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

[swaminathan63]

Hi Venkat

Thanks for this lovely thread.

I think, except Anil Biswas Rafi sahab was the favorite singer of all MDs, with a few abberations here and there, especially in the post Aradhana period, when everyone graviated towards Kishore Kumar.

But even in that era of the 70s, there was one pair, who still showed remarkable preference for Rafi Sahab, and that is the reason why they are one of my favorites i.e. Sonik Omi. (Their music may not have been great, despite the promise shown in Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya, and great numbers in Mahuva, Aabroo, Dharma to name a few). The visually challenged Sonik, and his nephew, Omi, presumably due to the gratitude of their first hit movie (Dil ne Phir Yaad Kiya), and the rapport they had with Rafi Sahab (Presumably since Sonik was from Sailkot, as per mohdrafi.com) never were swept in the Kishore wave, and most of their numbers were by Rafi Sahab. I think that despite a relatively short period (mid 60s to 1980), they must have had 100 plus numbers with Rafi Sahab. (If one does cricket like stats, the % must be as high as Chitragupta, if not LP or SJ).

Gratitude is one admirable quality in a human being.

I know that there is a thread of Sonik Omi, but very little is known about them, and their great rapport with Rafi Sahab.

So I request Venkat (or any other member) to share some anecdotes. Also am curious to know the number of songs of Rafi Sahab by this duo (100 is a wild guess).


Thanks and Regards


Swaminathan