as some other historical facts,
have been glossed over or distorted in various books. The latest
exposure comes from Jaswant Singh’s book, Jinnah: India- Partition,
Independence which was initially banned in the Indian state of
Gujarat, and for which Jaswant Singh has been thrown out by his
own party, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) like a fly in the ointment
for glorification of Jinnah and holding Pandit Nehru and Sardar
Vallabh Patel responsible for the Partition of India. According to
journalist Khushwant Singh, the leaders were not to blame, but the
circumstances that had evolved over the centuries. Let’s leave this
matter to the political analysts, intellectuals and historians, and
come back to our subject and see what the film industry lost and
gained as the result of the partition.
A.R. Kardar’s Shah Jahan, V.Shantaram’s Dr. Kotnis ki Amar Kahani,

and Vijay Bhatt’s Ram Rajya were shown at Canadian National
Exhibition at Toronto. Unfortunately, the hero of Shah Jahan was no
more. It was Naushad Saab who had convinced Saigal Saab that he
could sing very well even without his “Kaali Paanch”. “Kaali Paanch”
was the code name for whiskey pegs that K.L. Saigal used to imbibe
during recordings. “If I had met you earlier, I would have been a
different Kundan altogether,” the singer told Naushad. Alas! It was
too late then.
The legendary singer died of cirrhosis of the liver on 18th January
1947. The band played JAB DIL HEE TOOT GAYAA at his funeral as
per his dying wish. Just 250 soulful songs and 28 films had made K.L.
Saigal immortal in the Musical Hall of Fame. There was no one who
commanded rapt attention as Saigal Saab used to command during
that time. With his untimely death a void had been created in the
world of Hindustani filmy music.
(This "void" can be explained better with an example: After Rafi

Sahaab’s premature death in 1980, many aspiring singers jumped on
the bandwagon of his style of singing and successfully carved a niche
for themselves for a decade, managing with just an individual shade
out of the many shades of Rafi Sahaab’s powerehouse of a talent.
These singers were Anwar, Shabbir Kumar, Mohammed Aziz, and
others. Sonu Nigam was a just a child then, but when he took to
singing it was his idol, Mohammed Rafi, whose songs he began to
sing before coming into his own. The same thing happened after the
demise of K.L. Saigal.)
With most of the actors having given up singing too about the mid-
Forties, playback singing was a new industry and those who came in
at that stage. Most of them were heavily influenced by the Saigal
style of singing. Mukesh and Kishore Kumar too were smitten by K.L.
Saigal for that matter, and in fact earlier in 1945 Mukesh sang DIL
JALTA TOH JALNE DE in a typical K.L. Saigal style in Pehli Nazar.
Kishore Kumar, initially sang in the traditional style of Saigal Saab.
C.H. Atma too carried this tradition all his life. Surendra in Bombay
remained a poor man’s Saigal. Even Bulo C. Rani who later stuck to
musical direction had initially commenced singing in the style of K.L.
Saigal. Naushad, who had teamed up with Saigal in Kedar’s
masterpiece Shahjehan gave the last of great musical hits that kept
the memory K.L. Saigal alive.The contemporaries and the gen-next
were crazy after K.L. Saigal. A classic example is that of Lata
Mangeshkar who in her early years had a crush on him and wanted
to marry him but was advised to the contrary by her father, Dinanath
Mangeshkar. Shamshad Begum watched Saigal’s Devdas over and
over again. Suraiya, too, was thrilled by K.L. Saigal when he directed
the director of movie, where Suraiya was singing, to cast her
opposite him in Tadbir (1945) after which they did two more movies.
Talat Mehmood was an ardent fan of Saigal, and used to croon his
songs in family gatherings in early stages of his life.
Mohammed Rafi, too, in his early years wanted to sing along with
K.L. Saigal even if it meant singing in a chorus and he did sing in the
chorus of the famous Ruhee song as we have already noted. After
more than a decade later, Rafi Sahaab would be singing: MARR KE
AMAR HAI SAIGAL JISKA HAR KOEE DEEWAANA HAI in the TEEN-
KANASTAR song from a 1958 film, Love Marriage. It is no wonder,
therefore, that for many years after Saigal’s demise, Radio Ceylon
used to play a 78 rpm record of his songs every day at 7:57 a.m. It is
against this background that emergence of Mohammad Rafi has to be
seen to be fully appreciated.
India suffered a loss of many film artistes who permanently shifted

to Pakistan. Noor Jahan did not at once migrate to Pakistan in 1947.
She did so after finishing her assignments here one of which was
Mirza Sahiban that again had her unforgettable numbers such as KYA
YEHI TERAA PYAAR THAAH and AAJAA TUJHE AFSAANA JUDAAI KA
SUNAAYEN. By 1949 Noor Jahan and Shaukat Hussain were spotted
in Karachi and thereafter in Lahore. Though Shaukat Hussain was a
hit director with Khandan, Zeenath and Jugnu in India, he proved to
be a flop director in Pakistan. One of her fans informs us that she had
already sung about 127 songs in about 69 Indian films during the
period 1932-47. Some 55 movies were made in Bombay, 5 in Lahore,
1 in Rangoon (Burma), and 8 in Calcutta. She also did 12 Silent
Movies. Noor Jahan had been Lata Mangeshkar’s inspiration in the
early years of the latter’s musical life.
The others who migrated were Actress Swaran Lata and her actor-
director husband Nazir, producer-director W.Z. Ahmad, and Khwaja
Khursheed Anwar who had last composed the music for K.L. Saigal-
Suraiya starrer, Parwana. Khursheed Bano of Tansen fame migrated
later. Composer Master Ghulam Haider went to Pakistan in 1950
after doing some more films, including Kaneez (1949), in India. Film
star Rehana who had the best phase of her career in India from
1948-51, migrated later in 1956 after completing her last films here.
Meena Shorey, the Lara Lappa girl, migrated to Pakistan in 1956 for
good and died in penury. Tanvir Naqvi also went back to his original
place, Lahore, after a few years of partition. Shaikh Mukhtar
migrated to Pakistan in the Sixties saddened by the fact that his
magnum opus, Noor Jahan, flopped miserably after its premier at the
Naaz Cinema, Bombay. This movie, however, did roaring business in
Pakistan. There is a very mellifluous number of Rafi Sahaab in Noor
Jahan: VOH MUHABBAT VOH WAFAAYEN... Composer Nisar Bazmi
(Khoj fame) too migrated in June 1962, since his talent was not duly
recognised despite his struggle for 15 long years in Bombay. Khoj
has been rendered immortal by Rafi Sahaab’s moving song:
CHANDAA KA DIL TOOT GAYAA HAI. Some other names are Nashad
and Faiyaz Hashimi (Bara Dari fame) Iqbal Bano, and Fateh Ali Khan.
There were a host of classical singers and musicians who went to
Pakistan.
If Bombay lost lots of filmy talents to Lahore, it gained many in
return. Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan also went to his native place
Kasur in Pakistan, but he came back to India and acquired the Indian
citizenship in 1957. He had said: “If in every home one child was
taught the Hindustani Classical Music, this country would never have
been parititioned.“
Dev Anand and Balraj Sahni had graduated from Government

College, Lahore, where Amitabh Bachchan’s mother, Tajasavi
Bachchan, was the lecturer before their earlier migration. Also,
Kamini Kaushal’s father was a Professor of Botany there, while she
herself did her B.A. at the Lahore’s Kinnaird College. Others were
Ramanand Sagar, Om Prakash, Pran, Chetan Anand, film tycoon
Dalsukh Pancholi (remember the famous Pancholi Theatres?), and
others including Jayant. B.R. Chopra, (who used to publish English
film magazines then) Yash Chopra, Shekhar Kapoor, Anupam Kher,
too were Lahorites. Others who migrated from Lahore were
composers O.P. Nayyar, Roshan (Gujranwala), Pandit Gobind Ram,
(Pandit Amarnath had already died in Feb.1947) Shyam Sunder,
Lachhi Ram and Dhanni Ram. Khayyam had started his career in
Lahore. So also Sahir Ludhianvi. Prithviraj Kapoor and his sons were
from Peshwar. Dilip Kumar aka Yusuf Khan was also from Peshwar.
Raj Kumar was born in Baluchistan. Rajendra Kumar had come from
Sialkot, Gulzar and Sunil Dutt from Jhelum, and Anand Bakshi from
Rawalpindi. At the same time more and more film personalities
permanently shifted from Lahore and elsewhere in Pakistan to
Bombay. Many chose to make India their home. Rafi Sahaab and
Shamshad Begum, who were originally from what came to be called
as the East Punjab, had gone to Lahore in mid-Thirties. They finally
left Lahore for good in 1944 to seek singing career in the Bombay
film industry. As for Suraiya many sources trace her roots to Lahore
and a few to Gujranwala, but she had already settled in India long
before, completing her high school studies in Bombay.
NASIR
To continue...
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Nasir.
Let’s check out some 1947 songs of Rafi Sahaab:
Jugnu:
The success of Anmol Ghadi had boosted the confidence of Noor

Jahan and Shaukat Hussain, both of whom had married in 1944, to
come out with their own production banner. The result was Jugnu,
produced under the Shaukat Art Productions. Dilip Kumar and Noor
Jahan came together for the first and last time. So also Rafi and Noor
Jahan sang together for the first and the last time. Rafi Sahaab sang
for Dilip Kumar for the first time: YAHAAN BADLAA WAFAA KA
BEWAFAAI KE SIWAA KYAA HAI (with the reigning queen of
melodies, Noor Jahan). It was Noor Jahan who favoured the budding
Rafi over the currently popular G.M. Durrani for that classic duet.
This shows that she knew him or had at least heard about him,
having arrived in Bombay earlier in 1943. Feroze Nizami, of course,
had no objection. He had known Rafi from his Lahore days when he
and Rafi used to train under Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan. We can also
be sure that Noor Jahan must have been truly amazed by the
mellifluous voice of the young singer from Lahore. The difficult part
of the song such as BADE ARMAAN SE WAADON NE...DIL MEIN GHAR
BASAAYAA THAA... which is in the form of an Alaap in the first
stanza, and then the crying anguish of the character (Dilip Kumar)
BHULAA DOH HAAN BHULAA DOH in the second stanza, had all the
elements of making Rafi the tragedy king of Bollywood singing in the
same manner as Dilip Kumar became the Tragedy King of Acting. The
interesting coincidence is that Jugnu zoomed not only Dilip Kumar
but also Mohammed Rafi to the top. Both were destined to become
legends in their respective field of acting and singing during their
lifetime.
“Iss ke Baad Rafi Sahaab ko kabhee peechhe naheen dekhnaa

pa.daa,” observes Shammi Kapoor for whom Rafi Sahaab sang so
many songs of romantic love and flirtations, in the Sixties, enhancing
his flamboyant image as the Rebel Hero. The price-tag of Rafi’s song
came at par with that of Noor Jahan. He also had an acting stint in
Jugnu and is seen singing his own song, WOH APNEE YAAD DILAANE
KO with a chorus, a jovial collegian song which was something new
in the movie at that time. After all, the tragic story was based on the
college romance. Despite the ongoing communal riots, this movie did
a fantastic business.
It would be of interest for the readers to know that on February 11,
1982 a show called Mortal Men, Immortal Melodies (as

mentioned before) was held at the Shanmukhanand Hall at Matunga,
Mumbai to celebrate the visit of Malika-e-Tarannum Noor Jahan to
India after the Partition. We could easily discern the nostalgic
sentiments on the faces of both Dilip Kumar and Noor Jahan as if the
Jugnu days were here again. In a very impressive Urdu speech, Dilip
Kumar confessed to the audience that intelligence and the words
were unable to translate the feelings of a person who all of a sudden
were to see a “dilkash” and “dil-fareb hasti” after 35 years. He had
finally this to say to her: “Noor Jahanji jitne baras ke baad aap
hamse milne aayee.n hai.n, Theek Utne hee baras aap kaa hamne
intezaar kiyaa hai.” Sadly, there was no Mohammed Rafi Sahaab. O
that the Madam had come some 2-3 years earlier! Then the trilogy
would have been complete. There would have been a historic repeat
of YAHAAN BADLAA WAFAA KAA.... Alas!
Aage Badho:
Sudhir Phadke had given the music for this Dev Anand-Khursheed
starrer. The only song that Rafi Sahaab sang with Khursheed before
her departure to Pakistan was SAAWAN KI GHATAAO DHEERE
DHEERE AANA where Khursheed has late entry in this song.
Do Bhai:
Rafi Sahaab had the outstanding song: DUNIYA ME.N MEREE AAJ
ANDHERAA HI ANDHERAA. This song of lament was also a pointer in
the direction that despite his youth, the young Rafi had ample
maturity to empathise very well with the afflicted character of the
film. It was S.D. Burman who provided music for Do Bhai. Two songs
written by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan: MERA SUNDER SAPNA BEET GAYAA,
and IK DIN HAMKO YAAD KAROGE among her other songs, made
Geeta Roy very famous.
Aap Ki Sewa Mein:
Rafi had one solo number, MEREE ANKHON KE TAARE, plus a duet
with Mohantara, MAIN TEREE TUU MERAA. Rafi had another duet
also, DESH ME.N SANKAT AAYA HAI. This was with G.M. Sajan.
Datta Devjekar was the music director who had begun his career
with Marathi films. In this movie, he introduced Lata Mangeshkar to
Hindi films who sang her first three songs in Hindi. Her debut song
was SHAM MOSE NAA KHELO HOREE which was written by Mahipal –
yes Mahipal who was later to become the hero of many
swashbuckling and mythological movies.
Shadi Se Pehle:
Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar sang their first duet together:
CHALO HO GAYEE TAYYAAR, ZARAA TEHRO JEE... This number is
really one of its kind and a hilarious one. There was also a Rafi’s solo,
probably his first ‘Bidaai’ song: CHALI SAJAN GHAR JAAYE AAJ
DULHANIYA KES SA.NWAARE KESAR BINDIYAA KAAJAR DAARE... An
interesting song this is, with ‘taan’ ‘alaaps’ and even a different type
of high pitch lines. Music is said to be by C. Ramchandra. The
composition type, however, seems to me to be a mixture of Pankaj
Mullick and S.D. Burman styles. Lyrics were by Pandit Mukhram
Sharma.
Sajan:
C. Ramchandra provided excellent music. Mohammed Rafi gave us a

song which even after more than sixty years does not fail to pull us
to him by virtue of its oozing romance, sweetness and lovable
sadness. This was HAMM KO TUMHAARA HI AASRA penned by Moti.
We have also the same song of his in a duet with Lalita Dewulkar.
Other duets with Lalita are KISKO SUNAAOO.N HAAL-E-DIL, and

