All Great Mds' Preference For Rafi Saab!, Some Widely-reported Stories On This Options

[venkat]

Friends,

That all great MDs during the Platinum-era of HFM from 1947 to 1972 had a distinct preference for Rafi Saab is crystal-clear, well-known and needs no debate, as the historical facts and statistics speak for themselves.

But, there were some instances of extreme display of this tendency by some of the great MDs of olden days.

In this thread, let us narrate and discuss some of such instances.

To start with, I recall one radio interview that I heard very long back, which gave me the following information.

In early, mid and late fifties, it was fashionable to listen to Talat Mehmood songs and somewhat over-rate him. Many Industry bigwigs, such as Anil Biswas, Bimal Roy, etc., too were not immune to this tendency.

So, when Bimal Roy was making Sujata (1959), he had advised S.D.Burman to use Talat Mehmood for the great SDB composition, "Jalte Hain Jis Ke Liye".

But, S.D.Burman was far from enamoured by Talat Mehmood's style of singing. He wanted to utilise only Rafi Saab for this sublime composition and tried to reason out with Bimal Roy. But, as Bimal Roy wouldn't listen, he had to finally use Talat Mehmood.

But, what is really amusing was that during the rehearsals and recording, S.D.Burman made no secret of his displeasure to poor Talat Ji. He even used to say, "Yeh Boda Achha Composition Hoy. Is Ko Khorab Mot Koro".

Such was SDB's bullishness on Rafi Saab.

More later.

Venkat

PS. It is a different matter that the song, "Jalte Hain Jis Ke liye", from Sujata happened to have been sung by Talat Mehmood extremely well and it is a great favorite of mine. But, the above was just to illustrate great MDs' stubborn preference for Rafi Saab.

This post has been edited by venkat: Sep 27 2008, 04:12 PM

[venkat]

Rafi Saab was the only blue-eyed boy of O.P.Nayyar right from the beginning of OPN's career. He preferred Rafi Saab as strongly as he 'un-preferred' Lata Mangeshkar.

But, as it would always happen with blue-eyed boys, OPN also had a fierce possessiveness for Rafi Saab, a feeling that Rafi Saab must give his best and most (both in quality and time) only to OPN.

We all know how this resulted in a fall-out between the two in the year 1966, as Rafi Saab turned up late for the recording of the song in Film:Baharen Phir Bhi Aayenge(1966), "Badal Jaaye Agar Maali Chaman Hota Nahin Khali". The song was eventually recorded by Mahendra Kapoor. But, after 1966, though OPN thought that 'Badal Jaaye Agar Rafi Saab, OPN's Career Hota Nahin Khali', it actually proved otherwise.

Much after Rafi Saab's death, OPN, the highly egoistic man though he was, had this to say in an interview. "The biggest blunder of my musical career had been to keep this Farishta out of my recording room for over 5 or 6 years". Very late realisation!!

However, from early fifties to 1966, OPN's preference for Rafi Saab was total and absolute and surpasses that of any other MD.

He used Talat Mehmood for a Film in which Talat Mehmood himself was the Hero. Similarly, he used Kishore Kumar in 3 or 4 Films (until 1966, mind you) in which Kishore Kumar was the Hero. On the other hand, OPN had used Rafi Saab even for Kishore Kumar for one song in Film:Raagini (1958) and for two songs in Bhagam Bhagh (1956).

OPN did use Manna Dey for 4 or 5 songs, but all of them were duets/group songs with Rafi Saab.

Open to minor corrections in facts, but not in conclusions!!

Venkat

This post has been edited by venkat: Sep 28 2008, 08:09 PM