Mohammed Rafi (Hindi: मोहम्मद रफ़ी,Urdu: محمد رفیع, December 24, 1924 - July 31, 1980) was one of the greatest Indian playback singers in Bollywood. Rafi still remains popular in India and in many other parts of the world with people of Indian origin. His voice is referred to as "the voice of god". He continues to inspire new Bollywood playback singers like Sonu Nigam, Mohammed Aziz, Shabbir Kumar and Anwar.
During his film career, spanning 40 years(from 1940 to 1980) Rafi Sahab sang a wide variety of songs and versatality has been his forte. He could sing for any mood and for any actor with great ease. His songs ranged from classical numbers(Madhuban mein Radhika nache re) to songs that followed no rules of music (Uffu Khuda Unko hampe pyar aaya), from sad lamentations (Na kissi ke ankh ka noor hu) to highly romantic numbers(Aapke Haseen Rukh pe aaj naya noor hai), from qawallis(Hum Kissise Kum Nahin) to ghazals(Teri ankhon ke siva duniya mein rakha kya hai) and bhajans(Duniya na bhaye mohe ab to bulale), from slow melancholic tunes(Hum Bekhudi mein tumko pukare chale gaye) to fast masti-bhare geet(April Fool banaya). Rafi Sahab's patriotic songs like 'Watan pe jo Fida hoga', 'Kar chale hum fida' 'Jahan dal dal par' and 'Apni Azadi ko hum' are truly soul-stirring. RafiSaab could very beautifully express the hero's love for his 'mehbooba' and the same voice could also curse the 'bewafa lover'.
Powai - 14 December 08 : KLUB NOSTALGIA, the well known Powai based musical organization is organizing a Musical Show titled “Mohd Rafi, the versatile genius” on Wednesday the 24th December 08 coinciding with the legendary singer's 84th birthday. The venue is Zaverben Popatlal Auditorium, Ghatkopar East and the time for the show is 8pm. This is Klub Nostalgia's 84th show .
The event promises to showcase the versatile genius of the legendary singer who has virtually sang for all the box office cult heroes like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Guru Dutt, Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, Sashi Kapoor, Dharmendra etc. He has lent his mellifluous voice to even comedians like Johnny Walker, Mehmood etc. In fact to Rafi goes much of the credit for these actors acquiring stardom through the immortal melodies rendered by him.
Mumbai: Fans of legendary playback singer Mohamed Rafi will celebrate his 84th birth anniversary on December 24 as "National Integration Day".
Patriotic songs of Mohd Rafi, Mahendra Kapoor, Lata Mangeshkar and Hemant Kumar will be sung live by singers of the Rafi foundation with a band of musicians on the occassion at Bandra's Rafi Mansion-the late singer's residence.
Rafi lovers from different parts of the country will mark the day as National Integration Day and will hold live musical shows at 12 Indian cities according to Binu Nair, founder, Rafi Foundation in Mumbai.
"We will honour all our music legends not just Mohd Rafi," says the avid Rafi fan and music lover.
The legion of followers of eternal singer Mohd Rafi is part of folklore and the Rafi Foundation serves as an umbrella organisation for Rafi lovers and smaller Rafi groups to come under a common platform and celebrate the maestro's music.
September 27th was a sad for all music lovers, as one of the great fans of Rafi sahab and an amazing singer himself,
Mahendra Kapoor sahab, died in Mumbai on late Saturday following a cardiac failure. He was 74.
He was not keeping a good health of late as he had been suffering from heart ailment for long, his son Rohan Kapoor told IANS.
Born in Amrisar in Punjab, Kapoor first came into prominence after he won a singing contest at the All India Youth Festival in the late 1950s.
A fan of singer Mohammad Rafi, he had dreams of making a career as a playback singer in Bollywood movies.
Thanks to filmmaker B.R. Chopra, he got a foothold in the film industry ad came into prominence singing the Tere pyar ka asra number in Dhool Ka Phool.
OK I didn't remember to update the status of Radio in this post. I got a super fast internet connection at home, which has large upload bandwidth. So now I am in a position to support radio with its full capability, and it is not solely running off a desktop at my home, so now it should have more uptime, and I would be in a position to fix any issues, sooner. I have to add many more songs, to the play list, hopefully next weekend I would get time to do this. All the Radio links on this site should be working fine now. Let me know if anybody faces any problem in listening to the radio.
The relay server for the Rafi Radio has been removed (it was a computer in my Lab) which I was using to relay the radio stream from my home. I have not been able to find another computer to use for this purpose.
Radio is still running but it supports only 10 users, because that is all I can support from my home computer internet connection. The links given on the website won't work, instead use this:
http://69.143.227.18:8010/listen.pls
Use winamp to listen to the stream. I would try and bring it back to old status, as soon as possible.
