Remembering Mohd. Rafi - A Tribute

Yesterday (July 31) was the twenty sixth death anniversery of Mohammad Rafi, who, in my opinion, is the greatest (male) singer of the hindi film industry. Rafisaab had a deep and melodious voice over which he had such control that he could sing just about any type of song. The genius of Rafi lies in the fact that he could make just about any song seem easy to sing. Perhaps no greater proof of his genuis can be found than the fact that Madan Mohan (of whom it was said that while the rest composed for the masses, Madan Mohan composed for the classes!) almost always preferred Rafi's voice for the male singer because only he could have done justice to his compositions.

In rememberence, I initially decided to list my ten most favourite songs of Rafi, but it was a damned difficult choice even with separate listings for solo and non-solo songs. Hence I have taken the easy way out and simply listed only those songs where Rafi sings for Madan Mohan! (Why Madan Mohan? Because he was the most brilliant of all music directors.)

1) Aakhri geet mohabbat ka suna loon toh chaloon

2) Aapke pehloo mein aakar ro diye

3) Baad muddat ki yeh ghadi aayi (with Suman Kalyanpur)

4) Main nigaahen tere chehre se hataaon kaise

5) Main yeh sochkar uske dar se uthaa tha

6) Meri duniya mein tum aaye (with Lata Mangeshkar)

7) Rang aur noor ki baarat kise pesh karu

8) Tu mere saamne hai

9) Tujhe kya sunaaon main dilruba

10) Tum jo mil gaye ho