Rafi on his 40th Death anniversary

July 31 2020 recognises 40 luckless years without the peerless voice of Rafi - the finest male singing voice of all times - at least in my considered opinion. He was just 56 years old when someone up there decided that they needed his voice more than all of us did. After all, C Ramachandra who was the pivotal musical director during his formative years lavishing some of his finest creations on a fledgling Rafi as he was finding his feet in a musical market dominated by the great Saigal in the forties, had retired by then and found his eternal home a couple of years later. We had by then lost Jaikishen (of the Shanker Jaikishen fame) in 1971 - his good friend and who was the man behind some of the finest Rafi classics during the fifties and especially in the sixties. We had also lost Vasant Desai in 1975 who put Rafi through the classical paces in Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959), a movie where Vasant’s musical knowledge bowled over the shehnai maestro Bismillah khan. We had also by then lost S D Burman (also in 1975) who noted that he would not been able to deliver a Guide (1965) without the sonorous voice of Rafi. 

July, 1980 was a pivotal month / year in Indian when we had lost Uttam Kumar a few days before Rafi and Sanjay Gandhi, the heir apparent to the dynastic Congress party then ruling India after a brief dalliance with the Janata party.

Rafi’s death left a hole the music industry never really recovered - even though the quality of Bollywood music was rapidly approaching its nadir - the eighties, with the pelvic thrust of Disco Dancer with ‘music’ by Bappi Lahiri is enough to make a music lover wake up in cold sweat. So let’s hark back to the fifties and sixties when melody was queen and some of the finest songs were composed and sung. And when Rafi stood tall as the finest singing voice working with and delivering quality songs for Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar and the triumvirate of Raj Kumar and Dilip Kumar amongst others.

In one of my previous posts I had wondered why it took a decade for Shanker Jaikishen, as our preeminent music directors during the golden era of Bollywood music to decide on Rafi as their primary male voice while it took them no time at all to decide in Lata as their Numero uno female voice.  It must be noted that once SJ decided on Rafi they proceeded to lavish some of their finest melodies on the incomparable voice. And SJ - unlike with some other singers - never had a fall out with the genial Rafi and in fact Rafi was the arbiter when the hyphen between S and J was at threatening to break. The gentleman Rafi, the pugnacious Shanker and the classy Jaikishen delivered hits after hits through the sixties in the process creating and embellishing the onscreen persona of Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, Joy Mukhejee, Biswajit and many others .

So if I’m banished to a rocky outcrop - probably on account of my political views expressed unambiguously - what are those dozen or so Rafi numbers singing for the peerless SJ I would like to keep with me? Interesting question...

A self-imposed ban on tandems means I cannot choose great songs like Rafi’s brilliant riposte - aji humse bachkar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFzTQ1qJyag) - to Lata’s incredibly high pitched aji roothkar ab (Arzoo 1965 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJAx_2ZmiuM in which Lata complained to Jaikishen on the demands they were making on her voice), fails you find a suitable place. Not even the incredible Room jhoom ke bajao Bansuri from Pooja (1954) when SJ composed in Raag Maduvanti (here it here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlP_wxO3f7s - only one of the two occasions when this raag was used for a Bollywood song) for Krishna Rao Shankar and Rafi. And not even the David lip syncing Rafi duet from Boot Polish (1952) Nanhe munhe bachchey (sung by equal verve with Asha) that made my then eight year old niece tap her feet to the beat when she heard the song for the first time - hear it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJvcbkxG20A. So here goes my choices:

