We have heard the rift between Rafisaab and Lataji for a numer of years and during this period Suman Kalyanpur coming out the winner, do we know of any male playbacks benefiting ?

This of course would have made the MD’s job very difficult if Rafi/Lata were their favourites for the tunes they had composed and having to choose one would mean dropping the other.

Were there any MD’s who only used Rafi or only Lata during this period showing a favouritism ?



Would Lata have pressurised Asha to not sing with Rafisaab also, would that be the upcoming of Sumanji ?

The first song I understand after the gap was Dil Pukare from Dev Anand’s Jewel Thief.

Iqbal-bhai:

Based merely on recollection, I think among male singers Rafi-sahab had an edge in the situation, and that Asha/Suman benefitted among the female singers.

With the exception of some infrequent Nutan or Meena Kumari or (earlier) Nargis movies, Hindi films have been by-and-large male (hero) dominated. Consequently, it was the leading man who prevailed when it came to choice of singers, example: Rajendra Kumar wanting Rafi-sahab to sing for him in "PALKI". Unless it was a big producer like B. R. Chopra.

During the period of their rift, Lata-ji continued to get her usual quota of solos. But when it came to duets, I believe she lost out to Asha-ji and Suman Kalyanpur.

Of course, it varied from composer to composer:

Even otherwise, Music Directors OPN and Ravi consistently used Rafi-sahab and Asha-ji for their duets.

Madan Mohan (who did few films) used Mahendra Kapoor with Lata-ji in some duets during that period.

Naushad-sahab (again, few films) used Rafi-sahab with Asha-ji and Suman Kalyanpur.

But the top composing team, Shankar-Jaikishen, the ones with the maximum films, overwhelmingly chose Rafi-sahab as their lead singer, with either Asha-ji or Suman. (Unless they had no choice, e.g. the Lata-Mukesh-Mahendra Kapoor number in "SANGAM").

Lakshmikant-Pyarelal have stated that they owed personal loyalty to Lata-ji for assisting them in their career. But they have also admitted that Rafi-sahab had extended help to them. Their duets don't seem to reveal any preference of singer/s.

Without checking their compositions during those years, I really cannot say off-hand if Kalyanji-Anandji showed any preference. Again, it is not apparent.

As for Asha-ji, it is believed that there has been competition (some use the word "rivalry") betweer the two sisters. It is very unlikely that Asha-ji could have been influenced by Lata-ji in making career decisions. Proof being that she did a great amount of work with OPN who refused to work with her sister.

"Hits" brought up an interesting point recently: Listening to a song by Lata-ji, one can imagine it picturized on any leading lady. Whereas Rafi-sahab modified his singing-style according to the personality of the actor.

Thinking back, Rafi-sahab was truly un-rivalled in those days. Whereas Asha-ji was constantly there as a "threat" to her sister, and Suman Kalyanpur's voice bore similarity with Lata-ji's.

One bright guy described Mahendra Kapoor and Suman Kalyanpur as "the poor man's Rafi and Lata"!.

Thank you very much Unniji for your detailed post on my query.

An enjoyable read as always.


Thanks
Iqbal

Unniji

Really it was an excellent read, and quite informative of the times.


Thanks
Mudit

Wonderful post Unni ji !!.

It is true that during this rift, most of the lead composers of that time preferred Rafi saab over Lata ji for their duets. If the rift had continued, imagine how many amazing duets we would have lost, considering the amount that Rafi/Lata sang after they patched up. I don't think composers would have been able to put those awesome tunes into effect with other singers. It wouldn't have had the same effect . Imagine a "Mizaag-e-Garami" (Jaal) or a "Humne Aaj Se Tumhe" (Raja Saab) or a "Jhil Mil Sitaron Ka" (Jeevan Mrityu) in the voices of Mahendra-Suman



Absolutely Unni ji, he was un-rivalled throughout his whole career. To this day, no male singer has been able to dominate the scene like he did and I see no one doing that in the future as well.

Cheers

This is an old snippet from one of the old music forums. I forget which.


Rafi had two problems with Lata - He never cared for money,
for some producers who could not pay him, he used to wait. Also
Rafi was very emotional during singing while Lata was Steady.
In early 60s Lata wanted royalties on all songs. Producers in
those time used to pay a fixed singing amount. Rafi, Mukesh,
Manna Dey (most expensive), were with this system, but Lata
wanted this to change. But Rafi did not care so they stopped
singing together for 3-4 years until LP brought them back to-
gether in SHAGIRD and Majrooh wrote a very fitting song for
their union - "Vo hai zara khafa khafa".

But there is aother version too, this from the old rafi forum of yahoo groups

It was S.D.Burman who made peace between Lata and Rafi. At that
time, the Anand brothers were making 'Jewel Thief'. S.D. had told Dev
Anand that he would get the voices of Rafi and Lata for 'Dil pukaare,
aa re aa re aa re...'. Dev Anand was quite sure that this wouldn't be
possible. But S.D. called up each of them on the phone and called
them to the studio, lovingly restored understanding between them and
had them sing this song together. Rafi Sahab came with bouquet to greet Lata
when they buried their differences, Lata has said "mai.n bahut pasopesh mein thi ki dekhuu.n kaise milte hai.n. Par aate hi unho.n ne mujhe phuul diye aur aise baate.n karne lage jaise kuchh nahii.n huaa ho."

Asad ji..Unni bhai...aur Iqbal Bhai...this is a wonderful article..touching on a taboo...thankyou very much... :-)