MAIN HOON JAIPUR KI BANJAARAN – the first one was written by
Moti and the second one by Qamar Jalabadi. Then we have the trio of
Rafi, Lalita, and Geeta singing ISS BANJAARE SANGG HAMAARE as
well as SAMBHAL SAMBHAL KE JAIYO, written by Moti and Ram Murti
respectively. Both the songs had the chorus for company. Another
Rafi solo was O BAABU GALI MEIN TERE CHAAND CHAMKAA which
was written by Qamar Jalalabadi.
Some of the other 1947 movies in which Rafi Sahaab sang were:
Shanti: JEEVAN HAI ANMOL, and QISMAT KO DEKHO HAMSAFAR for

which V.S. Thakur provided the music and Shakeel Badayuni penned
the lyrics;
Malika: DAS NA JAAYEN ZULFEN TUJHKO which was composed by

A.R. Qureshi while the lyrics were written by Tanvir Naqvi;
Utho Jaago: PREM KI NAIYA DOL RAHEE HAI, composed by Aziz

Khan;
Rishta: MAYA MANN KA ROG HAI penned by Wahshi Jaunpuri and

composed by Mohammed Shafi;
Ek Kadam: TUU BHEE RAAHEE a duet with Shamshad Begum,

composed by Prakash Sharma and written by Avatar Visharad;
In Dak Bungalow: JAB BAITHE BAITHE DIL BHAR AAYE penned by

D.N. Madhok and composed by Naresh Bhattacharya.
Besides Jugnu, Samaj Ko Badal Dalo was another film in 1947 where
Rafi had done some acting stint. Some of the other movies that did
brisk business were Mirza Sahiban, Shehnai, Elan, Saajan, Neel
Kamal and Dard. Shehnai is especially remembered for that western
number composed by C. Ramchandra: AANA MEREE JAAN SUNDAY KE
SUNDAY sung by Meena Kapoor and C.Ramchandra as Chitalkar, and
the same song again with Shamshad Begum. Amirbai’s MAARI
KATAARI MAR JAANA is simply unforgettable. The year also saw
Rajinder Krishan writing his first song, GOREE GHUNGHAT KE PATT
KHOL for the movie, Janta, which had music by Harishchandra Bali.
Raj Kapoor sang his own song in Jail Yatra, PIYA MILNE NAVELEE
JAAYE RE. Even in Dil Ki Raani he sings a song, O DUNYAA KE REHNE
WAALON. Then, In Piya Ghar Aajaa, Meena Kumari sang 2 duets with
Karan Dewan and six 6 solos under the musical direction of Bulo C.
Rani. Actor Manhar Desai made his Hindi film debut in Toofaani
Sawaar. Next, Mirabai had all the 13 songs sung by Sitara of Kanpur
(not the Kathak dancer Sitara Devi) where the music was provided
by S.K. Pal. In Mira, M.S. Subbulakshmi played the role and sang 15
of the 18 songs in the movie. Manna Dey sang the devotional
numbers in Geet Govind.
The year also saw the emergence of a music director and excellent
trumpeteer who would have been easily forgotten if it were not for
his four sons who became music directors in the Bombay film
industry in the next generation. Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal
was one such son. His father, Pandit Ram Prasad Sharma, gave music
for 7 movies, beginning with Nayee Baat and including Shakti (1948)
and Magic Carpet (1964) – the same year that Dosti made the nation
crazy with Rafi Sahaab’s immortal songs CHAAHUNGAA MAIN TUJHE
SAANJH SAVERE and other songs under the musical direction of his
son Pyarelal along with Laxmikant.
In 1947 A.R. Kardar released his Dard which is notable for the
singing debut of Uma Devi under Naushad’s baton. The song was
AFSAANA LIKH RAHEE HOON DIL-E-BEQARAAR KAA, and this song
alone made her very famous. Another of her songs was AAJ MACHEE
HAI DHOOM. It’s a pity that such a fine singer was reduced to
playing comic roles, such as the one in Babul (1950) where she was
christened as Tun Tun by Naushad. But even in this new avatar she
excelled herself. I remember her children attending the same school
as me in Cadell Road, Mahim, Bombay. Old timers inform me that
Shamshad Begum’s song HAMM DARD KA AFSAANA almost got Dard
banned, as the British Government thought that it incited a section of
the Indian citizens against the British governance which was still in
place – though there were no such thing in that song, unless they
considered the line ROTE HUWE NAGHMON SE TOOFAN UTHAA
DENGE.... or the lines:
SARKAR-E-DO AALAM KEE UMMAT PE SITAM KYOON HO,
ALLAH KE BANDO.N KO MAJHDAAR KA GHAM KYOON HO,
ISLAM KI KASHTEE KO HAMM PAAR LAGAA DENGE,
HAMM DARD KAA AFSAANA DUNYAA KO SUNAA DENGE,
HAR DIL MEIN MOHABBAT KEE EK AAG LAGAA DENGE.
Haay! Those were the fiery lines of Shakeel Badayuni who had just
made his debut with this film and who would go on to write lyrics for
some 89 movies, mostly with Naushad and Ravi and to some extent,
Hemant Kumar.
NASIR
To continue...
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

A Humble Tribute to the Greatest
Playback Singer of all times – by Nasir.
The year 1948 was a shocker. India and Pakistan were at war, their
first one, over Kashmir. In 1948, the State of Israel was carved out
of the Palestine State, thus driving out the Palestinians Arabs and
rendering lakhs of them homeless. On 30th January 1948 Mahatma
Gandhi was assassinated in a well pre-planned murder by Nathuram
Godse. No one was ready for such a rot that had set in right at the
dawn of India’s freedom. While the fascists organisations in India
celebrated this tragic event, the entire world was weeping. The
Indian film industry’s reaction was no exception to the Gandhian
tragedy.
The newcomer, Rajinder Krishan penned a song on the Mahatma,

which went SUNO SUNO AY DUNYAA WAALON BAAPU JI KI AMAR
KAHAANI. Husnlal-Bhagatram, the first musical duo, composed the
four-part song. It was given to Mohammed Rafi. Before that no one
had attempted to sing such a long song. What an emotional singer
Rafi Sahaab was! The tide of his emotions swept away whoever
heard the song. The song was a rage in India for many years and still
holds us in thrall. The first Prime Minister of India, Pandit
Jawarharlal Nehru, evidently having heard of the awesome singer,
invited Rafi to his residence to sing to him that lyrical obituary
relating to the Father of the Nation - that Bapu who was as venerable
as the waters of the holy Ganga: “POOJYA HAI ITNA JITNAA GANGA
MAA KA PAANI”. There was, perhaps, no one to record how many
precious tears the Indian Prime Minister must have shed on listening
to the deep, rich voice, that heart-rending pathos... On the
Independence Day celebrations in 1948, the Prime Minister awarded
the young Rafi with a Silver Medal. For many years this song used to
be faithfully aired on the radio stations in the country on every 30th
of January.
Dilip Kumar’s touching performance in Jugnu, a year before, had

made him the heartthrob of the nation. Following on its heel in 1948
were his other super-hits movies such as Ghar Ki Izzat with Mumtaz
Shanti, Mela and Anokha Pyaar with Nargis, and Nadiya Ke Paar and
Shaheed with Kamini Kaushal.
Mohammed Rafi in the Nineteen Forties was not actually the voice of
Dilip Kumar. Mukesh and Talat Mehmood were preferably used to
playback for the tragedy king. Anil Biswas used Mukesh in Anokha
Pyaar. Naushad used Mukesh in Mela and later in Andaz (1949) to
playback for Dilip Kumar. Mela had Rafi’s YEH ZINDAGI KE MELA but
it was filmed on an unknown character, while Ghar ki Izzat had a
background song WAH RE ZAMAANE composed by Pandit Govindram.
Only C. Ramchandra had a Rafi-Lalita Dewulkar duet, MORRE RAAJA
HO LE CHAL NADIYA KE PAAR, which was filmed on the leading pair
Dilip Kumar and Kamini Kaushal. Ghulam Haider’s WATAN KI RAAH
MEIN WATAN KE NAUJAWAA.N SHAHEED HO had the Rafi and Khan
Mastana duet number along with the chorus in the fast-paced song
filmed on Dilip Kumar and another artiste. The same version has only
Rafi but again it is played in the background when the dead body of
the martyr Ram (Dilip Kumar) is borne to the cremation ground by a
crowd of thousands. When Rafi says: HAI KAUN KHUSHNASEEB
MAA...in that song, we can feel the lump in our throat.
No singer had such an emotional impact before. Happily, there was a
promise in this song that Rafi Sahaab would be excelling in the genre
of patriotic songs too – the promise that would be more than fulfilled
the same year as we have seen and in the years to come, as we all
know.
On the aside, it is a cruel irony of fate that Khan Mastana who has
also provided music for some films under a different name and was
also a singer of repute, would die decades later on the streets of
Mumbai, begging near the Mahim Dargah. I learn that the same fate
awaits his son too near the said Dargah. Some of his beautiful songs
are PANGAT PE EK CHHABEELEE in Main Hari (1940), ZINDAGI HAI
PYAAR SE with chorus and two others in Sikandar (1941), a duet
with Parul Ghosh, KANTE LAAGE RE SAJANWA MOSE RAAH CHALI NA
JAAYE in Basant (1942), HAMM APNE DARD KA QISSAA SUNAAYE
JAATE HAIN in Muqabla (1942) and even as late as 1959 in Nek
Parveen: MAULA KI REHMAT SE HOGI HAR MUSHKIL AASAAN.
My deceased father, may Allah grant him the Jannatul Firdaus,
often used to say: BANEE KE CHEHRE PE LAAKHON NISAAR
HOTE HAIN, BANEE JO BIGADTEE HAI TOH DUSHMAN HAZAAR
HOTE HAIN. In English, this can be tersely stated as: Prosperity
brings friends, Adversity tries them! Shakeel Badayuni’s lyrics
sung by Rafi sang in Mela (1948): YEH ZINDAGI KE MELE
DUNYAA MEIN KAMM NA HONGE AFSOS HAMM NAA HONGE, are
true for all times to come.
Some of the other 1948 songs of Rafi are:
Actress:
HAMM APNE DIL KA FASAANAA; AY DIL MEREEE AA.NHO.N
ME.N, and a duet with Shamshad Begum: DHEERE DHEERE BOL
KOEE SUN NAA LE.
Shyam Sunder provided the music, while J.Naqshab wrote the
lyrics.
Adalat:
DOH VIDAA DOH PRAAN; QISMAT TOH DEKHO; KYOO.N
BICHA.D GAYEE; and a duet with Mohantara Talpade, BAIRAN
HO GAYEE RAAT.
Music Director was Datta Devjekar. Mahipal was the lyricist.
Shehnaz:
MOHABBAT MEIN KHUDAAYA AYSE GUZRE ZINDAGI APNI, and
AY DIL TUJHEE KO NEEND NAA AAYE. Then there were four
duets with Amirbai Karnataki who was also the music director
for Shehnaz: TERE NAZDEEK AATE HAIN; and NAZAARON SE
KHELOON. These two songs and the 2nd solo were written by
Pilbheeti. Then then we have ZINDAGI KEE RAAH MEIN TEZ
CHAL and the first solo penned by Devbandi. Fiza Kausari wrote
the duet MUJHE TUMSE MUHABBAT HAI.
Lal Dupatta:
The two duets of Rafi with Shamshad Begum are: CHALO
JAMNA KE TEER and ARREE O ALBELI NAAR. The first one was
penned by D.N Madhok and the second one by Manhar Khanna.
Gyan Dutta was the music director.
REHNUMA (The Guide):
It had two solos: QISMAT SE KOEE KYAA BOLE and SULTAAN-E-
MADINA. The two duets were: EK AISA MAHAL BANAAYEN with
Rekha Rani, and EK ABRE SIYAAH CHHAAYAA with Shamshad
Begum. The last song was written by Dhumi Khan and the
others were written by Habib Sarhadi. It was Dhumi Khan who
provided the music.
Amar Prem:
Rafi had two duets here. One was with Raj Kumari: AAO CHALE
MANVAA MORE DUUR and the other was with Rekha Rani:
YAMUNAA KE TAT. Music was by Datta Thakar and the lyrics
were written by Mohan Mishra.
Khidki:
The music for this film was composed by C.Ramchandra who
was also a singer. Rafi sang with him and Shamshad Begum in
AJI MERAA BHEE KOI HAAL SUNO (which cites FIFTY-FIFTY as
the solution to all problems of the world), comedy song. The
tune of just the two words, FIFTY-FIFTY reminds me of a
Shabnam (Dilip-Kamini-S.D. Burman) song of Shamshad
Begum: PHIR DEKH MAZAA! Another song, KHUSHIYAAN
MANAAYEN KYOON had Rafi sing along with him again and with
G.M. Sajan and chorus. The songs were written by P.L.
Santoshi.
Chunariya:
A duet with Geeta Dutt was: PHOOL KO BHOOL KE LE BAITHA
KHAAR. The solo of Rafi, SAB KUCHH LUTAAYAA HAMNE AAKAR
TERI GALI MEIN, placed the music director Hansraj Behl among
the top class music directors of the day. This movie saw Asha
Bhonsle singing her first Hindi line in Chunariya under Hansraj
Behl. Mulkraj Bhakri was the lyricist.
Satyanarayan:
Rafi had three duets with Beena Pani: KYAA YAAD HAI TUMKO;
MERA DIL GHAAYAL KARKE; and DIL WAALE SAAHAB GHAZAB

