Mohammed Rafi

Mohammed Rafi the greatest Indian singer of the 20th Century was born on Dec. 24, 1924 in a small village called Kotla Sultan Singh, near Amritsar Punjab.  He was the fifth child of Hajji Ali Mohammed. He started his training under the guidance of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan and Pandit Jiwanlal Matto. During his career he worked with many famous music directors and composers of his era, such as Naushad, O.P. Nayyar, Shankar Jiakishan, S.D Burman, Ravi, Chitragupt and Roshan. Fortunate were his fans in the West Indies in 1966 when Rafi Saab toured the West Indies with performances in Trinidad, Guyana and Suriname. Accompanying this great artiste were Minoo Purshottam and great musicians such as Enoch Daniels (Accordion Player), Narayan Naidu (Drummer), Buji Lord (Percussionist) and a host of other artiste. Many of the fans of Trinidad, to date still remember the riveting performance by this gem of India, when he performed at the Naparima Bowl in San Fernando. Some of the songs he sang during this performance were O Duniya Ke Rakhwale and Man Tarpat Hari Darshan Ko Aaj leaving the packed house craving more of his melodious selections. This great artiste sang many Bhajans during his career, some of the most popular being Hey Shiva Shambo Hey Tripurari, Bare Pyar Se Milna Sab Se, Madhuban Me Radhika Naache, Kaha Chhupe Ho Raja Ram and Jiska Saathi Hai Bhagwan. He sang songs in many different languages including Hindi, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu and Maithili. During his singing career spanning 35 years he was awarded the National Film Award, Best Singer Award, Six Filmfare Awards and the Best Singer of the Millenium Award amongst others. In 1967 he was honoured with the Padma Shri Award by the Government of India. “He helped to enhance my reputation by singing many of my songs in a manner only he could sing. Of the seven notes in music, one note is no more.” (Naushad Ali) ”Rafi was the only real singer-a singer whose kind is born once in a century.” (Manmohan Desai) “Rafi Sahib was one of the most popular and acclaimed singers the country had produced. He was also a gem of a man, whose humility and self-effacing ways had endeared him to people in India and abroad.” (Dilip Kumar) Those tributes to Rafi Saab at his passing on July 31st, 1980 just about says it all. Up to present day it is still very soul stirring to listen to any of his very emotional renditions. It is an almost impossible task to do full justice to the achievements of this International Icon, but he totally did full justice to anything he sang, be it Patriotic songs, Bhajans, Film songs, Non-Film songs, English songs or Spanish songs. The incredible highs and lows that he could carry a song there is absolutely no one in comparison to the Late Great Mohd. Rafi.  We have also added a verbal Biography of the late Mohd. Rafi by Chandra Maharaj, with a sample of a song at the end. Please take a moment to listen to it. We have added Video Samples of this Great Icon for the listening pleasure of the many fans of the late Mohd. Rafi across the globe, taken from our library. (Copyright Nisha Sharma 2023)