Hi Folks,

My personal favourite MD with Rafi saab were Shankar Jaikishan. I believe they as a team have given the best romantic numbers in the 60's & early 70's. With the compositions & orchetration of SJ & Rafi's sweet melodious voice the numbers were all winners!

Laxmikant Pyarelal follow closely behind with a wide range of songs right from Parasmani 1963 (woh jab yaad aye, salamat raho) to their last release together Madadgar 1987 ( Kya hua yaad nahi).

LP are my personal favourites as MD's overall. I have 400 soundtracks of the 480+ film they have composed for (i'm searching high & low for the other 80+). As you can expect a large chunk of the songs are Rafi's which I would love to share, if there any particular requests.

I would like the views from you all on your favourite MD with Rafi & favourite MD overall.

Regards

Saj
Birmingham, UK

My favourite MD with Rafi is Madan Mohan, he has made some unforgetable tune with Rafi, He had fully utilised Rafi's caliber.

My second preference goes to Naushad-Rafi pair, a great music director who also has made some many real gems.

On my list of my 60 or so TOP MOST favourite Rafi songs, I've indexed by Music Directors and have been able to come with the following

Naushad #1 , with 11 songs
S. J & L.P #2, tie with 7 songs each
Ravi #3, with 6 songs

From a former list regarding favourite movies with the best Rafi songs, started by Yusuf, the movies getting the most votes by regular rafians were the following:

1. Kashmir Ki Kali & Baiju Bawra 5 votes
2. Tere Ghar Ke Saamne, Teesri Manzil, Do Badan 4 votes
3. Aadmi 3 votes

If we go by this list, O. P Nayyar & Naushad are on the top. With S. D. Burman, R. D. Burman & Ravi come in second. With Naushad making a second appearance.

My fav MD for Rafi Sahab in order of preference are
1.Shankar-Jaikishen
2.Kalyanji-Anandji
3.Madan Mohan
4.O.P Nayyar
5.Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Regards
Manish

Mine would be RAVI.

RAFI-RAVI is the best combination for soft romantic songs!.. my opinion.


Shrikant

Well, that is very hard for me to pick one. Everyone came up with a song absolutely gem. But still I think MD which I like the most whose ratio of melodious songs is highest is Naushad. Naushad's songs have very long life because he picks the tunes from the culture and classics.

After Naushad, Madan Mohan and S.D.Burman are the two names who have composed some marvelous and awesome tunes for Rafi saab. These two M.D's are the real genius, great composers.

So here is the rating for me:

1. Naushad
2. Madan Mohan
3. S.D.Burman
4. Ravi, S.J.
5. Husnlal Bhagatram

and so much more!

Its not easy to select who is the best MD for Rafi Saab's songs, but I would IMO grade them as follows:-

1. Naushad
2. Madan Mohan
3. Ravi
4. S.D.Burman
5. ShankerJaikishen
6. O.P. Nayyar
7. Laxmikant Pyarelal
8. Husunlal Bhagatram
9. Kalyanji Anandji
& So on .....


Mohd.

My Rating:

1. LP
2. Naushad
3. Shankar Jaikishen
4. Madan Mohan
5. Ravi
6. Usha Khanna
7.Husanlal Bhagatram
8. Chitragupt
9. OP Nayar
10. Sonik Omi

I like them all. But OPN music is zara hatke

Interesting choice of MD's across the board.

Do you think our choice of MD relates to the era we grew up in?

Growing up in the 70s & 80's, I'm heavily influenced by the Music of LP, RDB, KA when these three ruled the roost.

Suhana Safar - Interesting you mentioned Sonik Omi in your top 10 list, love their songs with Rafi in the 70's. SO were no.1 MD's for B grade movies, my personal favourites of their songs with Rafi are;

Sun Sajna - Durga
Pehle kabhi yeh mausam - Zulm Ka Badla
Kajre kis kasam - Ram Kasam
Lut gaya dil lut gaya - Lahu Pukarega
Ek chatri aur hum hai do - Man Gaye Ustad
Yeh jawani hai - Heeron Ka Chor
Saath hum tum chale the - Ladki Jawan ho gayee
Is ishq mohabbat ki kuch hain ajeeb rasme - Can't remember movie?
Tera pyar khuda - Do chattane

