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Thanks Aseer for sending the link to the article. Shaava Shaava winner Sumeet Raghavan is planning to launch an album of Rafi sahab's songs as a tribute to his favorite singer:
The Shava Shava winner will cut an album of the late singer’s numbers
Actor-model-singer Sumeet Raghavan (Sarabhai vs Sarabhai), who emerged winner in the show Shaava Shaava judged by Karan Johar and Simi Garewal, now plans to launch an album as a tribute to the legendary singer Mohammed Rafi. “Yes, it’s my mission to record an album with some of my favourite Rafi numbers. Possibly, there could be duets too with the Shaava Shaava female contestants,” enthuses Sumeet who had actually given up hopes that he would ever win.
It's been quite some time since the beginning of the year 2008, but the memories of 2007 are still afresh. Let me share with you the key happenings of the Year 2007 related to Rafi sahab:
Sixty successful men and women of India(Friday, August 10, 2007 of HINDUSTAN TIMES)
Rafi Saab is choosen among the Sixty successful men and women without whom the country would not be where it is today.the press cliping was: Mohammad Rafi: Indeed the best singer of all times, he inspired many budding artists and lives on today through his songs like Chaudhvin Ka Chand Ho and Baharon Phool Barsao.
A Clipping from The Telegraph: The city civic authorities have named a roadside garden near Watgunge police station after singer Mohammad Rafi. A fibreglass bust of Rafi has been erected there. Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya unveiled the statue on Monday evening. Mayoral council member Faiyaz Ahmed Khan said Rs 15 lakh has been spent to beautify the garden. Kolkata once again emerged victorious in honoring Rafi sahab. Recently a joint venture between Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Munshi Premchand Birth Centenary Committee resulted in a park called Rafi Park. It is in Gardenreach area of Kolkata. Also there is a musical fountain in that park whose water will flow according to Rafi sahab's voice, 24x7 Rafi sahab's songs would be played there.
The singer of the songs like "Mujhko Apne Gale Lagalo", Mubarak Begum is currently facing the worst time of her life, she is finding it difficult to make her ends meet as reported in this article, details of which are given below:
"For about two decades Mubarak Begum was the voice for music directors who looked for singers with depth and range in rendition. The singer, who breathed life into eternal songs such as 'Kabhi tanhaiyon mein hamari yaad aayegi' and 'Mujhko apne gale lag lo ae mere humrahi', is today living a hand-to-mouth existence in the cramped bylanes of Jogeshwari.
Her small house with paint peeling off its walls in Sultanabad Society in Jogeshwari tells the tale of a journey that has been more painful than glorious. Saddled with a daughter suffering from Parkinson's disease and her own daily need of medicines owing to old age, Begum lives on the paltry earnings of her son who drives two taxis and Rs 700 a month pension from the government. “Sometimes my fans send money, which provides some relief,” says a dejected Begum."
I came accross this article on O.P.Nayyar sahab at Hindu's website, so sharing with all of you. Click on the link below to read the full article written by PARTHA CHATTERJEE.
Omkar Prasad Nayyar, better known by his initials O.P., was the cat’s whiskers during the 1950s and 1960s in the golden age of Hindi film music. No mean achievement this, considering that he was competing with composers of the calibre of Anil Biswas, Naushad, S.D. Burman, Sajjad, Madan Mohan, C. Ramachandra, the Shankar-Jaikishen duo, not to mention Roshan and Salil Choudhary.
All of them, unlike O.P., did their best work with the dulcet voice of the highly trained Lata Mangeshkar. But O.P. Nayyar chose the more arduous and ultimately more rewarding route, and instead, groomed Lata’s younger sister Asha into an extremely tuneful and versatile singer. Asha, over time, proved to be the equal of her illustrious sister.
Maang ke saath tumhara from B.R. Chopra’s 1957 super-hit “Naya Daur” sung by Mohd Rafi and Asha Bhonsle; Deewana hua baadal (Rafi/Asha, “Kashmir ki Kali”, 1964), Ye kya kar dala tune (Asha, “Howrah Bridge”, 1958), Aap yunhi agar milte rahe (Rafi/Asha, “Ek Musafir Ek Hasina”, 1962), Lakhon hai nigahon mein (Rafi, “Phir Wohi Dil Laaya Hoon”, 1963), Ajee pehli mulaqat main (“Do Dilon Ki Dastaan”, 1966), are among the many songs that bring to mind his effortless combination of laya (rhythm), taala (beat) with swara (melody).
The following article was published in Filmi Kaliyaan in October 1980 edition, it has some rare photographs from Rafi sahab's last journey to the heavens above. Can't thank Samarjit Acharjee (from Hyderabad) enough for providing the scanned copy of the article and Aseer bhai for taking so much pain to transliterate (convert from devnagri script to english script) the entire article which is in Hindi. Read the article with a pinch of salt, because it may not be factually correct, we have not modified its content and hence any error in the reported facts or incidence is soul responsibility of the original author for the Fimli Kaliyan Magazine, and by publishing the same we do not endorse any of the discrepancies in the article.