KAR DAALA. The lyricists were Surjit Sethi and Sevak.
Kajal:
A duet with Suraiya: TAARON BHARI RAAT HAI which was
written by D.N. Madhok. Music was by Ghulam Mohammed.
Rang Mahal:
Again, a duet with Suraiya, ROOTHO NAA TUM BAHAAR MEIN,
composed by K. Dutta.
Bhakt Gopal Bhaiya:
The two solo Bhajans were: RADHE SHYAM, RADHE SHYAM
RADHE SHYAM TUU GAAYE JAA and BHAGWAAN HAMM CHEEKH
RAHEN HAIN, written by Ramesh Gupta. Music was by S.R.
Vyas.
Then we have the solos: BUJH GAYE DEEPAK was penned by
Mahipal and composed by Purshuttam in Mere Lal; DOOBEE
NAIYA AAKE KINAARE in Jeene Do, written by Shevan Rizvi and
composed by Shaukat Hussain; a Bhajan composed by S.N.
Tripathi in Shri Ram Bhakt Hanuman: MADHUR RAM KA NAAM
which was written by B.D. Mishra; MUJHE JAANE TUMSE
KYOO.N PYAAR in Mitti Ke Khilone which was written by B.R.
Sharma and had music by Hansraj Behl. Then was NIGAAHEN
MILAANE KO JEE CHAAHTAA HAI in Paraayi Aag, which had
music by Ghulam Mohamed and the lyrics by Tanvir Naqvi.

Raj Kapoor’s directorial venture, Aag, had Ram Ganguli as the
music director besides three heroines: Nargis, Kamini Kaushal
and Nigar Sultan. There was only one song here for Rafi and
that was a duet with Shamshad: SOLAH BARAS KI BHAYEE
UMARIYAA penned by Bahzaad Laknawi.
Not just Feroze Nizami and Shyam Sunder were smitten by the
singing voice of Mohammed Rafi. The musical duo of Husnlal-
Bhagatram was another addition to the growing influence of
the young singer. Bhagatram who had earlier association with
Master Madhavlal teamed up later with his brother Husnlal.
Rafi was their favourite singer along with Lata and Suraiya.
They were also responsible for giving break to Surinder Kaur
with four songs in a row. Pyar ki Jeet (1948) put them in fore-
front of the music directors. Rafi’s IK DIL KE TUKDE HAZAAR
HUWE was a chartbuster, giving a new dimension to sad songs.
This song which was penned by Qamar Jalalabadi, as indeed he
wrote so many other songs for the duo. It was initially written
for the 1941 flick Sindoor. S.Mukherjee the director of Sindoor
rejected this song, terming it as “useless.” Husnlal-Bhagatram
did their best to make this composition a hit, and the pathos in
the voice of Rafi perfectly suited the song as well as the
musical temperament of the duo. Picturisation was altered to
suit the demand of the song. Music Director Khayyam proudly
calls the duo as his Gurus. It would be his fortune to be
associated with Mohammed Rafi in the ‘Fifties-Sixties,
beginning with Biwi where he provided music under a different
name. The song, AKELE MEIN VOH GHABRAATE TOH HONGE in

Biwi (1950) proved very popular. In the meantime, Husnlal-
Bhagatram would utilize Rafi more and more and churn out hit
songs in 1949.
NASIR
To continue...
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2009

Nasir.
In 1948 the Government of India revived production of

documentaries and reels. This year also saw the triumph of Anil
Biswas’s music in Anokha Pyaar starring Dilip Kumar, Nargis and
Nalini Jaywant. Mehboob Khan produced Anokhi Ada with 13 songs
composed by Naushad. Despite Naushad, there was not a single song
of Rafi. He had given just one song to him in Mela that year. It would
take him another year to give him some solo numbers. But the next
decade would cement their bond in a lasting and memorable musical
journey.
Chandralekha, directed by S.S. Vasan, was released after five years

in the making and remains the costliest South Indian film so
produced. Uday Shankar produced a ballet called Kalpana and won
critical acclaims. Some other notable movies of the year were Vidya
which had good music from S.D. Burman; Shikaayat which had the
first-time film lyrics from Jaan Nisaar Akhtar the father of Javed
Akhtar; Sehraa which had songs sung by Actor Govinda’s parents to
the music of S. Mohinder; Gunjan where Nalini Jaywant sang six
songs out of nine songs composed by Ashok Ghosh; (She indeed had
a sweet voice that ranges somewhere between Suraiya and Lata
style); Heer Ranjha where Khayyam gave music with Varmaji; and
Gajre the Suraiya-Motilal starrer that had music by Anil Biswas; Ziddi
where Kishore Kumar recorded his first song in his brother’s movie,
Ziddi, starring Dev Anand: MARNE KEE DUAYEN KYOON MAANGOO,
and a duet with Lata too in the same movie under the baton of
Khemchand Prakash; (these were his only songs in 1948); and
Mandir, where Shanta Apte was the star, and Nanda and Lata
Mangeshkar did their acting stints.
Speaking of Lata Mangeshkar, it was Ghulam Haider who really

groomed her after her father’s initial training in music. Ghulam
Haider was a tough task-master and a perfectionist who brought out
the best among his musicians and singers. According to an article on
Ghulam Haider by Harjap Singh Aujla, (South Asia Post Issue 36 Vol
II, March 31, 2007) he had even gone to the extent of slapping her
when she kept on making a crucial mistake during a rehearsal in the
recording room. The members of his orchestra were stunned. One of
his most trusted harmonium players, Kartar Singh, asked why he had
done that. Upon that Ghulam Haider replied: “Look Kartar Singh, I
used to slap Noorjehan and see how high a pedestal she has reached,
she is on top in her profession. This slap is going to catapult Lata
Mangeshkar into a great singer, who will rule the World of music”.
The prophecy proved to be true.
Of course, that slap was not out of spite but was a token from a
teacher who wanted the best for his student. Those were different
times. JO APNAA HOTAA HAI USEE PAR HAMM HAQ JATAATE HAIN.
Wasn’t he the one who had discovered her in a running train while
she was singing something in a shrill but sweet voice? Did he not call
her to the recording studio for an audition? It was Ghulam Haider
who told her to pay attention to the lyrics and enunciation of the
words. He also told her to keep in mind the film characters who were
to mime her song. So she followed those instructions to the T,
besides using the nuances and variations while singing. The song,
DIL MERA TODAA was recorded in 1947 for Majboor which was
released in 1948. This song in fact launched her career. She also
sang for Ghulam Haider in Aabshaar in 1948. Ghulam Haider even
introduced her to other musicians such as Anil Biswas, Khemchand
Prakash, and Sajjad Hussain. As Lata Mangeshkar stated in an
interview in Mumbai Mirror of the Times of India of 28th September
2009:
“One of the earliest composers to support me was Master Ghulam

Haider. When he was told that my voice wouldn’t suit the heroine in
a Dilip Kumar saab starrer Shaheed, he gave me songs in Majboor.
Then other composers like Anil Biswasji, Khemchand Prakashji and
Naushad saab came forward to sign me. From 1947 onwards there
was no looking back.” By the mid-Fifties and the Sixties Lata
Mangeshkar could make or break any music director. Such would be
her clout.
Surinder Kaur had replaced her in Shaheed, and her song BADNAAM
NAA HO JAAYE proved very popular. It seems that a duet of Lata-
Madan Mohan Kohli was recorded but ultimately dropped from the
movie. It was at this time that she met Madan Mohan – "Madan
Bhaiyya".
The partition of India that led to the migration of Noor Jahan to

Pakistan played a great role for securing the filmy future of the
newcomer Lata Mangeshkar. Noor Jahan had introduced the trend of
singing in shrill feminine voice so that the new actresses began to
demand it, thus sealing the fate of Zeenat Begum, Sitaradevi
Kanpuri, Lalita Dewulkar, and Zohrabai of Ambala. Additionally, at
the time of Lata Mangeshkar’s entry in 1947, Amirbai Karnataki was
over forty years of age, while Zohrabai Ambalewali retired at the
peak of her career in order to groom her daughter, Roshan Kumari,
the noted Kathak dancer. Amirbai Karnataki often praised this very
young petite singer and used to advise her that whenever anyone
should praise her songs, she should say: YEH ALLAH KI MEHERBANI
HAI. Other older female singers saw the writing on the wall and
gradually faded away. Raj Kumari of the Mahal fame (GHABRAA KE
JO HAM SAR KO TAKRAAYEN TOH ACHCHAA HO) was the unluckiest
and died in poverty in 2000. It was only the “Khanakti Aawaaz” or
the “Punjab ka Jaadu” Shamshad Begum, whom Mehboob Khan had
brought to Bombay after much persuasion for his Taqdeer where
Nargis made her debut, went on singing with many music directors
such as Naushad, Khemchand Prakash, Hansraj Behl, Ravi, Kalyanji-
Anandji, R.D. Burman and O.P. Nayyar right upto 1968 (KAJRA
MOHABBAT WAALA with Asha Bhonsle in Kismat) and even beyond.
She was already a sensation by the mid-forties when she lost no
chance in helping out the newcomers, such as Raj Kapoor and Madan
Mohan. On the national television, O.P. Nayyar acknowledged her
contribution to his career. Some others did not even come back to
her after they had attained fame. It was in the late Sixties that she
was happy to quit the film industry with grace though we
occasionally find her songs even in 1971, and yet again 1981 when
she sang three songs with Mubarak Begum in Ganga Maang Rahi
Balidaan.
Geeta Roy (or Geeta Dutt after marriage with Guru Dutt) was
another female singer who stood against the Lata Wave. We have
seen that she began her singing career in 1946. In the Forties-Fifties
she worked with almost all the worthy music directors including
Hanumant Prasad, Pankaj Mullick, Shyam Sunder, Anil Biswas, S.D.
Burman, Ghulam Haider, Bulo C.Rani, Gyan Dutt, Vasant Desai, S.N.
Tripathi, Arun Mukherjee, C. Ramchandra, Avinash Vyas, Sajjad
Hussain, Naushad, Husnlal-Bhagatram, O.P. Nayyar and others. Asha
Bhonsle was inspired by her style in her early career. Her voice was
so soothing that it could induce sleep and was best suited for
Bhajans (e.g. Ghungat Ke Patt Khol Re in Jogan 1950, and Torah
Manwa Kyoon Ghabraaye in Sadhna, 1958) , lullabies and the tragic
songs. But she could easily swing to Rock 'N' Roll songs, the
romantic songs and the pub-songs with ease if the music director
demanded. The most astonishing fact about Geeta Dutt and Guru
Dutt is that their songs would sum up the tragedy of their life. She
sang MERA SUNDER SAPNA BEET GAYA (1947) and WAQT NE KIYA
KYA HASEEN SITAM (1959 Kaaghaz ke Phool). While the very next
year Guru Dutt was to lip-synch Rafi Sahaab’s song: MILI KHAAK
MEIN MOHABBAT JALAA DIL KA AASHIYAANA (1960 – Chaudhvin ka
Chand). It was for Meena Kapoor to pay her a tribute at the Mortal
Men, Immortal Melodies concert at Bombay in 1982. In addition to
her own songs and the ones she sang with other playback singers,
Geeta Dutt has a total of no less than 162 hit songs with Mohammed
Rafi, being the highest number of her duets with any singer.
As for Suraiya, both acting and singing were just accidental for she
never aspired to be either an actor or a singer. When she was 13, she
was discovered by Naushad who got her to sing for Mehtab (future
Mrs. Sohrab Modi) in Sharda as we’ve noted before. She became a
very popular film-star who also sang her songs, thus having an edge
over Nargis and Kamini Kaushal. The flip side was that popularity of
her songs was bracketed with her being the heroine of her movies
and that could not go on forever. Her peak period was 1948-1949. By
1963, she appeared for the last time in Rustom Sohrab playing the
role of Premnath’s mother and often collapsing during the shoot. YEH
KAISEE AJAB DAASTAA.N HO GAYEE HAI under the baton of Sajjad
Hussain was her swan song. But Suraiya always acknowledged that
Lata had achieved greatness whereas the greatness had been thrust
on her. As for Noor Jahan, Suraiya stated that she was born great.
But more about her later.
After the death of Noor Jahan, Lata Mangeshkar

