Drishtikone
In the series of famous and great creative talents that India has produced – here is another one – Mohd. Rafi! By far the GREATEST singer Indian cinema and Indian music had in centuries! Personally, I believe that if God could sing.. he would definitely sing in Rafi’s voice! Such was his sootheness! Enjoy a sample of his great voice in the audio clip above!
Rafi was born on 24th December 1924 in Kotla Sultan Singh, Amritsar, in a middle class Muslim family. His elder brother, Janab Hamid Sahab, was the first to take notice of the divine gift in Rafi’s coice. He decided to concentrate all his efforts in providing all the support needed by his brother to make it big in the music world.
At the age of seven, Rafi learnt Hindustani Classical music under the renowned Ustaad Bade Gulam Ali Khan and Vahida Khan.
In his life time, Mohd Rafi has sung more than 26,000 superhit songs.
Mohd Rafi started his career at the age of 20, with a punjabi song, Soniye Hiriye, teri yaad ne bahut sataya for the movie Gul Baloch, which was released on 28th February, 1944. The producer was Sham Sunderji, who was very much impressed by Rafi’s style of singing and did not think twice on booking Rafi for all his future films.
In 1944, Rafi was very famous as a singer. Many of his songs were sung by youths and school-going kids. Rafi was invited by Nasir, a well-known actor of those times to Bombay. From this point, there was no turning back. Rafi sang for Shamji Sundarji’s production Gaon Ki Gori. This movie was also a great hit. With this hit, Rafi was called Play Back Singer. He was famous and settled play back singer around 1948.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In