Mohammed Rafi formed an eternal part of Indian Music. Mohammed Rafi was a great Indian playback singer. The legendary singer took birth on Dec' 24, 1924 at Kotla Sultanpur (used to be the part of undivided Punjab). The singing career of Rafi germinated from the chant of a beggar (fakir), which he imitated in his village. Mohammed Hameed was the elder brother-in-law of Mohammed Rafi and he was the one, who encouraged Rafi to take up a career in singing.
Mohammed was imparted training of Hindustani classical music, by the marvels of Indian Music, namely Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Pandit Jiwanlal Matto and Firoze Nizami. The life of Rafi took a major turn on the day, when he went to attend the concert of K.L. Saigal with Hameed. Instance of power failure, made the legendary singer to give his first public performance at the age of 13.
Here, he came into the notice of Shyam Sunder, who offered him the opportunity to sing a duet song for a Punjabi film 'Gul Baloch' in 1942. After this, Rafi was requested to sing permanently for Lahore Radio Station. To start a full-fledge career in singing, Rafi decided to shift to Mumbai in 1944. In Mumbai, Tanvir Naqvi introduced Rafi to several leading producers like Abdul Rashid Kardar, Mehboob Khan and actor-director Nazeer.
Ultimately, he sang the first song "Hindustan ke hum hain" in chorus. Following this, he sang other song for "Gaon Ki Gori" (1944) for Shyam Sunder. "Aji dil ho kaaboo mein" was regarded as the first Hindi song by Rafi himself. In the meantime, Rafi got married to one of his cousins. For the first time in 1945, Rafi sang as well as appeared on the silver screen for the song "Tera Jalwa Jis Ne Dekha" from the film 'Laila Majnu'.
Throughout his life, Mohammed Rafi added his musical voice to the songs of the Indian Cinema. Apart from Hindi songs, Rafi sang in several other languages too.
In 1968, Rafi also sang two Hindi songs in English. In also sang in Creole language, when he visited Mauritius in 1960's. "Pop Hits" is one of the two albums that the singer recorded in English.
He had been the first preference of all leading music directors and composers including O. P. Nayyar, Naushad, Shankar Jaikishan and Sachin Dev Burman. With the songs of 'Baiju Bawra' (1952), Rafi made a certain place for himself in playback singers of Bollywood. For the title song of Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1961), Rafi received him first Film fare Award. The first National Award went to him for the beautiful song, "Babul Ki Duaen Leti Ja" from 'Neel Kamal' (1968).
There are thousands of marvelous songs that are recognized with Mohammed Rafi. In 1965, the celebrated singer was honored with the title of 'Padam Shri' by the Indian Government. Rafi recorded less in the early years of 1970's as he was ill. At this time, Kishore Kumar arrived on the scene and sidelined Rafi on the singing scene. Again the versatile singer came back and proved himself. He sang some of the best songs of his life during this period.
In 1974, Rafi received the award for the best singer from Film World magazine for the song "Teri Galiyon Mein Na Rakhenge Qadam" (Hawas). His song "Kya Hua Tera Wada" from 'Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin' was a great success. This song led Rafi to receive both Filmfare Award and the National Award in 1977. Mohammed received numerous Filmfare and National awards for his extraordinary performances.
Rafi left this world on July 31, 1980 after a major heart-attack. The funeral procession of Mohammed was attended by large crowds. During his lifetime, Rafi sang around 26000 songs which made him the part of Guinness Book of World Records too. The legendary singer is remembered with admiration even today, since he has left such musical enunciation to the Film Industry which can hardly be obliterated.
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