admitted: “Maine unke suron ki ungli pakad kar gaana seekha hai.”
No doubt then, that the early songs of Lata Mangeshkar were sung in
the style of her idol, Noor Jahan. Had Noor Jahan chosen to make
India her home, Lata Mangeshkar would not have found the kind of
encouragement she received from Ghulam Haider. As she used to
copy Noor Jahaan’s style, she would have remained more of a poor
man’s Noor Jahan, just as Suman Kalyanpur was a poor man’s Lata
Mangeshkar, for at least ten years more, before the rise of political
regionalism would change the equation. However, this is idle
speculation. Who can stop the march of events?
Lata Mangeshkar was no ‘Daal-Bhaat’ singer, having acquired her

initial training under her own father, Dinanath Mangeshkar. She was
also the student of Ustad Aman Ali Khan of the Bhendi Bazaar
Gharana since June 11, 1945 and after his migration to Pakistan she
got the the classical training from Amanat Khan Devaswale, other
Ustads, and Maulanas of Urdu language as well. The term "daal-
bhaat" has an interesting story behind it. One day Dilip Kumar, Anil
Biswas and Lata Mangeshkar were travelling to work by train. Those
were the days sometime in 1947-48, when no one used to recognise
them. Which makes me believe that it was definitely before the
release of Jugnu and before filming of Andaz (1949) and Anokha
Pyaar(1948) - otherwise Dilip Kumar would have surely known about
her. Anyway, upon enquiry, Anil Biswas introduced Lata Mangeshkar
as a singer who sings well. When Dilip Kumar learnt that she was a
Maharashtrian, he was concerned that she would not be able to
pronounce the Urdu words correctly. It is in this context that he used
the expression: "In their singing you can smell the 'daal-bhaat.'"
That was the day when she made it a point to learn the Urdu
language well. With the help of Mohammed Shafi who was the
Assistant to Naushad and Anil Biswas, she hired one Maulana named
Mehboob who began teaching her the language. Thus Dilip Kumar's
chance utterance worked wonders for Lata Mangeshkar and we find a
flawless renditions of "Hindi" songs.
Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar had met during their days of
struggle in the Bombay’s film industry. To use her own words,
“HAMNE BHEE KAAFI PAAPA.D BELE HAI.N.” She would walk from
her home in Nana Chowk to the Grant Railway Station to go to Malad
and from there instead of using a Victoria, she would walk upto the
recording studios to save some money which would enable her to
buy vegetables at home.
There are stories of how Rafi and Lata used to be given intensive
musical training by Husnlal. It appears that Husnlal used to call Rafi
at his residence at 4 a.m.. Rafi was supposed to carry his ‘Tanpura’
as well. There Husnlal would give him the ‘Alaap’ of the Raga that
was to be used for the song. Rafi would practice this ‘Alaap’ for
several hours after which he would be given the composed tune to
sing. Even Lata was given such a regimen, only, in her case she used
to be called to the recording studio. However, Husnlal’s late-night
arrivals at home was not liked by his wife, and this generated a
continual domestic tension between him and his wife. As years
passed by, Pandit Husnlal began to maintain his distance from Lata
Mangeshkar. After ten years they came to the point when they could
no longer work together.
The ‘Forties were the days of their camaraderie, and Rafi and Hamid
would often visit her home at Nana Chowk from their nearby Bhendi
Bazaar home, have meals and chat all day long. Even during the late
Forties, Rafi would visit Lata during the Ganpati Festival. She
remembers that once he even sang at her house, and during one
such visit of Mohammed Rafi, she had gifted a gold button to Rafi.
Later in life when they could hardly meet each other, Rafi remained
very close to her younger brother, Hridyanath Mangeshkar.
While singing the duets with Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar
took extra care, for in him she found a formidable singer who
used to put his own additional inputs while rendering his
songs. So she too would try to add some nuances to the songs
that she sang with him. Sometimes she would face difficulties.
Such instances, though rare as they were, did happen not only
in the Forties but also in the Fifties which she has herself
recounted. While recording the title track for S.D. Burman in
Tere Ghar Ke Samne, for example, she had a problem with
Rafi’s executing a particular word. In the Sixties she
complained to the musical duo Shankar-Jaikishan that their
range of the song made her ears turn red and whether they
were testing her. That was the Arzoo song: AJEE ROOTHKAR
KAR AB which Rafi Sahaab sang as the solo version, AJEE
HAMSE BACHKAR KAHAAN JAAYEGAA; and in the Sixties while
recording TASVEER TEREE DIL MEIN there was certain
misunderstandings between her and Rafi Sahaab, when Salil
Chowdhary took her side.
Lata Mangeshkar is very forthcoming when she says that Rafi
Sahaab’s voice was his greatest blessing. Irrespective of the
pitch, whether high or low, the voice had a certain “namrataa”
(softness). And as for his “inimitable ‘harkatein’ and ‘taan,’ all
this was a natural part of his talent.
NASIR
To continue...
MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2009
Part 11: Mohammed Rafi & the Nineteen Forties.
A Humble Tribute to the Greatest Playback Singer of All Times

by Nasir.
During the Nineteen Forties too, the Indian society being a

conservative one in general, the unreliable profession in the movies,
namely singing, dancing and acting in particular, did not inspire
much respect not only in the cultured and elite circles but also
among most of the middle class. On the day of his wedding, when
asked to enter his profession in the Nikahnama by the Qazi, Naushad
mentioned it as “Tailor” for the fear of what his “Biraadari” would
say if they learnt that he was in the film industry. What an irony that
precisely at that time the wedding band was playing the hit music
from his own movies where as the Music Director he had composed
beautiful songs and given the background music! Imagine, the
profession of a tailor was more preferable to that of a person from
the film background!
The use of words such as “Kanjar” and “Miraasi” were derogatorily
used for ‘Nachne Gaane Waale.’ I remember having listened to a
radio-programme of AIR or the Vividh Bharti in the Sixties. Some
film-personality while hosting the programme narrated an incident
that occurred at the time when he and his group were in transit to go
to Afghanistan for some cultural-show. The interesting thing about
the incident was that at the time of granting the visas at the border,
the immigration officer was at a loss of words to categorise this
group. Finally he came up with the words. The words used by him for
the group were: “Tolaa-e-Kanjaaraan!”
It was also the time when the likes of Dilip Kumar, Anil Biswas, Lata
Mangshkar and others, before they became legends in their own
right, used to travel by trains to Malad for their work in the film
studios such as the Bombay Talkies or at the Filmistan which is
actually located at Goregaon in Mumbai. Some used to go round
plying second-hand motor-bikes. Some preferred to just walk in
order to save money for the meals. Some, such as Naushad, used to
sleep on the foot-path so that they need not walk many miles to the
place of their work. Mohammed Rafi, too, used to walk from Bhendi
Bazaar to Dadar as we have noted before.
Now before we go to 1949, let’s see what else occurred in the film
industry in Mumbai in 1948 or thereabout. At this time, there were
some beautiful actresses around such as Kamini Kaushal, Nargis,
Suraiya, Nalini Jaywant, Geeta Bali and Madhubala who would leave
their lasting impressions on the cine-goers well up to the next
century. Leela Chitnis was the first Indian actress who endorsed the
Lux Beauty ad in 1941, but by 1948 was reduced to playing mother’s
role.
The pages of the history of Mumbai film industry would be

incomplete if we don’t mention the real-life romance of the film
personalities that provided glamour. sheen and colour of their own to
the Nineteen Forties. Unfortunately, the flower of their love was
doomed to wither away from the beginning itself. Their love was just
an autumn flower that would see no happiness of the spring. These
three pairs could not succeed for the reasons that a woman and a
man were already married to someone else, while the third pair of
lovers was of different religious donomination. The film heroes, who
were involved, would rise to the topmost level in the immediate
decade of the Fifties. Yes, they were Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj
Kapoor who would head the three tier system of film-stars that
would automatically come into being in the Sixties. Though the
cinema is considered to be the director’s medium, yet these actors
gave wings to new concepts in their profession which were not
inferior to those of directors.
It is to be remembered that the Forties were the conservative times

and therefore the impact on the contemporaries then was much more
than we could possibly imagine in these days of permissive sex and
pornography. Without going into their biographies or introductions,
let’s examine these love-birds very briefly:
Dilip Kumar and Kamini Kaushal were the leading pair that worked
together in Shaheed, Nadiya Ke Paar, (both 1948), Shabnam (1949)
and Arzoo (1950). Kamini Kaushal was senior to Dilip Kumar, having
begun her filmy career in 1941 in Sangam. She was a popular actress
that can be gauged from her earlier release of Neecha Nagar (1946)
and the five releases during 1948: Shaheed and Nadiya Ke Paar with
Dilip Kumar, Pagree with Amar (Remember the Sang-Taraash in
Mughal-e-Azam?), Ziddi with Dev Anand, and Aag with Producer-
Director-Actor Raj Kapoor. Naturally, the shooting for these films
must have been going around at about the same time. Dilip Kumar
and Kamini Kaushal came closer to each other while doing Shaheed.
Both were very young and deeply involved. When Kamini was not
with him, it appears that Dilip Kumar would feel the pangs of
separation. So he would visit her on the sets where Kamini used to
shoot for other pictures during that period. As such, he would often
drop on the sets of Pagree which was being produced and directed by
P.N. Arora.
However, there was a terrible problem facing this pair, for the real-
life story of Uma (for that was Kamini’s real name) appears to be the
story of the heroine of Gumrah that was made in 1963 by B.R.
Chopra. (Dilip Kumar had refused to do Gumrah when B.R. Chopra
offered him the role) Her sister had died leaving her husband and
children behind and she was made to marry her sister’s widower, Mr.
Sood who was a senior officer in the Bombay Port Trust and had
been allotted a beautiful bungalow by the Port Trust. Is it not said in
the sub-continent of India and Pakistan that who else but a “Mausi”
or “Khaala” (maternal aunt) would make the best of the step-
mothers?
So there you are! Otherwise, too, how could the family tolerate
Kamini Kaushal’s love affair, when she was a married woman? It was
not easy to obtain a divorce. The comprehensive Hindu Marriage Act
came into effect only in 1955 and even that was very stringent on
the question of divorce. P.N. Arora had never interfered with Dilip’s
visit to his studio since the love-affair was their personal affair. But
one day, according to him, a military guy who happened to be the
brother of Kamini Kaushal stomped on the sets of Pagree and
pointing his pistol at Kamini he threatened to shoot her if the
clandestine love affair did not end there and then. Later it was
settled that she would be allowed to complete her pending
assignments. Kamini suspected P.N. Arora’s hand in leaking out the
information to her family but completed his movie which required
just a few days’ shoot.
However, it appears that the affair had gone on as far as the Arzoo
(1950) days. In the meantime, Dilip Kumar and Kamini Kaushal did
Filmistan’s Shabnam (1949) which was based on the English movie,
Caravan. Ismat Chugtai who was the story-writer as well as the
playwright and dialogue writer for Arzoo reveals that while shooting
for Arzoo, Dilip Kumar and Kamini Kaushal would hold each other’s
hand under the cover of the film script that they used to read. By
then the scandal had broken out when Kamini Kaushal’s brother
threatened to shoot Dilip Kumar if the affair was not wound up. As a
kid I did hear some such rumour but it was a little more serious
namely that Kamini’s brother had actual taken a shot at Dilip Kumar
but missed him! After Arzoo the pair never acted together again.
According to Sitara Devi the noted Kathak dancer and who also
played Dilip Kumar’s boss’s role in K. Asif’s Hulchal (1951), Dilip
Kumar was a broken man thereafter since he really loved Kamini
Kaushal. Dilip Kumar has admitted in the biography written by Bunny
Reuben that as a young man he was attracted to Kamini Kaushal.
Kamini Kaushal never offered any statement in this regard. As the
decades would roll, in Dilip Kumar’s life there would be new women
that would include, Madhubala, Vyjayantimala, Waheeda Rehman,
Saira Banu, and the forgettable Asma.
Incidentally, neither Shabnam nor Arzoo had any songs of

