Muhammad Rafi being remembered on his 36th death anniversary

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Veteran playback singer Mohammad Rafi died at the age of 55 on July 31, 1980.

Born on December 24, 1924, Mohammed Rafi aka Pheeko belonged to Kotla Sultan Singh, which is near Amritsar in Punjab. After moving to Mumbai in 1944, the man with the soulful voice went on to become one of the most successful, revered and remembered playback singers of India.

Rafi is one rare singer who is as much remembered for his romantic numbers as for his bhajans, qawwalis, ghazals and peppy songs. But some of Rafi’s Hindi romantic songs in Bollywood are so soulful that they bring you closer to god – like the song Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho,

Rafi started singing at a very young age but his first on-stage performance came off in Lahore in 1937 at the age of 13 when he sang along with legendary K.L. Saigal. Rafi’s father had moved to Lahore in 1935 along with his family and ran a men’s salon in Lahore’s famous Bhatti Gate. Lahore gave Rafi’s voice a magic that kept his listeners captivated throughout his life. After making his debut in Indian film ‘Gaon ki Gori’ (1945), his peak time came after the partition. He was one of the most sought after the singer from 1950 to 1970.

The legend has it that Rafi’s actual name was Rafi Ali. But it was the classic 1952 movie Baiju Bawra, made in the backdrop of Akbar the Great’s time, in which Muhammad Rafi sang a legendary Bhajan ‘O Duniya Ke Rakhwale’. The song was extremely difficult and the music composed by another legend of the Indian cinema Naushad Ali was so demanding that Rafi vomited blood after singing it. When the Indian Prime Minister asked for anything Rafi wanted as a gift for this song, he requested the Indian PM to change his name to Muhammad Rafi from Rafi Ali. Since then, Rafi is known as Muhammad Rafi.

One would expect that his songs would die with him but no, older generations of music lovers still go into ecstasies as they recall memorable songs like “Chaudhvin ka chand”, “Jo wada kiya vo” or “Kya hua tera wada”.

What made Rafi so special? Not only was he comfortable with any genre of music, he had the unique ability to add to the character of the actor who lip synched the song in a movie.

The musical genius is known for his Urdu or Hindi songs only but it is a lesser known fact that he sang in as many as 18 languages including Assamese, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Odia, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili, Urdu, English, Persian, Spanish and Dutch.

In 1967, the singer was honoured with the Padma Shri award and a National Film Award by the Government of India. He received six Filmfare Awards, apart from several other honours and recognitions.

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