Saj

Saj

Thanks for the feedback. Can Rafians download these Rafisaab songs for Sonik Omi

Sun Sajna - Durga
Pehle kabhi yeh mausam - Zulm Ka Badla
Kajre kis kasam - Ram Kasam
Lut gaya dil lut gaya - Lahu Pukarega
Ek chatri aur hum hai do - Man Gaye Ustad
Yeh jawani hai - Heeron Ka Chor
Saath hum tum chale the - Ladki Jawan ho gayee
Tera pyar khuda - Do chattane

Yes I agree to Imran's (extenok) opinion. When some tune is catchy and melodious whether it is old or new, doesn't make any difference. In my personal opinion music directors in late 70's and early 80's were not of the same standard as Naushad, OP, S.D, Madan and so on. Melody is something which we have lost in recent years. I like whatever Rafi sang whether in 1944 or 1980, but tunes in the earlier days were more melodious. (my year of birth is 1982).

My personal opinion is that music of 50s, 60s were rich in melody than dhadkila 70s and badones in mid 80s. Kishore was only the strongest force to bring some life into songs... after his fall... it was bad scene.

I still remember one evening when I got into the house... after my playday out.. I heard a number on Chitrahaar.. which was so bad.. that I still cant forget it..

Mera Naam Salma..
O Koyi Banega mera Balma..

Other than the rhyming aspect, I dont think the lyrcisit was bothered about anything else. I still wonder who scored the music.

For sher-shaayari and raga-based songs: Naushad

For melodious and catchy numbers: S-J

For rhythm-based songs: OPN

For strokes of sheer genius: Ravi

For rare gems: Lesser known MDs.

I have six MD's that I love Rafi saab with:

Shankar Jaikishan

Madan Mohan

Laxmikant Pyarelal

O.P. Naayar

SD Burman

Sonik Omi


Cheers


Ali

Iqbal

I have the songs of Sonik Omi, please advise how to upload the songs or any other rafian wish to help?

Pradeep -

Mera Naam Salma..
O Koyi Banega mera Balma..

Lyricist: Anand Bakshi, Music: Laxmi Pyare Film: Aao Ke Saath

Saj1974,

Please upload the Sonik Omi - Rafi songs that you have......it would be much appreciated.......to upload the songs......just convert the MP3's to zip files and when you are posting the songs, go to browse at the bottom of this page and get the file name and post the file.......if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Ali

1-Shankar-Jaikishen
2-O.P Nayyar
3-Laxmikant-Pyarelal
4-Madan Mohan

Folks,

There is no mention of Rafi with Roshan.....Perhaps this is the team that defined the music of early sixties the most sonorous part strkingly different from SJ's and OPNs

Zindagi Bhar Nahin Bhoolega
maine Shayad tumhe
Paon Chu lene do
Ab kya Misal Du
Tum ek baar mere
Man Re tu kahe Na Dheer dhere

and many of those excellent qawalis

This guest above is your old friend Naveen Z

A Rafi-Roshan fan

There is no doubt, there has never been any doubt and there will be no doubt, that the favourite MD with Rafi Saab was Shankar Jaikishen only. I think they have given many hits together than any other singer-music director pair, as far as I know. But maybe I know little!

Be it SJ,LP,KA,OPN,or any other, it was RAFI who did justice to all the different
Tunes they composed.
It is very difficult to choose who was the best but hears my penny’s worth

1 LP (Mehboob ki mehndi)
2 SJ (Bharamachari)
3 MM (Ghazal)
4 RAVI ( Do badan)
5 OPN (Kasmir ki kali)
6 SDB (Tere ghar ke saamne)
7 KA (Haseena maan jayagi)
8 SO (Dil ne phir yaad kiya)
9 N (Dil diya dard liya)
10 Roshan (Bheegi raat)

I totally agree with Pradeep Ji, OPN+Rafi combo is indeed very different from the other combo.

jam

Move away from the main MD’s you find some real gems

USHA KHANNA (EK SAPERA EK LUTERA)
C RAMCHANDRA (HUNGAMA)
CHITRAGUPT (BHABHI)
SALIL CHOWRERY (MAYA)
IQBAL QURESHI (CHA CHA CHA)
N DUTTA (NAYA RAASTA)
G S KOHLI (NAMASTE JI)

I remember watching a program (interview) on Calcutta Doordarshan with Hemanta Mukherjee. He said that it is with S.D. Burman he thought he had his best performance and he also said for a fact Rafi, Geeta and Lata had their best under his music direction too....It was something that all these artists seemed to agree on!

There my 2 cents

Here's my list:

1. LP

2. Naushad.

3. Madan Mohan

4. Ravi.

5. SJ