Mohammed Rafi. The music director of Shabnam was S.D. Burman
and its lyricist was Qamar Jalalabadi. In Arzoo Anil Biswas provided
the music, while Majrooh Sultanpuri, Jan Nisar Akhtar, and Prem
Dhawan provided the lyrics.
Before we come to the next pair of love-birds, I would like to very

briefly acquaint the dear readers with at least a sketchy information
about the hold that Suraiya had on this nation of cineme lovers,
reminding you at the same time that she was not a classic beauty as,
say, Naseem Banu was, but her charms and songs plus her good
looks made up more than that. It was that beauty and those
melodious songs that captured the imagination of the cinema-lovers
of the sub-continent. Suraiya was at her zenith in 1948-1949 and
with the grand success of Pyar Ki Jeet, Badi Bahen and Dillagi and a
string of other movies in the Fifties, she became the richest female
star of her time. Old timers simply cannot forget the craze that
Suraiya generated both as a film-star and singer. Pyar ki Jeet and
Badi Bahen which had music by Husnlal-Bhagatram, and Dillagi
which had music by Naushad had outstanding songs of Suraiya.
Dillagi’s MURLI WAALE MURLI BAJAA, and the songs composed by
the said duo musicians, TERE NAINON NE CHORI KIYA and WOH
PAAS RAHEN YAA DUUR RAHEN and other songs generated a mass
hysteria. She used to be mobbed on the road, at her house, and at
the premiere shows of her movies. She had a daily fan-mail of 7,000.
This craze continued till the mid-Fifties and I remember having read
about an incident when one of her passionate fans stole all her disc-
records from her home. She lodged a police complaint, pursuant to
which the police went on looking for the culprit. Finally, they were
able to nab the thief from a cottage at Lonavala, near Poona (Pune).
What led them to the thief were the melodious songs of Suraiya that
were being played by him in that cottage at that time, oblivious to all
else.
Dharmendra who was still in his native place, not knowing that one
day he would himself become a great film star, used to walk miles in
his native place to see Dillagi nearly 40 times. Not just the
commoners, but the film-stars too were enamoured of her. Even the
super-star of Hollywood Gregory Peck came to see her at her
residence in 1954. It was Al-Nasir who told him that Suraiya was his
fan and so Gregory Peck, who was on his way to Ceylon for the
shooting of Purple Plain and was lodged at the Ambassador Hotel at
Bombay during his transit, gave a midnight knock at her doors and
spent an hour with her.
Suraiya was a big star when

Dev Anand fell for her charms. Dev Anand changed his mannerisms
to those of Gregory Peck precisely for the sake of Suraiya it seems.
Both of them did seven films together, beginning with Vidya (1948),
Jeet and Shayar (1949), Afsar and Neeli in 1950, and Do Sitare and
Sanam in 1951. The origin of their love began while they were
picturising a song in a boat for Vidya. The song was KINAARE
KINAARE CHALE JAYENGE. While they were rowing, their boat
suddenly turned over and Suraiya found herself drowning since she
did not know how to swim. Dev Anand saved her life, and that was it!
But the course of true love never doth run smooth. Suraiya’s granny
was strictly against the fruition of this romance since Dev Anand was
a Hindu and Suraiya a Muslim. While shooting for Jeet Dev Anand
proposed to Suraiya and gave her diamond ring worth Rs.3,000/-. On
seeing the ring, Suraiya’s granny threw it into the sea. Remember
they used to stay at Krishna Mahal on the Marine Drive facing the
Arabian Sea. The granny took steps to ensure that they could never
marry, and even undermined their plan to elope. The story is long
and not really our subject-matter. Ultimately, they drifted apart.
Suraiya’s movies started flopping one after the other. Soon Dev
Anand married Kalpana Kartik. Suraiya gave up acting. But she did
return in 1954 in Waris opposite Talat Mehmood and in Mirza Ghalib
opposite Bharat Bhushan. She won great commendations from Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru for her role in Mirza Ghalib and for her Ghalib’s
ghazals. She later did a supporting role in Shama in 1961 and her
last movie was Rustom Sohrab in 1963 after which spent the life of a
recluse. Dev Anand admitted in his autobiography, “Romancing with
Life”: “Yes, I loved Suraiya.” But Suraiya’s love was more sincere.
She remained unmarried all her life till the icy hands of death
claimed her.
Such was the epic romance of Dilip Kumar and Kamini Kaushal on
one hand, and Dev Anand and Suraiya, on the other. The romance of
Raj Kapoor and Nargis belongs to the Fifties and is therefore not
broached here.
Mohammed Rafi sang some 24 duets with Suraiya. Suraiya was

friends with Lata and both of them have paid tributes to each other
and the poisonous story about Suraiya is not true. If at all Suraiya
had any grudge, it was against Madhubala who had replaced her in
Mahal (1949).
NASIR
To continue...
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2009

Nasir.
Having discussed about Suraiya in the last article, I still find myself
in a swoon at the mention of her name. However, sometimes I
wonder how could Rafi Sahaab have escaped the charms of Suraiya
while singing such romantic songs with her. As we have observed in
the last article, that was the time when her presence used to cause
traffic jams, people used to stalk her, rob her records to hear her
voice in solitude, and even Dev Anand the lady killer wanted to marry
her. Not to mention the mischievous shooting retakes of Dilip Kumar
with her in K.Asif’s Janwar - when she finally withdrew herself out of
suspicion after returning the signing amount, never to act opposite
Dilip Kumar.
It's time for some musings now: Though the songs of Fifties are out
of the scope of this article, I cannot help but mention DIL KO HAAY
DIL KO, DIL KO TEREE TASVEER SE, BEHLAAYE HUWE.N HAI....
(Dastaan 1950) Just listening to this song races my blood, makes my
heart beat faster, while the body shakes to the rhythm of the song.
Just mere thoughts whip up the hidden desires to be with the
“Chocolate Charmer” in the sylvan setting of the Omar Khayyam
Rubaiyat:
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
I wonder how the young pair of Rafi and Suraiya must have recorded
that song. Ordinarily, sparks should have flown.
Now this is no speculation: Noor Jahan or Suraiya; or Saira Banu or

Sharmila Tagore (in 1963 and 1967) or even Tina Munim (in 1980)
Rafi Sahaab always concentrated on the songs and not the female
singer’s beauty and bearings. It was only through his singing voice
that he conveyed the inner emotions of love and romance. He was
never involved in any filmy romance or scandal at all throughout his
life. Neither did he need a "Jug of Wine". He could easily bring
himself to sing like an incorrigible boozard or like an occasional
drinker drowning his sorrows in the goblet or trying to enlist the
virtues of wine, or discoursing on the philosphy of life. But all of
those songs pertain to the Fifties, the Sixties, and the Seventies. If
he needed any jug, it was of rich tea laced with almonds and
pistachios which he shared with others during the recordings. At
times he even went to drink Lassi with a musician. The “Book of
Verses” pertain to the lyrics that he sang and recorded. While the
“Loaf of Bread” that he earned he divided it between his family on
the one hand, and the poor and the needy on the other. As for the
“Wilderness,” he lived in the tinsel town as if it were a wilderness -
in a true Sufi spirit – i.e. he lived in the world but was not swayed by
the world and its temptations and sins, or glamour and greed, or
rivalry and cunning. Man, that’s not easy. Just try living like that! So
much for the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam!
Lata Mangeshkar was slated to become a much sought-after female

playback singer chiefly owing to the encouragement of Ghulam
Haider who stood by her when others had rejected her as we noted
before. Naushad too wanted to have a share in this “discovery”. So
Andaz had all her songs for the heroine Nargis. Shamshad Begum
had just one song (filmed on Cuckoo), and that was the duet with
Lata Mangeshkar: DAR NAA MOHABBAT KAR LE. But it seems that he
had sought the permission of Mehboob Khan for using Lata
Mangeshkar. Also, he would make her do the rehearsing for days on
end before the final take would be recorded in the presence of
Mehboob Khan. It thus appears that Mehboob Khan would interfere
in Naushad’s work. One day, the witty Naushad would make him eat
a humble pie by giving him a tit for tat. Once during a shooting of
some movie (I don’t remember at this moment which one was that -
probably it was Andaz) Naushad went right up to the camera,
brushed Mehboob Khan aside, peeped into the camera lens and said
that the camera- angle was not proper. Bemused with this remark of
Naushad, Mehboob Khan asked him what he knew about the cameras
and their angles and shots. “Nothing,” said Naushad. In the next
breath he put the counter-question to Mehboob: “What do you know
about music, Ragas, the Raginis?” Mehboob Khan got the hint. It is
said that from that onwards he never interfered with Naushad’s
system of work. Naushad had grown big since his Prem Nagar (1940)
days. In late ‘Forties, he began to have a large orchestra. His Indian
classical music had a western arrange-ment. However, his greatest
musical wonders were reserved for Nineteen Fifties when he would
provide music for Babul, Dastaan, Jadu, Deedar, Aan, Deewana, Baiju
Bawra, Amar, Shabab, Uran Khatola, Mother India, Sohni and
Mahiwal. And for his movies of the ‘Sixties such as Kohinoor, Mughal-
e-Azam, Ganga Jamuna, Mere Mehboob, Leader and Dil Diya Dard
Liya, Ram Aur Shyam, Aadmi, to name a few only.
Playback singers Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar had already

become household names. Even as late as 1949, Lata Mangeshkar
would still be singing in the style of Noor Jahan as her songs from
Mahal, Andaz, Padmini, and even in Barsaat, would suggest. The
Mahal song AAYEGA AAYEGAA AAYEGAA AANEWAALA AAYEGAA
AAYEGAA composed by Khemchand Prakash, was a super-hit and it
zoomed her career. This song used to played on loudspeakers time
and again at most of the nooks and corners of towns and cities, and I
myself remember hearing this song as a three-year kid whenever I
went out to buy myself some ‘Gulgule’. Mahal was a huge success for
Kamal Amrohi - though I am told it was released and soon removed
from the theatres. It was only after the re-run soon thereafter that it
caught on. I remember that initially Madhumati (1958) was criticized
by drawing comparison with Mahal. In my personal opinion, Mahal
has heavy overtones of mystery, while Madhumati is a superb
entertainer in all respects.
The year 1949 saw the Government of India raising the

entertainment to a ridiculous extent, thus leading to protest and
closure of cinemas all over India. New censorship classification code
came into existence. The Film Division was launched. Exhibition of
approved documentaries before screening of the movie was made
compulsory. Now I understand why as a kid I had to wait for at least
half an hour or so watching the news that I then found torturous. To
make matters worse, sometimes in their zeal, they would come out
with a second documentary too.
Out of nostalgia for my childhood friends, Hyder Ali and Asghar Ali,
now I would like to make a mention of their mother, actress Pramila
(Esther Victoria Abraham) who, in 1949, was crowned the First Miss
India 1947. She joined the theatre company and later went on to
become the vamp and a fearless stunt star in many movies that
included Ulti Ganga,Bijli,Jungle King and Basant. In Basant (1942)
the Amirbai Karnataki’s song, HUWA KYAA QASOOR was picturised
on her. She was also a major film producer in her hey days. Her last
film was at the age of 92, entitled Thaang. It is a Marathi film which
is directed by Amol Palekar. She was once wrongly arrested at the
instance of Morarji Desai, on charges of being spy simply because
she used to visit Pakistan to see her father and also for the business
of film distribution. She was the fighter all her life and never gave up
under any circumstance. I had the opportunity to see her and her
husband Kumar sometimes in the mid-Fifties when I visited her
home near the Paradise Cinema at Mahim, Mumbai, along with her
son Hyder Ali who was my classmate in the Belvedere Convent which
used to be located by the side of the Scottish Orphanage at Cadell
Road. Asghar Ali was one year senior. Later Hyder Ali joined the St.
Michael High School. I still remember a skit presented in the school
by Asghar Ali. It was, what used to be called “record dance.” He and
a girl gave a brilliant dance performance while the Kishore Kumar-
Lata Mangeshkar record, MERA NAAM ABDUL REHMAN was played in
the background. I know that Hyder Ali also performed in the TV
shows of Nukkad in the Eighties, though I never had a chance of
meeting him after the school days.
Hyder Ali and Asghar Ali with their mother Pramila and family.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009

