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[Vatsan]

Dear friends.....this posting is for starters, a journey into the singing career of Mohammad Rafi with probably some snippets of information outside the ambit of his songs / singing. So here goes....an introduction....

First of all, many many thanks to Sampath for playing a part in starting this thread !!! Right now, my heart swells with love for this man, almost cannot contain the surge of love. God help me !!!! Right now I can embrace the entire humanity out of sheer love, forgiving all those defaulters who bludgeoned me, all those who laid thorns in my path through sheer deceit. None of that matters now, all that matters is we are doing a deep dive into the life and times of the behemoth of a playback singer, who currently assumes the status of a unique legend even for current day's legends.
31st July 1980 was the day, the soul enveloping the most beauteous of the beautiful human beings, the ever smiling, most beloved Rafi Saab, realized that end of its mission on earth was nigh and the mellifluous singing had to cease. And it did cease, plunging many of his fans into depths of despair and sorrow and left them craving for a reversal of a process that cannot be reversed. Rafi's soul had flown away, maybe to enact another life drama, maybe because it had "had enough" of life and longed to extricate itself from a beautiful life rendered complicated by thoughtless individuals perpetrating self-degrading human values.

The man had no manipulative streak in him. No, not for him, the usal debasement that comes along with popularity and the almost indispensible quality of his voicals that had no replacement. Rafi Saab himself had openly declared in the late seventies that when he made his entry into filmdom, the likes of KL Saigal, Surender, Durrani were ruling the roost but each one of them encouraged him , gently cajoling him into stretching deeper into himself to bring forth the artiste in him, in totality. Rafi’s meeting with the ruling legend then, Kundan Lal Saigal is as romantic as it gets on the Indian silver screen. KL Saigal was visiting Lahore in the pre-independent India for a live performance when the audio system failed. While the needful was being done by technicians, Rafi saab as a teenager was pitchforked into the situation to keep the audience engaged. Singing was Rafi’s forte even then and Rafi saab did more than keeping the crowd engaged, he entertained them with his singing, which later ejected out words of praise from the ruling Singing/ Acting super star himself. KL Saigal actually was being prophetic when he had predicted a very bright future for the teenager. As an aside, Rafi’s fans who would have seen or heard Rafi being interviewed and his monosyllabic answers to questions and prods would vouch for the fact that Rafi was bestowed upon those rubbery vocal cords solely for singing. Speaking seemed to be almost alien to him. His own son, Shaheed Rafi has often stated that when Rafi addressed him by his name, he couldn’t hear anything more than “Sha……” . He had to pay heed to the inaudible “heed” by closely watching the movements of Rafi’s lips . Literally, soft spoken !!!

Rafi’s musical tutelage was under Abdul Walid Khan as admitted by him in an interview. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan in another name that gets added to the list of Rafi’s gurus but that it yet awaiting validation from reliable sources. I am not aware of the extent of classical training Rafi saab underwent but I am sure that provided a robust enough foundation and imparted “elasticity” to his vocal cords that were waiting with bated breath to be put to good use. Rafi’s first song was composed by Shyam Sunder for the Punjabi movie “Gul Baloch” , with the British regime in operation, way back in 1944. Rafi’s true progress towards singing super stardom must have certainly received a great impetus when Naushad Ali (our own MSV’s manaseega guru) stepped into Rafi’s life. Or literally speaking, when Rafi stepped into the recording studio to meet Naushad Ali, with a recommendation letter from his own elder brother. Naushad Ali at that point in time, had had a string of super hits that had made the entire nation sway to the movements of his creative baton. The very musical presence of Naushad Ali in a movie was sufficient to raise expectations amongst the general public and therefore a guaranteed “initial draw”, that allayed the worst fears of distributors. Naushad while recalling his first meeting with who was to become his main singer as long as he was alive, seemed to be rejoicing at memory being infused with a fresh lease of life. Rafi, Naushad stated, came in with a recommendation letter and his only burning ambition in his life was to be part of the chorus for a KL Saigal song !!! Water never really knows its own depth, as it is said, but very true for Rafi as well !!! Rafi’s dreams were fulfilled, KL Saigal’s “Roohi o roohi mEri sapnOn kI rAnI” had Rafi too as a part of the chorus, but Naushad was magnanimous enough to award the last two lines of the song to Rafi, to be later picturized on a mendicant (???) who was supposed to make a sudden appearance on the screen. Thus began an association that was “meant to happen” with Naushad taking a step out of the way to rope in Rafi for a song in the Noorjehan starrer “anmol Ghadi”. Noorjehan was a singing star who migrated to Pakistan, post partition. Make a reference of “anmol Ghadi” to our very own Shri MSV , see his eyes light up, and see his eyes widen when you make a mention of “jawan hai mohabbat” and the Pahadi strains of “awaaz de kahaan hai”, all from the same movie !!! Rafi was awarded “tErA khilOnA toot gaya bAlak” , a song that I believe was eventually deleted from the movie when it was cast on the silver screen.
...more to follow....

[Baskar CS]

its a treasure vatsan to hear all this.

its like a grandma telling a story of the past .

how much of toil and pains people of those days had undergone and today any line can be added edited mixed in absentia of the singer and the
keybored had swallowed all the peculiar and big sized instruments of those days .

we need more such feast

[madhuraman]

Dear Mr. Bhaskar et al,

All the related events clearly portray a grand sacrifice of quality in the garb of advanced technology. As Mr. CS B has opined, the key board has swallowed all the 'large' instruments but has pathetically brought down the musical scintillation to its abject low, baling out sounds that reveal a pale shadow of the instruments intended.
There is another dimension to the issue. 'Rasikas' of the yester generation clearly perceive the drop in standards while the much later born do not even seem to recognize the abyss to which TFM has tumbled down.

On top of it, the current crop of TFM lovers go that far to ascribe innovations to these [de]compositions.
Though the keyboard has wiped out many instruments and instrumentalists in one stroke, it has not managed to prove any cost-cutting edge to the process of song recording. From every reckoning, quite a few 'positives' have been deeply eroded. Sadly, that is a part of TFM history.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Warm regards Prof.K.Raman Madurai
_________________
Prof. K. Raman
Mumbai

[Baskar CS]

yes professor .

its a true agony that is expressed .

it is similar to those primitive days where with no phone or communications we used to go and see relatives and friends but it had shrunk the relation and all are reached by mobile and it is good there is technology but at what cost .

the touch is lost .
same is the case of TFM . a song from a movie recently released is enjoyed by my son and he speak great about it and for the standards
of our master and many of those days this is a peanut .

but i feel the taste had fallen down and we are made to think that this is what the music is .