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]

Now, let us have a look at another great MD, C.Ramchandra.

The talk on the street is that C.Ramchandra did not prefer Rafi Saab all that much. But, what are the facts?

Well, if there was another singer whom C.Ramchandra preferred over Rafi Saab, it was none other than Chitalkar, ie. C.Ramchandra himself!!!

But, then coming to the number of songs that he made with each male singer, Rafi Saab with 85 songs (27 solos + 43 duets + 15 group songs) stands first. Then comes Chitalkar and then come Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, Talat Mehmood.

There are a few MDs who can be called predominantly 'female composers'. C.Ramchandra is one of them. His number of songs with Lata is far more than that with any male singer.

Coming back to Rafi-C.Ramchandra combo, who can forget these divine compositions?

1."Ham Ko Tumhara Hi Aasra Tum Hamare Ho Na Ho"--from Film:Sajan-1947. There is another version of this same song by Rafi Saab and Lalita Devulkar

2.The songs from Insaaniyat (1955) for Dilip Kumar

3.The great solo from Nausherwan-e-Adil(1957), "Yeh Hasrat Thi Ki Is Duniya Mein" and the great duets, 'Bhool Jaaye Saare Gham" and "Taaron Ki Zubaan Par" witj Lata

4.The great duet from Amar Deep(1958), "Dekh Hame Aawaz Na Dena" with Asha

5. The great duet from Albela (1951), "Mehfil Mein Meri Kaun Yeh Deewana Aagaya" with Lata

6. The great duet from Film:Khazana (1951), "Mujhe Tum Se Bahut Hai Pyaar, Bahut Hai Pyaar, Nahin Ji Zara Zara" with Lata

7.That great duet from Film:Rootha Na Karo(1970), "Aap Ka Chehra Mashaalla", with Asha

But, music chroniclers are sure to pronounce that C.Ramchandra's own career would have been a lot more prosperous, if he too had developed his own niche with Rafi Saab during 50's and 60's, as many other successful MDs did!!

C.Ramchandra probably did try to do exactly that around 1970, by which time it was too late!

Not many people know that as late as 1977, C.Ramchandra had composed music for a Telugu Film: Akbar, Saleem, Anarkali and all the songs were by Rafi Saab in Telugu. The Hero (ie.Saleem) in that Film was played by Balakrishna, the son of NTR.

Venkat