Nasir.
Rafi Sahaab’s repertoire of songs in 1949 increases compared to his

past years.
Just to point out a few more songs with some music directors:
With Pandit Husnlal-Bhagatram:
As we mentioned before, Husnlal-Bhagatram had found immense

success after Pyar ki Jeet (1948). In 1949 they gave seven songs to
Rafi in Jal Tarang: four solos and two duets to Rafi. Three solos were
written by Kaifi Irfani and they were: HAI KAAM MOHABBAT KA;
AAYI JAWAANI; and TUMEH SUNAAYE EK KAHAANI; while Kedar
Sharma penned HAAY RE PYAARE PYAARE. ZARA TUMNE DEKHA TOH
was a Rafi-Lata duet penned by Kaifi Irfani. The Rafi-Shamshad duet,
MUSAAFIR SADAA GEET GAYE CHALA CHAL was written by Sudarshan
Fakir.
Rafi found further favour with Husnlal Bhagatram in Naach where

there were: two duets with Suraiya; CHHAAYAA SAMAA SUHAANA,
and SEENE MEIN AAG BHADAKTI;
Two songs were with Geeta Roy and Lata Mangeshkar: KYOON
KARTA MAAN JAWAANI KAA and LAB PE HAI FARIYAAD. One with
Shamshad Begum: DIL SE DIYAA HAI TUJHKO.
In Hamara Manzil, there were two duets with Geeta Roy: ANDHERE
SE NAA DARR...KAANTE BANENGI KALIYAAN, written by Rajinder
Krishan, and WOH AUR ZAMAANA THAH which has S.D. Batish along
with them. He also had a solo: TOOTE HUWE DIL KO.
Bansuria had a beautiful solo: TERI YAAD SATAAYE GHADI GHADI
written by Mulkraj Bhakri.
Baalam had a musical solo: THUKRAKE HAMEN CHAL DIYE, and

another, TUM HAMEN BHOOL GAYE. There were two duets too, one
with S.D. Batish and another with Suraiya: DUNYAA WAALON MUJHE
BATAAO and AATAA HAI ZINDAGI MEIN BHALA respectively. Songs
were written by Qamar Jalalabadi.
In Badi Bahen, there was a solo song of Rafi: MOHABBAT KE DHOKE

MEIN KOI NA AAYE which was a super-hit. The lyrics were by
Rajinder Krishan.
In Saawan Bhadon Rafi sang a duet with Lata: SADAA RAHE YEH DIN
HAMAARE. Mulkraj Bhakri was the lyricist.
With Shyam Sunder:
Not to be outdone, Shyam Sunder gave sevens songs to Rafi: four

solos and three duets, written by Qamar Jalalabadi, as under in
Bazaar:
The solos were: O JAANE WAALE CHAAND ZARAA MUSKURAA KE JAA;

SHAHEEDON TUMKO MERA SALAAM; YEH HAI DUNYAA KA BAAZAAR;
and the heart-rending MERE BHAGWAAN TUU MUJHKO YUNHI
BARBAAD REHNE DE. While the second song is a satire on day to day
life in a city, the last one is a touching song that decries one’s fate
but indulges in the sacrifice of seeing one’s beloved happy at her
new home.
The duets were:
AY MOHABBAT UNSE MILNE KA BAHAANA MIL GAYAA with Lata

Mangeshkar was extremely popular. APNEE NAZAR SE DUUR was
another duet with Lata Mangeshkar.
Tnere was another song too that he sang with Shamshad Begum and
Satish Batra: CHHALLA DE JAA NISHAANI TERI MEHERBANI .
In an M. Sadiq directed movie, Char Din, there was a Rafi-Raj Kumari
duet: HASEENON KI ADAAYEN BHEE. The lyrics were written by
Shakeel Badayuni.
With Vinod:
A musician who was influenced by Husnlal-Bhagatram style of music

since he worked under their elder brother Pandit Amarnath was
Vinod (Eric Roberts). He got a good break in Ek Thi Ladki (1949)
which had a good number of Mohammed Rafi songs. Some of his
duets with Lata Mangeshkar were: YEH SHOKH SITAARE; EK BAAT
SUNO SAATHI; AB HAALE DIL HAALE JIGAR; and HAMM CHALE DUUR
which also had Satish Batra. His solo number along with the chorus
was LAMBI JORU BADI MUSIBAT. The most famous of the songs was
the LARA LAPPA number sungs by Rafi-G.M.Durrani-Lata, based on
the Kangra folk tune. All the songs were penned by Aziz Kashmiri.
With Ghulam Muhammed:
One of the earliest melodious solos of Mohammed Rafi we find in

Paras (1949) for which Ghulam Mohammed provided the musical
score: DIL KI LAGEE NE HAMKO DIWAANA. If one wants to know how
sweetness was the backbone of Rafi Sahaab's voice even during his
salad days, then please listen to this song. Shakeel Badayuni was the
lyricist. Rafi had two duets with Shamshad Begum: MOHABBAT MEIN
KISE MAALOOM and MERE DIL KI.. His duet with Lata was: DIL LEKE
O CHHUPNE WAALE.
In Shair, there was a Rafi-Shamshad duet: O MORE BAALMA.
Ghulam Mohammed later proved a great asset to Naushad and used

to make a liberal use of the Tabla – the tradition which he carried
right upto his Pakeezah days. I remember a friend of mine informally
telling Asha Bhonsle and R.D. Burman when they were discussing
Umrao Jaan's (1981) musical success at their home that it was
nothing compared to Ghulam Mohammed's music what with the
'thaap' or beats of Tabla in Pakeezah that was released a decade
before. They just stared at his face. Anyway, that was the personal
opinion but the pity is that Ghulam Mohammed died unrewarded.
With Hansraj Behl:
Rafi’ song in Raat ki Rani, JIN RAATON MEIN NEEND UD JAATI HAI,
written by Arzoo Lucknawi for Hansraj Behl, was a nation wide hit.
Another solo was TAN PHOONKTA HAI, which was penned by
Shikarpuri who also wrote the Rafi-Lata duet: SUN LO MERA
AFSAANA. The other lovable duet of Rafi-Lata was written by
Shameen: USS CHAAND SE PYAARE CHAAND HO. It appears that the
same duet was recorded in the voice of Mukesh and Geeta Roy but
was not retained.
Hansraj Behl gave five songs to Rafi in Rumaal:
A solo: DIL TOOTAA AUR ARMAAN LOOTE, and four duets out of
which three were with Bina Pani and one with Asha Bhonsle: HAM
MAATI SE SONA BANAAYENGE; O LACHHI LACHHI TUU MANN KI; and
TUMSE MILAAKAR NAINA were the duets with Bina Paani.
A lone duet with Asha Bhonsle was: LO DOOM DUBAA KAR BHAAGE
written by Nazim Panipati. The other songs were written by Mulkraj
Bhakri.
In Zevraat there was his notable solo, AAKAASH PE REHNE WAALE,

written by Habib Sarhadi. A duet with Lata Mangeshkar was: SAAJAN
KI OT LEKE.
Karvat had a Geeta-Rafi duet: Gaya Andhera .... Jaag Uthe Sansaar ,
written by S. K. Dipak.
In Chakori, Rafi had three solos written by Mulkraj Bhakri: KYOO.N

GARM SARD HOTE HO; PREET LAGAA KE CHALE GAYE; and ISS
DUKHIYAA JAWAANI KI HAI BAS ITNI.
Raaz had the solo SAMAY KA CHAKKAR SAU BAL KHAAYE which was
composed by Sardar Malik and written by one Meeraji.
Incidentally, Hansraj Behl's last great composition would also be

sung by Mohammed Rafi in Sikandar-e-Azam (1965): JAHAAN DAAL
DAAL PAR SONE KI CHIDIYAAN KART HAIN BASERA...
With Naushad:
We have seen above that the young singer of 19 years of age had
sung his own first Hindi song in Pehle Aap, HINDUSTAA.N KE HAMM
HAI.N, plus two more songs which were anything but solos. What
strikes me regarding Naushad is that he gave a solo number to Rafi
Sahaab only in 1946, while Rafi Sahaab also recorded so many
excellent songs for other music directors even prior to 1946; and
then he gave just another solo number after two years in Mela
(1948). It was as late as in 1949 that Naushad gave a real break to
Rafi by recording his lead solos for the heroes in Dillagi, Dulari and
Chandni Raat which had lyrics by Shakeel Badayuni.
Rafi got to sing the choicest of songs in Dillagi for the main lead in
Dillagi - the Suraiya and Shyam starrer: TERE KOOCHE ME.N
ARMAANON KEE DUNYA LEKE AAYA HOON, and ISS DUNYAA ME.N AY
DILWAALO.N.
And the ever-popular, the evergreen, song from Dulari: SUHAANI

RAAT DHAL CHUKI filmed on the hero, Suresh, has become a legend.
This was Rafi Sahaab’s favourite song. Dulari also had the pleasant
Rafi-Lata duet: MIL MILKE GAAYENGE HO DOH DIL YAHAAN; and
RAAT RANGEELI MAST NAZAARE.
In Chandni Raat, Rafi sang a solo: DIL HO UNHEN MUBAARAK JO DIL

KO DHOONDTE HAIN which proved very popular in 1949. The others
were duets with Shamshad Begum: KAISE BAJE DIL KAA SITAAR,
which has a good accompaniment of piano, and KHABAR KYAA THEEH
KE GHAM KHAANA PADEGAA. However, by Rafi’s standards these
songs are of low notes.
Mehboob’s Andaz had the Rafi-Lata duet: YOON TOH AAPAS MEIN
BIGADTE HAIN which was filmed on Nargis and Raj Kapoor. Another
lively Rafi-Lata duet, SUN LO DIL KA AFSAANA DUNYAA DIL KE
BASAAKE NAA BHOOL JAANA was, however, not used in the movie.
This was also the fate of a Mukesh song: KYOON PHERI NAZAR
DEKHO TOH IDHAR.
With C. Ramchandra:
C. Ramchandra was himself a singer who sang as "Chitalkar" and so
we don’t find him using Mohammed Rafi much. As we noted before,
he did use Rafi in Safar, Sajan and Nadiya Ke Paar in previous years.
C. Ramchandra gave some beautiful duets and solos to Rafi in 1949.
The Duniya duets with Suraiya were HAAY RE TUUNE KYAA KIYAA,
and QISMAT KE LIKHE KO. The solos were RONA HAI TOH RO
CHUPKE and ISS WAADE KA MATLAB KYAA.
In Patanga, BOLOJI DIL LOGE TOH KYAA KYAA DOGE was Rafi’s duet
with Shamshad Begum.
In Namoona, TADPAA KE MUJHE was the duet song which Rafi sang
with Lata.
The next decade would find “Anna” C. Ramchandra using lots of

western instruments such as bongo, clarinets, oboe, saxophone. He
also used the alto-sax with guitar and harmonica. His autobiography
written some 30 years later, "Maajhya Jeevnaachee Sargam" (My
Life's Melody) makes interesting reading and throws light on his
personal relationship with his muse and his fall-out later.
With S. Mohinder:
Rafi had four duets in Jeewan Saathi:
Two with Shamshad Begum: MILKAR JAAYEN HAM PREET and

MUHABBAT ROG BAN KAR.
One duet with Amirbai: MAI.N KAISE KEH DOON.
One duet with Chand Barq: CHAAND KI GOD MEIN...
With Bulo C. Rani:
Bulo C. Rani utilized Rafi in Gareebi. The two solos that Rafi sang
were: KISI SE HAMNE POOCHAA and EK DIN EK ARMAAN BHARA DIL.
A duet with Shamshad Begum was AY SAMNE AANE WAALE BATAA.
Some of the other movies in which Mohammed Rafi recorded his

songs were:
With Khemchand Prakash:
Rhimjhim: A duet with Ramola: HAWA TUU UNSE JAAKAR KEHDE,

written by Moti of Sajan fame.
Sawan Aaya Re: A duet with Shamshad Begum: AY DIL NAA MUJHE
YAAD AA, written by Bharat Vyas.
With Sajjad/Nisar Bazmi/Khumar Barabankavi.
In Roop Lekha there was a solo of Rafi: TEER PE TEER KHAAYE JAA.
A duet with Surinder Kaur was: TUM HO JAAO HAMAARE KABHI.
With Mohammed Shafi:
In Gharana, there were two duets of Rafi: One with Paro: TUU
KAHAAN HAI BAALAM.
The other was with Shyama Bai: FARIYAAD NAA KARNAA HAAY
KAHEEN.
With Sharmaji (Khayyam):
In Parda, there were two solos of Rafi: SITAMGAR SE LETA HAI TUU
INTEQAM, penned by Tanvir Naqvi; and the other one penned by
Swami Ramanand: IK DIL NE KAHAA, a beautiful sad song indeed.
In Jannat, Bashir Khan was the music director. One of the solos of
Rafi was: JAHAAN QISMAT TERI MEHFIL SE and, penned by M.K.
Chibbar.
In Chilman, H.P. Das was the composer while P.L. Santoshi was the
lyricist. One of the Rafi solos was: ZAHE QISMAT TERI MEHFIL SE JO.
He sang a duet with Mukesh: JALEN JALNE WAALE HAMKO JAISE.
Krishna Dayal was the music director of Lekh which had a Qamar
Jalalabadi lyrics sung by Rafi and Asha: KAR LE KISEE SE PYAAR.
In Nisbat, the music was composed by Pandit Govindram. The Rafi-