Also I have been very busy with my PhD research, and hence have not been able to respond to the emails sent to admin@ eternalrafi. com email id. I am very sorry about this, but unfortunately I cannot do much about it. I am hoping that soon the work pressure would reduce a bit and then I would be able to devote more time to this website for my beloved singer Rafi sahab. Please bear with me on this.
The native village of Mohammed Rafi near Amritsar is doing its bit to keep the memories of the legendary playback singer alive by developing a park to be named after him. As the 28th death anniversay of Rafi falls on Thursday, his village Kotla Sultan Singh remembers its greatest hero, whose name will always be among one of India's greatest singers.
"The village panchayat has given an acre of land near the main road for a park which is named after Mohd Rafi. We will also be putting up Rafi Sahab's statue over there," village sarpanch, Santokh Singh said.
5TH July, 2008 will be remembered by music lovers in Hyderabad as a day of revival of the vintage music of the hfm (hindi film music). For nearly six months now, we have been trying to organize a grand musical show and also invite some well known playback singer of the yesteryears to Hyderabad. The closest we came to was the name of Mubarak Begum Sahiba and our good friend Samarjit Acharjee was in continuous contact with her. Either the glorious singer with the golden voice was not available when we had wanted to organize a show or we were preoccupied with our normal lives and thus we could not go ahead with the idea that remained in our minds. However, we did not lose heart and kept our trials going.
Almost a month back Samarjit Acharjee informed me that he would shortly be leaving India for better prospects in the U.S. and he has thus invited Mubarak Begum Sahiba to Hyderabad for a rendezvous with our musical group of ABADRAFI. He asked me to organize a musical show, however small and that the legendary singer would attend the same. That set the ball rolling. Ours is still a small group and in its infancy. How were we going to arrange a musical show where the Chief Guest would be Mubarak Begum Sahiba herself. We had to get our act together, and fast. First, we got all the details of the gifted singer – her profile so to say. Websites helped. Other music lovers too helped in gathering all the data. We had wanted all her songs and our messages went in all directions seeking the rare gems of Begum Sahiba’s songs. Good friends like Hussein Sheikh helped a lot in this regard. Samarjit too could gather a few from other sources. Many in our group too had not heard of some of the very best songs of Begum Sahiba. Three songs that were know to all of us were (1) Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein Yun Hamari Yaad Ayegi, (2) Hum Haale Dil Sunayenge, Suniye Ke Na Suniye and (3)the evergreen duet with Rafi Sahab – Mujhko Apne Gale Lagalo (Humrahi). The other songs were not too common for our group. The idea was that we know all the notable songs much before Begum Sahiba comes to Hyderabad. 5th July 2008 (Saturday) was fixed after consulting many of our friends. It was convenient for some while others had to make room for attending the musical program. The basics done, we got down to the real ground work. A suitable venue had to be arranged. Orchestra had to be negotiated, photographs and videography to be arranged. Banners had to be made and so also word had to be spread around in the musical circles of Hyderabad about the upcoming event. We were running against the time and all the members of ABADRAFI got going.
“Tell us about any incident that you would never forget, Mubarak Ji? Something that brings a smile to your face or brings tears to your eyes…”
“Andhere Chha Rahe Honge, Ke Bijli Kaundh Jayegi, I had just sung till this line from the song Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein Yun from the film Hamari Yaad Aayegi when” - she paused for a moment to look at the anticipation in the faces in front of her – “the lights went off!” We laugh out loud; she smiles. “Gaane ka aisa asar kisine kabhi dekha nahi hoga,” she says with a twinkle in her eyes. Mubarak Begum chose something amusing over the myriad melancholic things that keep bothering her.
During the three days that I got to spend with her, there were talks about the difficult times and the uncertain future. But there was no resignation in those talks – only a glaring resolve. An acceptance of reality, an amnesia of an absolved past. She agreed for every interview I arranged, without even asking her. “No personal questions, no controversial questions.” She seemed not to be an interviewer’s delight. When asked about how her passion for singing evolved she says, “I never wanted to sing, I was forced to sing by my father.” She is not very happy either about the long walk at and even longer drive from the Shamshabad Airport. You ask her the questions, she gives you her answers. No frills.
The Indian music company Saregama is launching a music CD and series of tours around Britain to commemorate the Indian singer Mohammad Rafi.
At an event at the Nehru Centre in London on Tuesday 17th June, a CD album titled ‘Rafi Resurrected’ will be unveiled by the late Mohd Rafi’s eldest grandson Rizvan Rafi.
A national tour with Indian singer Sonu Nigam will follow in July: at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham(15th July); Manchester’s Apollo Theatre (17th July) and the London Coliseum (20th July). Sony Entertainment Television Asia will broadcast all concerts.
(
