I began this article on Christmas eve as I was uploading a Rafi classic tuned by the incomparable SJ as my humble offering to mark Rafi’s birth anniversary when it stuck me – in the 3 decades we spent without the peerless singing voice, he has just become more entrenched in our collective memory – just witness the number of articles and blogs on Rafi floating around the net – incredible. On this occasion I was thinking about Rafi and the fantastic collaboration he enjoyed with Shanker Jaikishen and the obvious examples were those tuned on Shammi and Rajendra Kumar through the sixties. But what about those gems in the fifties when arguably SJ were at their very best? I know many would baulk at the very notion that SJ were at their best in the fifties and their class deteriorated – however slightly – in the sixties but well, it is MY choice! How about those Rafi numbers which are perhaps not as famous as the Yahoo ones on a ‘Junglee’ Shammi Kapoor or a Chalke Teri on an Arzoo Rajendra kumar? Would it be worth an exercise to pick some gems from the fifties? So here are a set of Rafi classics set to tune by the great SJ in movies released before 1960 – so most of the Shammi classics other than College Girl and Singapore get eased out of the reckoning.
Lets start with the first ever SJ-Rafi collaboration set to tune on a pensive, introspective Raj Kapoor – Main Zindagi Mein Hardam was as much SJ Bhairavi on Rafi as was Mohabbat Ki Dastaan on Lata in Mayurpankh. Simple, elegant and with the music lending depth to an evocative Rafi. It remains an enduring classic to this day. Trust SJ to consider using Rafi for this – all the other songs in the movie picturised on a male actor (both Premnath and Raj Kapoor) were sung by Mukesh. One can listen to the Barsaat ground breaking number here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgXoz51hxTg
After Barsaat, SJ used Rafi for one song in Awara which was picturised on Premnath in a guest appearance, it was rumoured that Raj Kapoor and Premnath had fallen out and RK asked Premnath to lip sync this fishermen melody just to dispel any such allegations. Interesting song, but is it really one of SJ’s best? Awara had some of the finest songs composed in Hindi film history and this Rafi number gets lost in the midst of all the Mukesh, Lata and Shamshad melodies especially the title song which even the smallest kid in India knows. Thus I move on and find this gem from Kali Ghata picturised on Kishore Sahu and Bina Rai making her beauteous debut. The SJ imprimatur is evident in the orchestra, the ear for melody and the clever use of the romance in Rafi’s voice – hear it here to decide for yourself here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A_UimLs6K0
I am cognizant I have missed Nagina with the two Rafi duets (one with Lata and a rare one with Shamshad) but they were both – for me – good but not great numbers and perhaps would be considered later.
The year 1952 finds me with Parbat, a veritable treasure house of Lata classics but in the midst of all the Lata melodies, one finds a rare Rafi duet with Geeta Dutt and Lata set to tune by SJ. Hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPq70X4gTRo and let me know if Geeta didnt keep lilting pace with the great Rafi – in fact I often felt that Geeta was the best foil for Rafi – even superior to Lata – for a certain genre of songs – essentially playful, full of verve and lilt. Her effortless rendition of this song makes one wonder why SJ never used her more. As one wonders why SJ didnt use Rafi more in the early fifties.
Rafi then had the one solo in Shikast (1953) – Nai Zindagi ke pyaar karke dekh – which was not picturised on the hero Dilip Kumar but a good song all the same. However Shikast for me was all about Talat and his soulful playback for a melancholic Dilip and thus I move on to try and unearth more Rafi gems in this part of the SJ time period. I unearth this classic from Pooja – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIaqAcFoOx8 – a song I had never heard till a few months back. Evidently this song is in a raag called Madhuvanti – a rag so rarely used that there has been only once more in Bollywood. Hear this song and let me know if it wasnt as good as – if not better than – any raag based song Naushad composed for the peerless Rafi
In my excitement on discovering Pooja and its 7 Rafi numbers (4 of them solos), I realise I have missed out another classic released just before Pooja – Boot Polish, a movie whose songs were composed in a month thanks to Aah’s box office failure and Raj Kapoor’s consequent desire to avoid experiments and a musical where the peerless Rafi had to keep pace with a virtuoso – Manna Dey and while we probably hear more of the classic Manna Lapak Jhapak more today, the two Rafi duets – Nanhe munhe bachche and Tumhare hain tumse daya maangte hai bring to forth two sides of the Rafi repertoire – the sad and wistful allied to the strong and sensitive. Hear them and let me know if Rafi and SJ weren’t made for each other – even in the early fifties! Funny I wasn’t able to find these two classics on You Tube!
Picking out the best Rafi numbers gets more tricky as we approach the mid fifties and it seems SJ had by then understood the verve and potential in Rafi to utilize him for the more unconventional songs – thus Rajhath with the superb Aaye Bahar Banke, Basant Bahar with the classical Rafi numbers, the two Seema heart stealers and even in Raj Kapoor’s Shri 420 where Rafi played singer to Shailendra’s on screen persona were a significant quantitative and qualitative improvement on the SJ-Rafi partnership from their first 3-4 years of their collaboration. In Chori Chori, SJ used him on Johnny Walker with telling effect – tell me if All Line clear is lesser than anything the prolific OP Nayyar and SD Burman composed to go on a tipsy Johnny Walker. You can hear it here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxaONMbmzA8.
In the same period there emerged a song sung with rare passion set to music with equally rare feeling of wistfulness – check out Halaku’s Aaja ke intezaar mein and let me know if Rafi ever reached those poignant heights again! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2XU3i__Jgc
As we approach the end of the decade, Rafi again has to fight for vocal superiority with Mukesh (Anari, Yahudi), Manna Dey (Baagi Sipahi, Ujala), Kishore Kumar (New Delhi, Begunaah) and even Subir Sen (Kathputli, Chhoti Bahen) and in the midst of all the songs Manna, Mukesh and Subir sang for the movie heroes and Kishore for himself, Rafi’s high pitched Ye Duniya Ye Duniya from Yahudi makes a telling impact.
SJ’s clever use of Rafi to lip sync for a rock and roll number from Ek Phool Char Kaante while using Iqbal Sinha flown in specially from Calcutta for the original piece was a masterpiece. Hear the Rafi-SJ ode to Rock and Roll here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8C-ty-guK0. Ek Phool Char kaante also had Johnny Walker lip syncing to the Rafi number Tirchi Nazar se yun na dekh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAIFydaL98M
However it was only in 1960 – after Ujala that SJ began using Rafi as their primary male voice. It is thus quite incredible to note that it took SJ a full decade to decide on Rafi while it took them no time at all to commence using Lata as their primary female voice! Consider the number of songs an Asha or Geeta or Shamshad have sung for SJ in their first decade as India’s finest music directors and you will know what I mean. But once SJ got their bearings with Rafi right, they proceeded to give some of the finest songs Rafi ever sang in his career from the exuberant Yahoo to the romantic Ye mera prem patra padkar and proceeded to help create the on screen persona of two of the brightest and most successful stars in the sixties – Shammi Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar. I end this delve deep into memory lane with the classic Shararat number picturised on Kishore Kumar – well life had come a full circle! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhnVzlY_5rg
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