Shamshad duet was: TAARON KA YEH KHAZAANAA. Majrooh wrote
the lyrics.
Kaneez had three music directors: O.P. Nayyar made a debut with the
background music. Ghulam Haider provided the usual music. There
was a duet of Rafi and S.D. Batish: HAR AYSH HAI DUNYAA MEIN
AMIRON KO. On the other hand, Hansraj Behl provided the music for
the very famous Rafi song: ISS DIL SE TERI YAAD BHULAAYI
NAHEEN JAATI. O.P. Nayyar would not taste success with his movies,
Aasmaan, Chham Chhama Chham, and Jaal, till as late as 1953. His
success story belongs to the Fifties and thereafter, and amazingly he
never ever used Lata Mangeshkar.
The year 1949 is noteworthy for the new entrants Shankar and
Jaikishan who would since gradually leave all the other musicians
behind for at least two decades. They had worked as assistants to
Ram Ganguly who provided music for Raj Kapoor’s first directorial
venture, Aag in 1948. Raj Kapoor knew that for his home-production
Barsaat the Aag type of music would just not do. He wanted
something new. He therefore gave a break to the musical duo of
Shankar-Jaikishan who also "discovered" Lata Mangeshkar and
recorded their first song in her voice: JIYA BEQARAR HAI. All the
songs of Barsaat were hit and they created a history of sorts.
However, their style initially resembled that of Husnlal-Bhagatram
whom they had assisted before. How could they leave out
Mohammed Rafi? His song went thus: MAIN ZINDAGEE MEIN
HARDAM ROTAA HI RAHAA HOON. The high notes, KHAMOSH..
KHAMOSH MOHABBAT LIYE PHIRTAA HI RAHAA HOON sung by Rafi
effortlessly put life into the lyrics. The combination of Mohammed
Rafi and the Shankar-Jaikishan musical duo would rise to its greatest
height in the Sixties.
Mohammed Rafi with Jaikishan

In 1949, Khurshid Anwar came back to India from Pakistan. He had
been a music director of several films in the pre-partition years, but
it was his musical composition in Saigal-Suraiya starrer, Parwana
(1947)that made him very famous. Surprisingly for the riot ravaged
lands, this movie had done a great business among the Muslims of
Lahore and the Sikhs and Hindus of Amritsar. Khurshid Anwar is
known for hiring Roshan as a dilruba player (while with AIR Delhi)
and also for giving a break to Rajkumar in Kurmai - an early Forties
Punjabi film of A.R. Kardar. It is also to be noted that Lata
Mangeshkar has rued the fact that she did not get an opportunity to
sing the musical compositions of Khurshid Anwar. After coming back
he composed music for three movies: Singar, Nishana and Khamosh
Sipahi which were released in the early Fifties. Before he went back
to Pakistan, he composed the music for Neelampari (1952) which
incidentally was his only movie that featured Mohammed Rafi, and
that was a duet with Geeta Roy: CHAAHE QISMAT HAMKO RULAAYE.
NASIR
To continue...
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2009

Nasir.
Rafi Sahaab used to work very hard on each and every song he was
asked to sing. To surmarise, during the years 1944-1949, Rafi
Sahaab worked with the following lyricists and music directors:
Some of the lyricists who worked with Rafi Sahaab in the Forties:
Majrooh Sultanpuri, Tanvir Naqvi, Pandit Mukhram Sharma, Mahipal,

D.N. Madhok, Gopal Singh Nepali, Wali Sahaab, Rupbani, Pandit
Indra, Pt.Fani,
Gaafil Harnalvi, Hanuman Prasad, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Moti, Qamar
Jalalabadi, M. Ibrahim, Ram Murti, Shakeel Badayuni, Wahshi
Jaunpuri, Amar Verma, Avtar Visharad, Asghar Sarhadi, Mohan
Mishra, J.Naqshab, P.L. Santoshi, Manohar Khanna, Pilibheeti,
Deobandi, Fiza Kausari, Surjit Sethi, Sevak, Rajinder Krishan,
Ramesh Gupta, Shevan Rizvi, Habeeb Sarhadi, B.D. Mishra, B.R.
Sharma, Mulk Raj Bhakri, Bahzad, I.C. Kapoor, Mohan Misra, Kaifi
Irfani, Kedar Sharma, Sudarshan Faqir, Aziz Kashmiri, Bharat Vyas,
M.G. Adeeb, Sarshar, Nazim Panipati, Alam Siyahposh, S.K. Deepak,
S.H. Bihari, Arzoo Lucknowi, Swami Ramanand, Hazrat Lakh, M.K.
Chibbar, P.L. Santoshi, Shameen, Shikarpuri, Hamid Khumar, Hasrat
Jaipuri, Meeraji, Gulshan Bawra, and Khumar Barabankavi
Some of the Music Directors who worked with Mohammed Rafi in the
‘Forties:
Naushad, Shyam Sunder, Pandit Govindram, Chitragupt, A.R.

Qureshi, Datta Devjekar,Premnath, S.D. Burman, Naresh
Bhattacharya, B.S. Thakur, Mohammed Shafi, Azim Khan, Sudhir
Phadke, Prakash Sharma, Firoze Nizami, Datta Thakar, Gyan Datta,
Amirbai Karnataki, Hansraj Behl, Husnlal-Bhagatram, Shankar Rao
Vyas, S. Purshottam, Shaukat Hussain, Dhumi Khan, S.N. Tripathi,
Ghulam Mohammed, Shankar Rao Vyas, Ram Ganguli, Master Ghulam
Haider, Datta Thakur, Vinod, Khemchand Prakash, Bulo C. Rani,
Sharma ji, Basheer Khan, H.P. Das, Krishna Dayal, S. Mohinder,
Shankar-Jaikishan, Sardar Mallik, Rashid Atre, Tufail Farooqi and
Khan Mastana.
As we noted before, by 1947 especially after Jugnu, Rafi Sahaab’s
name became a household name and that his songs had become a
run-away hit with the masses. Rafi Sahaab’s voice had laid the
foundation in the forties to make the business of musical recording
songs more exciting. He had proven his magic in the ‘Forties and the
Nineteen-Fifties was beckoning him with open arms. Of course, in
the next decade he was going to astonish his music directors and the
lovers of music by his wonderful feat of powerful singing and
versatility that had not been attempted before with such success. In
the process he would ‘liberate’ the music directors from their beaten
path of low octaves and limited range and scope within which they
composed their songs.
The presence of senior male singers such as G.M. Durrani, Surendra,

Khan Mastana, Shyam and others could not suppress the rising star.
But then, they too were gentle souls. As Rafi Sahaab recounted:
”’Unki Khoobi yeh thi janaab ke’ instead of considering me as yet
another competitor they encouraged me to give my best….” And this
is what Rafi Sahaab himself did along the way. Later, not only he
used to recommend to music directors those playback singers who
were once a force to reckon with, but he also made it a point to
encourage the new talents to give their best without considering
them as his competition – which brings me to Mahendra Kapoor since
his story unfolds in Nineteen Forties.
As we all know, Mahendra Kapoor was a huge fan of Mohammed Rafi
whose voice and songs had enchanted him since his early age and he
would sing in the style of his icon at Amritsar. He once purchased a
record of Jugnu but to his dismay found that the record did not have
the male singer’s name. After lots of enquiries he learnt that the
name of the singer was Mohammed Rafi.
Even when the family shifted to Bombay, his craze increased all the
more so that even at school he would scribble “Rafi, Rafi, Rafi” in his
class note-book. Seeing the litany, we are told, that his class-teacher
scolded him. One of his more knowledgeable class-mates then gave
him the address of Mohammed Rafi who was still at Bhendi Bazaar –
indicating that it was the earliest phase of the singer then. Mahendra
then went there all alone to meet his icon with the sole wish “Bin
Guru Gyan Kahaan Se Paaoon.” Seeing his love and devotion,
Mohammed Rafi accepted him as his disciple, teaching him how to
play the Harmonium and even taking him along with him to his
shows and recordings. The teacher would then treat him to a glass of
Lassi. Such details were known before but they were repeated by
Mahendra Kapoor’s son, Rohan Kapoor while accepting the award on
behalf of his father at the Tribute to a Legend show at the Indian
Museum Auditorium, Kolkata, on 30th November 2008. Rohan
Kapoor, the actor-singer son narrated the earliest phase of his
father’s brush with the Legendary Mohammed Rafi. The audience
was naturally spellbound and moved to tears. The student also took
the advice of his teacher seriously and began learning the Hindustani
classical music under Pandit Husnlal (of the musical duo Husnlal-
Bhagatram) and Tulsiram Sharma.
Rest of the story of Mahendra Kapoor belongs to the late ‘Fifties, and
I would have left it at that if it were not for certain comments of Raju
Bharatan: “Kapoor may not have matched Rafi but he was so
committed to his craft that he always kept Rafi on his toes.”
The craft lies in this statement. Note how a damaging idea is

interwoven along with a seeming praise in a single sentence which
does service neither to Mohammed Rafi nor to Mahendra Kapoor. At
the outset I may state that there was never any question of matching
Mahendra Kapoor with Mohammed Rafi, least of all keeping
Mohammed Rafi on toes!
If the case of Mahendra Kapoor was like any other normal

competition, then there would have been some semblance of sanity
in Raju’s statement. Besides, this was not the sibling rivalry of some
noted playback singers. Nor was it the story of “Abhimaan” of a
wife’s or husband’s one upmanship. For Mahendra Kapoor,
Mohammed Rafi was a father figure. Nay, he was more: He was his
Guru, his idol! A father is always proud of his obedient and successful
son. A guru is always proud of his chela even if he exceeds him in
wealth and fame, which of course was not the case here any way.
The pages of history is replete with such examples. The clinching
evidence for rebuttal of Raju’s statement has its roots in the
Nineteen Forties, which we have noted above. Therefore, Raju’s
statement should have read: “Kapoor may not have matched Rafi but
he was so committed to his craft that he made Rafi proud of him.”
Nothing more needs to be said. More rebuttals would require an
article by itself.
To state briefly, how much Mahendra Kapoor loved and respected

Rafi Sahaab was exhibited by him unabashedly after doing a show at
the Royal Albert Hall in Lodon. When Rafi Sahaab’s sons went to pay
their respects to “uncle” Mahendra Kapoor backstage the latter
astounded them by touching their feet in a humble obeisance
instead. At that time Mahendra Kapoor made a very significant
statement:
“I’m only paying respects to my Guru with whose blessings,
grooming and guidance I’m here and a packed audience has come to
her me.”
We’ve to remember always: Mahendra Kapoor was not a competition
for Rafi Sahaab who had taught him the rudiments of songs and
music and after his lessons had recommended him to many film
personalities, including B.R. Chopra. The best period of Mahendra
Kapoor's creativity was during the lifetime of Rafi Sahaab. Mahendra
Kapoor’s success must have surely delighted Rafi Sahaab, just as the
miserable conditions of some of the yesteryear singers used to cause
him pain so that he would quietly recommend them also to music
directors of the day. Sometimes he helped them monetarily. Not only
such singers but also the music directors who had fallen on bad
times used to receive regular checks for a number of years without
their knowing who was their benefactor. It was only decades later
one day when the cheques stopped coming that they realised that
Mohammed Rafi Sahaab had been their benefactor all along.
Mahendra Kapoor was the torch-bearer of the Mohammed Rafi
School. This torch came to be later passed on to Anwar, Shabbir
Kumar, Mohammed Aziz, Udit Narayan and Sonu Nigam and others
about whom the world will soon know. At the same time, the name
and fame of Mohammed Rafi is growing by leaps and bound even
after nearly 30 years of his demise.
Let’s hark back to the Forties! In his early career in the Forties, Rafi
Sahaab never faced the kind of rejections, say, as Lata Mangeshkar
did. The young Rafi was lapped up wherever he went. It’s true that in
the Forties we have no Rafi songs for Anil Biswas according to whom
Rafi was not quite fit for his compositions. He was no O.P. Nayyar
who never used Lata Mangeshkar all his life. Anil Biswas did use Rafi
only in the Fifities but that was not out of condescension. That was
the time when Mohammed Rafi was rising and rising, and Anil Biswas
was sliding and sliding, especially after 1958 whereafter he could do
just about ten films – the last being Chhoti Chhoti Baaten (1965) –
the time when Rafi Sahaab was at the zenith of his singing career.
But the gentleman that he was Rafi Sahaab did not mind singing for
him. He sang for him in Beqasoor (1950): KHABAR KISEE KO NAHEEN
VOH KIDHAR DEKHTE HAIN sung by Rafi, Durrani and Mukesh; in
Paisa Hi Paise (1956): PYAAR KIYA JHAK MAARI which was a solo
comedy song; a duet with Asha: UFF NAA KARNA KE MERI
MOHABBAT BADNAAM HO; and ULFAT MEIN HAR EK which was sung
by Rafi-Kishore and Asha (Kishore Kumar was the hero) and a duet
with Kishore Kumar: LELO SONE KA LADDU; in Heer (1956): two
solos: ALLAH TERI KHAIR KARE and LE JAA USKI DUWAAYEN; and a
duet with Asha: O KHAAMOSH ZAMAANA HAI; in Abhimaan (1957):
CHALI JAWAANI THOKAR KHAANE which is a didactic duet with Asha
Bhonsle; and a solo in Sanskar: WAAH RE TIKDAMBAAZI.
With all respects for him, I’m constrained to quote one Anonymous in
his review of “How the Golden Age of Bollywood should have
sounded:”
“Bollywood productions during the career of Mohammed Rafi (1946-