1. Teri pyari pyasi surat ko (Saural, 1961) - legend has it that Jaikishen was a loss when Hasrat presented the lyrics to him and asked plaintively - how can I compose to such words? Chashme badoor indeed! Hasrat replied - just let Rafi work his magic. And what magic he wove! Romantic.  Ethereal voice with romance dripping through every pore! Hear it again (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiWqgA5srHM) and watch Rajendra kumar woo a demure Byrappa Saroja Devi with the Rafi charm!
2. Dhere chal dhere chal Ye bheegi- (Boyfriend 1960) This Shammi - Madhubala starrer didn’t set the cash registers on fire - one of the rare SJ flops and some of the songs don’t get recognition either, amongst the sheer quality and quantity of great numbers picturised  on Shammi sung by Rafi but this - for me symbolises everything Shammi stood for. Fast with a beat, expressive and with just the right amount of mischief thrown in. Hear it again if you don’t believe me! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cW0x0qorV4
3. Main zindagi mein hardam rota hi haha hoon (Barsaat 1949)- the sole Rafi song from the movie that started it all. Barsaat marked a musical watershed in the annals of Indian Bollywood music and I have argued elsewhere it is probably - along with Awara (1951) - the  critical movie that made Hindi film music what it is today. And Barsaat had the incredible  voice of Rafi lending evocative pathos to Raj Kapoor’s on screen persona pining for Nargis. In a musical album dominated by Lata and Mukesh (both singing for the two leading men and ladies), Rafi leaves his imprimatur in his sole song in the breathtaking musical. Hear it again (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC4i1ECsee8)and let me know how SJ and Rafi were made for each other - they however took a decade more to realise it! 
4. Tumne Kisiki jaan ko (Rajkumar 1965) - My father always rated the other Rafi melody ‘Is Rang badalti duniya ko’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMbHY5S7WUs) in Rajkumar, again written by Hasrat as the superior composition in an album filled with chart busters, but for me the romance Rafi infuses when he sings ‘usakii judaaI dil par, nashtar chalaa rahii hai’ - is what makes this song what it is. And when Rafi gives a parting accent to the last ‘r’ in ‘wo dekho mujhse roothkar’ ! The best of Rafi signing for Shammi with music by SJ! Hear it again and let me know if Rafi and Shammi weren’t made for each other even for the soft and sentimental songs- with the nonpareil SJ giving the musical notes. Hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwfqaXbobDI
5. Ye mera prem patra padhkar (Sangam 1964). The song that almost ended the hyphen between S and J, this Jaikishen composed classic broke a rule SJ had to never divulge who composed which song. Controversies aside, Rafi and Jaikishen needed to bring something spectacular to match the depth and pathos in Mukesh’s Dost dost na raha (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY5AMJtMY3A) - the other pivotal song in a movie resplendent with some of the finest music delivered in Bollywood movies. And did Rafi bring all his singing mastery into the ‘Meherban likhoon’ start of this Rajendra Kumar lip synced classic! And the history of this song where Hastrat used the first couple of lines Jaikishen used to propose to Pallavi to create this classic ode to romance makes this number even more memorable! The king of romance - hear him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuaFmVz3dr8
6. Aaye Bahaar Ban Ke Lubha Kar Chale (Rajhath 1956). 1955-56 were stellar years for the SJ duo when they became firmly the numero uno music composers overtaking Naushad and C Ramachandra on they way.  In ’56 for example, 4 SJ movies jostled with each other for musical prominence - each better than the other, to wit - Chori Chori, Raj Hath, New Delhi and Basant Bahar. Basant Bahar demonstrated SJ’s firm grip on the classical music genre where Rafi and Manna jostled with each other to give notice of their prodigious classic music expertise, New Delhi gave evidence of their versatility in the Kishore starrer and Chori Chori won SJ the first of their 9 Filmfare awards. In the midst of all these, it was a tough choice for me to pick one number and I plonked for the high pitched, pathos laden Rafi singing for Pradeep Kumar in the Shorab Modi classic RajHath. Hear it again let me know if anyone but Rafi could have hit those heights! The heights of pitch and pathos - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WTFX75Z4fM
7. Tin Kanister peet peet kar, gala fad ke chillana (Love Marriage, 1959). By the late fifties the sole challenge for the SJ juggernaut came from the pugnacious, abrasive, creative Onkar Prasad Nayyar who was disrupting the music industry by a combination of earthy Punjabi folk with rumbustious rock’n’roll. SJ created this masterpiece ostensibly to point out to OP - 'Udhar se lekar idhar jama kar/ kab tak kam chaloge' - pointing that he cannot carry on for ever by copying from Western music and Rafi kept virtuoso pace flirting between classical music, incredibly high pitch and sheer melody.  Worth a hear! Hear the riposte to rock’n/roll - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo-pgebzQIg
8. Baharon phool barsao (Suraj 1966).  A BBC poll a couple of years earlier rated this as the finest Bollywood song of all times. And while I may beg to differ, it does come somewhere very close to the finest of all times! The romance in the voice allied to the melody created magic - so much so that Jem was inspired to create her own version half a century later! And for many of us who thought it was only Bollywood that shamelessly aped the West, here is news and here the proof  - these songs were released 4 decades+ apart! The Jem inspiration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4-k2nWywzg and the original   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMk9oVh1r6c
9. Main gaaon tum so jao (Brahmachari 1968), this dual sided Rafi number (one sad and the other a lullaby) lit up the album along with Chakke pe Chakka, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od5y7t2QPpM) Dil ke jharoke mein (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55Q4wry987Y) and Aaj Kal tere mere pyaar ke charche (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGfCyG9qgC0 -the last with Suman Kalyanpur doing her bit to prove she was more than a poor man’s Lata Mangeshkar) winning SJ another filmfare award and Rafi the best singer award. On another day I could have picked Dil Ke Jharoke mein where Shanker’s piano recital leading the song is a work of art but Main gaon tum so jao for me was just that bit sweeter, melancholic and Rafi’s voice as he sings ‘sukh sapnon mein so jao’ was suitably hypnotic to put you to sleep! As a quality lullaby should! Hear it again to rock you to sleep - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II1_eTlHcHA!!
10. Chahe koi mujhe junglee kahe (Junglee 1966) - And once Rafi and SJ drive you to a sweet slumber, who else but the Junglee himself will be needed to wake you up! Prakash Raj lip synced the famous Yahoo! in the song but Rafi sang it as if his life depended on it! Technically a duet, yes… but then when Shammi is prancing around the hills of snow-clad Kashmir, with the beauteous Saira Banu making her storied debut, who cares for trifles! Shanker Jaikishen defined the music for most of the fifties and sixties and for a generation of Indians, this song defined their identity! Hear it again! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ0NVhUUfwY