Playback Singing ke Sehenshah
Mohammed Rafi ki mrityu 31st july ko raat ke 10 bajkar 25 min par Bombay hospital me hui. Ussse pahle jab unke dil me dard utha tha to unhe Mahim par National Hospitallaya gaya. Jab unka dil puuri tarah se block ho gaya to unhe pace making ke liye Bombay hospital leaaya gaya jahan doctor ki koshish unhe bacha na saka.
Mrityu ke samay unke 3 ladke, ek ladki aur damad London me the. Unki patni, ek anya ladki aur damad aur kuchh anya rishtedar mrityu ke samay unke bistar ke paas maojud the.
Jaise hi 10 bajkar 25 min ke baad unki mrityu ka samachar aaya to badi badi filmi hastiyan hospital ke or daud pade. Jahan se unka shab unke nibassthan bandra laya gaya aur subah Mohammed Rafi ke bandra niwas par hazaron log jama ho chuke the. Jinme raj kapoor, dharmendra, vinod mehra, randhir kapoor saira banu; gayikaon me lata mangeshkar, asha bhosle, usha mangeshkar, kishore kumar, sulakshana pandit aur sangeet karon me naushad , kalian ji anand ji, laxmikant pyareal ullekhniya hain.
Lata mangeshkar, asha bhosle aur usha mangeshkar ne unke shab malayein chadhakar unhe antim samman diya. Saira banu ke saath unki maa nasima ne bhi mohammed rafi ke shab par mala chadhai. Mohammed Rafi ke niwas par jo filmi hastiyan nazar aa rahe theunme Bombay ka sheriff dilip kumar aur manoj kumar ka naam ullekhniya hai.
After getting overwhelming response and appreciation, the first biography of great music legend Mohammad Rafi “Meri Awaz Suno” has come out with new look and more attractive features. The new edition of the book has more information, more pages and more photographs of Rafi Saheb.
As it was told in an earlier post in www.mohdrafi.com that the responses of the Rafi fans on the first edition of the book was unbelievable that has encouraged me to bring out the second edition of the book with additions. Being a writer and a diehard Rafi fan, I know that the appreciation which I got for the book is not due to my writing and my work, but because of the magic of the person who left us more than 27 years ago but his songs are still enthralling and delighting us. All I can only say that Mohd. Rafi is matchless and there would not be second Rafi in this universe. For Rafi fans like us, whose number may be millions, Mohammad Rafi is the one and only, source of inspiration and his songs are like Oxygen, in absence of which survival is impossible. We all Rafi fans not only want to listen his melodious voice but also want to know about each and every aspects of his life.
I am pleased to share the very first songs sung by Rafi Sahab, way back in 1944. The song is from movie Gaon Ki Gori. Music director is Shyam Sunder, and co-singer is Durrani. The poor audio quality is regretted. It was contributed by Aseer and then I did little bit of noise reduction on it to improve the quality a lil bit.
Here is some more information in this regard taken from Wikipedia:
Initially, Naushad used Rafi as part of a chorus. Rafi's first song with Naushad was Hindustan ke hum hain with Shyam Kumar, Alauddin and others, from A. R. Kardar's Pehle Aap (1944). Around the same time, Rafi recorded another song for the film Gaon ki Gori (1944) for the composer Shyam Sunder, Aji dil ho kaaboo mein with G. M. Durrani and chorus. He considered this song as his first Hindi language song.
The recently organized activities by Rafi foundation Delhi chapter on the "Happy Day" has been reported by Indian Express. We all have gotten so used to the media's negligence towards anything related to Rafi sahab, With the efforts of members of Rafi foundation things are certainly going to change, this reporting in India's premiere newspaper might be a step in the right direction.
"If you are meeting him for the first time, Ashish Kapoor will put you through a test. If you are below 30 and you fail, you can be pardoned—quite obviously you belong to the lost generation. But if you are over 30, then there is no excuse for you. You are supposed to know every line that ‘Rafi Saab’ sang, complete with the date, film title and preferably the name of the music director. ‘Rafi Saab’? “That is how all of us refer to him. We do not call him Mohammad Rafi,” says Ashish, one of the founding members of the Delhi Chapter of The Rafi Foundation."
We all love Rafi sahab and each and every song sung by him, and we are not alone in that league some of the current big names of the Bollywood echo the same sentiments when it comes to the love and adulation of Rafi sahab. So let's listen what one of the biggest fans of Rafi sahab has to say about his divine guru. It was a pleasant surprise to me that Sonu Nigam and I have the same favorite song. Click on read more link to watch the video of that song. Once again many thanks to Mohamed Parvez sahab for providing this wonderful audio of Sonu Nigam talking about Rafi sahab. Enjoy!