1980) unfortunately employed some of the worst recording
techniques ever - thanks to a certain Anil Biswas, who although
revered for his music abilities obviously knew very little about how
to use a music recording studio. ... “
Even decades later, Anil Biswas targeted Mohammed Rafi, and then
Kishore Kumar himself did not take it kindly and put a poser to him:
“How could Rafi then remain on the top for two decades?” Anil
Biswas, of course, had no answers. Kishore Kumar certainly
remembered that in Haathi Mere Saathi (1971) the song NAFRAT KI
DUNYAA was not his cup of tea and so Rafi Sahaab was called to sing
it. And he did sing it without any trace of complaint or hurt as to why
he was not called to render it in the first place. It was not for nothing
that Kishore Kumar had a huge portrait of Mohammed Rafi fixed on
the wall of the drawing-room of his home at Juhu, Mumbai. He had
frankly told one of his loyal fans that he himself was the fan of Rafi
Sahaab. “If you insult him, you insult me!”
Similarly Anil Biswas praised Manna Dey no ends saying that he was
the only singer who took down notations of every song and did the
song in one take. He told him that he could sing whatever Rafi, or
Kishore or Mukesh or Talat Mehmood could sing but that they
couldn’t what he sang. Manna Dey had this to say:
“That’s very generous of him. He was very fond of me, but I don’t
think there is anyone to touch Mohammed Rafi.”
But whatever his predilections might have been, Anil Biswas could
not escape the touching impact of Rafi Sahaab’s good nature and
humility, as he himself confessed, for the latter had no grudges
despite being ignored by him. We can only say that it was not the
loss of Rafi Sahaab who has by his songs immortalised even the
lesser-known musicians whose names might have sunk into oblivion
if it were not for the songs that he sang for them. But as Rafi Sahaab
used to say: “Yeh Sab Khuda ki Dain Hai.”
NASIR
To be concluded....
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2009

Concluding Part of the Tribute to the Greatest Playback Singer of All
Times – by Nasir:
Here on the Bollywood music scene in the Forties, Mohammed Rafi

surmounted all competitions and emerged as a winner. According to
statisticians, when the Forties ended, Rafi Sahaab had sung more
songs than the combined songs of all the male playback singers,
including Mukesh, Talat Mehmood, Hemant Kumar, Manna Dey,
C.Ramchandra and Kishore Kumar. Similarly, by the end of the
decade Zohrabai would top the chart for the most popular female
singer, recording three times more songs than either Lata
Mangeshkar or Geeta Roy. Asha Bhonsle was nowhere in the
reckoning.
In the Fifties, it would be a tough going for Mohammed Rafi what

with Mukesh competing for the sad songs plus mainly the Raj Kapoor
songs, Talat Mehmood competing mainly for ghazals and nazams and
romantic songs plus Dilip Kumar songs, Manna Dey competing mainly
for classically-based songs, patriotic songs and the Bhajans, with C.
Ramchandra also trying to fill in the gaps wherever he could, Hemant
Kumar competing for Pradeep Kumar songs, and coming out with
beautiful romantic solos and duets and ‘loris’ (lullabies), Kishore
Kumar competing for comedy songs plus mainly Dev Anand's songs
and the compositions of S.D. Burman. Happily, Naushad would revise
his preferences for one reasons or another in the Fifties and stand by
Mohammed Rafi like a solid rock. But that alone would not do. Rafi
Sahaab had to work his way around all the music directors if he were
to survive. This he did very deftly by keeping himself abreast of the
times by always being a learner and cultivating good habits such as
hard work, punctuality, genuine humility, and giving 100% to the
songs whether they were composed by the mighty music directors or
by the small ones, or even by little known artistes who wanted to
cling to his name in order to seek their bread and butter in the film
industry. Thanks to his understanding of the classical Hindustani
music and his versatility to sing all genres of songs, his “adaaygi” his
pure diction and “throw” of words to suit the mood of the songs,
backed by his powerful but soft and mellifluous voice, Mohammed
Rafi Sahaab left all of them in awe whoever heard him.
By the mid-Fifties and towards the end of that decade he would not
only fill in the void left by the previous legend, K.L. Saigal, but with
passage of time he would also acquire the irrefutable position of
being the Greatest playback singer of all times in the annals of the
Indian film industry. By adapting himself to the changing face of
music, he left an undelible impression on the music itself, setting up
excellent standards for the aspiring singers. His voice never sounded
monotonous despite the thousands of songs that he left to posterity.
Despite the very stiff competition for Rafi Sahaab, history was to
repeat itself by the next decade too. When the Fifties ended, Rafi
Sahaab again, had recorded more songs than the combined figures of
Talat Mehmood, Manna Dey, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar, C.Ramchandra
and Kishore Kumar. So when the time permits we’ll have a dekho of
the Nineteen Fifties!
In conclusion, it will be interesting for us to know how the film
industry people found Mohammed Rafi when they saw him for the
first time. Who else could be the most qualified in this respect than
the Thespian Dilip Kumar himself, the most revered acting legend in
the sub-continent of India and Pakistan!
According to Dilip Kumar, he found Mohammed Rafi a very handsome

man when he first set his eyes on him at the Bombay Talkies, in the
Nineteen Forties. He found his personality impressive and there was
something in his eyes which attracted Dilip Kumar to him, telling him
that “he would have a nice tuning” with this newcomer. When Dilip
Kumar heard Mohammed Rafi sing for the first time, he immediately
felt that this was no ordinary singer, for here was the young man
who had come into the field of playback singing fully prepared. The
emotions in the singing voice of Mohammed Rafi that Dilip Kumar
heard for the first time were such that he could never forget even
after decades had passed away. How could he? Was it not
Jugnu(1947) that heralded the arrival of these brightest stars on the
horizons of singing and acting? He believes that all the emotions
made Mohammed Rafi’s singing “complete” in all respects, and
therefore he could sing with complete ease whether it was a tragic or
sad song, a light peppy song, a classical song or a romantic duet.
Even after five decades, the song MADHUBAN MEIN RAADHIKA
NAACHE RE (Kohinoor – 1960) doesn’t fail to overwhelm Dilip Kumar
on whom the song was beautifully picturised. He says that Rafi’s
voice had tremendous talent, and with Naushad his voice used to
reach even greater heights.
However, Dilip Kumar feels that since Mohammed Rafi was a simple
person who could not say no, this “Emperor of Voice and Melody”
was exploited by some music directors who made him sing some
third-class songs. He remembers that in 1969 and the early
Seventies when people were talking of how Kishore Kumar had
“dismantled the position” of Mohammed Rafi, the latter was not even
slightly affected by it. Nor did he reply those critics with words. “It
was always his voice and songs that used to do the talking.”
Surmises the Tragedy King: “Rafi is not among us today but his voice
and his songs are still there with us.”
One could go on writing about the Legendary Mohammed Rafi

Sahaab forever, for such was his persona and charisma as well as the
impact on the Indian film industry, its films, music, musicians and
film stars. As long as there are people who love good songs and
music, and take pride in the rich heritage of our films and musical
traditions; as long as there are people who value sterling personal
character, altruism, charity and faithfulness; as long as there are
people who are moved by pain and sufferings of humanity, as long as
there are people who are in quest of true songs of love, romance,
philosophy and devotion, the name of Mohammed Rafi Sahaab will
always come to the fore to emblazon the cultural and humane side of
Bollywood.
NASIR.
Concluded.

Mohammed Rafi & The Nineteen Forties

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PUBLISHED IN THE BLOG: RAFI & THE FORTIES:

MOHAMMED RAFI AND THE NINETEEN FORTIES - PART 1.

A Humble Tribute to the Greatest Playback Singer of all times – by

In order to appreciate the genius of the Indian Legendary Singer,

There was no playback system. Direct recording meant that the

With the dawn of Saigal era (1932-1947) new techniques evolved

It was R.C. Boral (d.1981), a stalwart of the New Theatres at

As before, music, songs and dance, became an integral part of Indian

Some of the singers of the decade between the Nineteen Thirties to

Coming to the contemporaries of Mohammed Rafi, we have Talat

A Humble Tribute to the Greatest Playback Singer of all times – by

Let’s now have some glimpses of the Mohammed Rafi’s pilgrim

Now, there used to be lot of vehicular traffic between Amritsar and

“A day would come when you would be a much sought-after singer.”

Rafi’s musical training continued under Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan.

C. Ramchandra made his debut in Sukhi Jivan. Baby Mumtaz

In the film annals, 1943 is remembered for the blockbuster movie,

A Humble Tribute to the Greatest Playback Singer of all times – by

Devika Rani selected a youthful peshwari Pathan named Yusuf Khan

The Jwar-Bhata song by Arun Kumar, SANJH KEE BELAA PANCHEE

PART 4: MOHAMMED RAFI AND THE NINETEEN FORTIES.

After arriving in Mumbai, Mohammed Rafi took up a modest

This observation was significant as Roshan Ara Begum had herself

Homi Wadia of Wadia Movietone was tremendously impressed with

, SEPTEMBER 27, 2009

PART 5: MOHAMMED RAFI & THE NINETEEN FORTIES.

Looking outside of India, the use of atomic bombs by the USA in

In India, by 1946, winds of change were blowing more and more

Sometimes, when the law and order situations prevailed, the

The theatres or rather the “Talkies” which exhibited hundreds of

Before 1946 the cutting of records was in the hands of a single

The visually-challenged musician and singer, K.C. Dey was an

He asked his uncle: “’Why can’t I sing it?’

My uncle said ‘No you can’t! Only he can sing this.’

I swallowed my pride and fetched him and then after he finished

Similarly, there is an incident which does not belong to the Forties

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

PART 6: MOHAMMED RAFI & THE NINETEEN FORTIES.

Two solos: PRAAN TYAAG KAR TUUNE DEEWAANEE; and TO.DO

MERA SWAPN BA.DAA SUHAANAA; JAAKE PARDES PIYAA BHOOL NAA

Music was by C.Ramchandra. The notable solos of Rafi Sahaab are:

RAHE TOH KAISE RAHE DIL PE IKHTIYAAR, which had music by

Shah Jahan and Anmol Ghadi.

The songs of Anmol Ghadi are etched in everyone’s memory. So when

Naushad would be fulfilling the wishes of the young singer by giving

Millions of people were dislocated on either side. At least a million

A.R. Kardar’s Shah Jahan, V.Shantaram’s Dr. Kotnis ki Amar Kahani,

(This "void" can be explained better with an example: After Rafi

India suffered a loss of many film artistes who permanently shifted

Dev Anand and Balraj Sahni had graduated from Government

PART 8: MOHAMMED RAFI & THE NINETEEN FORTIES.

A Humble Tribute to the Greatest Playback Singer of all times – by

Let’s check out some 1947 songs of Rafi Sahaab:

The success of Anmol Ghadi had boosted the confidence of Noor

“Iss ke Baad Rafi Sahaab ko kabhee peechhe naheen dekhnaa

1982 a show called Mortal Men, Immortal Melodies (as

Aap Ki Sewa Mein:

C. Ramchandra provided excellent music. Mohammed Rafi gave us a

Other duets with Lalita are KISKO SUNAAOO.N HAAL-E-DIL, and

Shanti: JEEVAN HAI ANMOL, and QISMAT KO DEKHO HAMSAFAR for

Malika: DAS NA JAAYEN ZULFEN TUJHKO which was composed by

Utho Jaago: PREM KI NAIYA DOL RAHEE HAI, composed by Aziz

Rishta: MAYA MANN KA ROG HAI penned by Wahshi Jaunpuri and