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]

Continuing on the theme of "All Great MDs' Preference For Rafi Saab", today is the turn of another great MD, Chitragupta.

Can anyone believe that this uncelebrated MD had the third highest number of songs with Rafi Saab, among all MDs!! Only LP with about 370 songs and SJ with about 350 songs are higher than Chitragupta in the count of Rafi songs.

Chitragupta, at third place, had composed around 250 songs with Rafi Saab and stands way above the likes of SDB, OPN, Roshan, MM, etc., on this count!

Also, about 60% of all Chitragupta songs are estimated to be Rafi songs.

Coming to quality of Chitragupta-Rafi songs, there are tens of excellnt ones. Unfortunately, as Chitragupta never got in his fold many high-profile Films, some of his great compositions with Rafi Saab did not get their due.

When one talks of Chitragupta and Rafi Saab, one tends to recall only the handful of popular ones such as "Chal Ud Jaa Re Panchhi" from Bhabhi (1957), "Jaag Dil-e-Deewana" from Oonche Log (1965), picturised on Firoze Khan and "Mujhe Dard-e-Dil Ka Pata Na Tha" from Akash Deep(1965), picturised on Dharmendra.

But, there are many more divine, excellent Rafi solos under Chitragupta such as:

1. "Chand Kitni Door Thha, Sitare Kitni Door Thhe"--Film:Afsana (1966), picturised on Pradeep Kumar

2. "Kaaton Pe Chalke Paon Ke Chalon Se Kya Gila---Kahin Se Maut Ko Lavo Ke Gham Ke Raat Kate"--Film:Mera Qusoor Kya Hai (1964), picturised on Dharmendra

3."Itni Badi Duniya Jahan Itna Bada Mela, Magar Main, Han Hhan Haan, Kitna Akela"--Film:Tufan Mein Pyar Kahan (1966), picturised on Ashok Kumar

4. "Aate Ho Sataane Ko, Jaate Ho Rulaane Ko---Abhi Na Phero Nazar Zindagi Sanwar To Len"--Film:Biradari(1966), picturised on Shashi Kapoor

5. "Bahar Nazar Karoon, Apna Pyaar Nazar Karoon, Jo Tum Kaho To Nazar Ka Khuar Nazar Karoon"--Film:Baaghi (1964), picturised on Pradeep Kumar.

The list is endless. Only, the above five are my great personal favorites.

Chitragupta also had excellent duets of Rafi-Lata, Rafi-Geeta, Rafi-Suman and Rafi-Asha.

But, it must be said that, unlike most other MDs, Chitragupta seemed to have patronised mostly Lata Mangeshkar with MK and others during the Rafi-Lata misunderstanding of 1963-67. He has replaced Lata with other female singers only fewer times, during that period.

All in all, Chitragupta has a proud record with Rafi Saab!

Venkat