Mohammed Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980)
Mohammed Rafi, the very name conjures up a picture of an ever smiling gentle faced human being with a heart of gold.
Born on December 24, 1924 in village Kotla Sultanpur, in district Amritsar of Punjab, now in Pakistan, Mohammed Rafi ruled the Bollywood playback singing arena, for over 35 years, till the time of his sudden death on 31st July 1980. A day earlier he recorded his last song whose lyrics ironically were, 'tu kahin aas paas hai dost' for the film "Aas Paas", meaning you are somewhere near about my friend.
Mohammed Rafi's nickname was 'pheeko'. According to Rafi, he was so very impressed with the singing of a fakir who sang while begging for alms in his village, that he used to follow him and hum his song. Seeds were sown of a future genius who was to scale unparalled heights in playback singing, in later years.
The story of Rafi's first performance is no less amazing. At a public performance the famous singer, Kundan Lal Sehgal was supposed to sing. But due to a power failure, K.L.Sehgal refused to sing. Seeing the crowd getting restless, Rafi's elder brother who incidentally had gone with Rafi to watch Sehgal sing, requested the organisers to let Rafi sing till the power came on. The 15 year old Rafi was a revelation to K.L.Sehgal who listened to him and predicted that Rafi was destined for bigger things. (Incidentally, the prophecy later proved true when Rafi became the most sought after singer of Indian playback singing fraternity.)
In the audience, was present Shyam Sunder, the great music composer, who had come to listen to K.L.Saigal. When he heard Rafi sing, he instinctively realised the latent talent in the young rafi and in 1944 at the age of 20 years Rafi sang his first song for the film 'Gul Baloch' under the music direction of Shyam Sunder.
He then shifted base to Bombay in 1944, was introduced to a few of the known music directors. He sang for Shyam Sunder again and for Naushad but his first hit song was for the film 'Jugnu" in 1947. He never looked back and went from strength to strength.
According to Rafi himself, he has sung about 25000 to 26000 songs during his singing career, as he reveals in an interview.
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