Mohammed Rafi

Mohammed Rafi (also Mohammad Rafi ; * December 24, 1924 in the village of Kotla Sultan Singh in Punjab ; † July 31, 1980 in Bombay , Maharashtra ) was an Indian playback singer of Hindi films . Along with Kishore Kumar and Mukesh, he was one of the three most successful male playback singers in India of the 1950s and 1960s and recorded songs for more than 700 films.

biography

At the age of 14 he came to Lahore , the cultural center in Punjab, and became a student of the musicians Khan Abdul Waheed Khan, Jeevanlal Matto and Ghulam Ali Khan. The composer Feroz Nizami gave him access to Radio Lahore and the Panjab film industry based in the city . Mohammed Rafi made his film debut as a singer for the composer Shyam Sundar in Gul Baloch (1944). In the same year he moved to Bombay and sang Naushad's composition in the film Pehle Aap by the director Abdul Rashid Kardar, also from Punjab .

In 1946 Rafi had his vocal breakthrough with Mehboob Khan's film Anmol Ghadi and the duet Meri sapnon ki rani with Kundan Lal Saigal in Shahjehan (1946). The first major successes were his duets with the singer and actress Nurjehan in her last Indian films Jugnu (1946), Saajan (1947) and Mela (1948) before she moved to Lahore ( Pakistan ) in the course of the partition of India . Mohammed Rafi's popularity lasted until his death. His work is closely linked to the work of the film music composers Sachin Dev Burman , Shankar-Jaikishan and Naushad . Among his best pieces of the 1950s are his interpretations for the actor Dilip Kumar and his playback vocals in Guru Dutt's Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959). In the early 1960s, Mohammed Rafi achieved a stylistic change with the youthful, peppy films with Shammi Kapoor Junglee (1961) and Kashmir Ki Kali (1964), which made him the leading playback singer in the Hindi film industry until the late 1960s . It was only Kishore Kumar's success with the Rajesh-Khanna films that pushed Rafi's influence back.

Mohammed Rafi died of a heart attack at the age of 55.

Awards

• National Film Awards for Best Playback Singer
  • 1958 for "Jinhen Naaz Hai Hind Par" from the movie Pyaasa
  • 1978 for "Kya Hua Tera Wada" from the movie Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin

• Filmfare Awards for best playback singer
  • 1961 for "Chaudhvin Ka Chand Ho" from the film Chaudhvin Ka Chand
  • 1962 for "Teri Pyaari Pyaari Surat Ko" from the film Sasural
  • 1965 for "Chahunga Mein Tujhe" from the film Dosti
  • 1967 for "Baharo Phool Barsao" from the movie Suraj
  • 1969 for "Dil Ke Jharoke Mein" from the movie Brahmachari
  • 1978 for "Kya Hua Tera Vaada" from the movie Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin

• Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards for Best Playback Singer
  • 1965 for Dosti
  • 1966 for Arzoo

In 1965 Mohammed Rafi was awarded the Padma Shri order.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ also December 4, 1924 or in 1926
   Where the Rafi saga began ... ( Memento from June 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Ishtiaq Ahmed in Daily Times from April 25, 2004

literature

• Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Paul Willemen, Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema , p. 182

Web links

• Mohammed Rafi in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Tribute website to Mohd. Rafi
• The voice of love in The Hindu from July 27, 2007
• Mohammed Rafi at upperstall.com