Rafi Sahab was one of the greatest forces in the history of the Indian sub-continent culture. His Immortal Golden Voice still rules the hearts of millions (including me) of Indian music lovers the world over. In his music circles he was simply known as 'The Voice', because he was so famous for the way he put his heart and soul into every rendition. Rafi Sahab was the greatest and it is impossible to conceive of another singer ever attaining the range, the versatility and the awesome emotion that his golden voice always contained.
Rafi Sahab was born on 24th December 1924 in Kotla Sultansingh village in Punjab, near Amritsar. Although music was not a part of his family background, there is no doubt that he was born with a gift for music in his heart. His father certainly did not look favourably upon his singing. Rafi Sahab's elder brother Mohammed Deen had a barber shop when Rafi Sahab was still a young lad, and he spent many of his childhood days in his brothers barber shop. One day, when Rafi Sahab was about seven years of age, his brother noticed him following a fakir who was walking the streets singing while playing on his Ektara (a one-stringed instrument). Ignoring the regular reprimands of his parents, the young boy continued to follow the fakir to his abode - a huge tree - on a regular basis. Then one day, some of the patrons at the barber shop heard him sing the songs of the fakir with such perfect sur (pitch) that they immediately recognised the immense musical gift that the boy possessed, and were convinced that this young genius-in-the-making was destined for greater things in life. The elders, and the patrons, then used to regularly ask the young Mohammed Rafi to visit the barber shop and sing for them, for he had a truly sureely awaaz. Rafi Sahab had picked up the rudiments of music from a fakir while already possessing a God-gifted voice.
When Rafi Sahab, at a tender age of about fifteen decided to become a singer, his father, a village landlord, was dead against the idea. His brother, Mohammed Deen, though, having recognised that this young boy had a God-given talent which he simply could not see go to waste, decided to help his little brother realise his dreams, for the young Mohammed Rafi enjoyed nothing as much as he did to sing all day long. When a was barely seventeen years old, and sang his first playback song for a Punjabi film, 'Gul Baloch' under the music direction of the late Shyam Sunder in 1941, Rafi Sahab was illiterate and had to commit the words to memory before he could go before the microphone. When it came to remembering any melody though, there never was a problem. The young genius in the making needed only to hear a melody once to not only commit it to memory, but also suggest improvements to the tune. Following the popularity of his Punjabi song, Rafi Sahab took the final big step in his life and ventured off to Bombay to realise his dreams of making singing his career. In 1942 he arrived in Bombay to sing, again under the music direction of Shyam Sunder for the movie 'Gaon ki Gauri'.
After this successful debut in Bombay, Rafi Sahab approached the renowned music director Naushad, confiding in him his admiration for the great Kundan Lal. Saigal, and how his ambition was to sing with Saigal Sahab. Naushad did not disappoint him, giving him two lines (Ruhi Ruhi Mere Sapnon ki Rani) with K.L Saigal for a song in the movie 'Shahjehan'. Although Rafi Sahab had several 'hit' songs during these early years, he never-the-less had tough competition from respected singers like Manna Dey, Talat Mahmood, Hemant Kumar and Mukesh. The real recognition for Rafi Sahab, though, which never saw him looking back again, was his incomparable effort for his songs in 'Baiju Bawra' under the music direction of Naushad Sahab. "O Duniya ke Rakhwale" together with 'Man Tarpat Hari Darshan' left Rafi Sahab in a league all of his own. He continued over the years to lend his magnificent golden voice to such great music directors as Sachin Dev Burman, C. Ramachandra, Roshan, Shankar-Jaikishen, Madan Mohan, O.P. Nayyar, Kalyanji-Aanadji, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Jaidev, Salil Chowdhury, Ravindra Jain, Iqbal Qureshi, Usha Khanna, Ravi, Chitragupta and Rahul Dev Burman, to name a few.
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