A night to remember the Great Mohd Rafi…

One of the advantages of having your husband in the marketing field is that you get invited to various events. I was lucky this time around to be with him and go for a lovely musical evening.

A local radio channel here plays only old Hindi music from the golden era of 50s-70s. Everyday you get to hear the lovely melodies of Lata-Asha-Geeta Dutt-Rafi-Kishore Kumar- Mukesh-Manna Dey- OP Nayyar-SD Burman.

On 31st July, the radio channel had organized a night to mark the death anniversary of the great legend Mohd. Rafi. The melody, the romance, the pain, the sorrow, Rafi brought out all emotions so well and I’m not exaggerating when I say there is an enchanting sweetness in his voice. I say ‘is’ because even though he may have left for the heavenly abode 26 years ago, he still lives on among us through his songs.

To pay a tribute to him, the channel had a contest called Echoes of Rafi which invited people to sing their favorite Rafi songs. After multiple rounds and auditions, 5 people were selected as finalists and the final contest was to take place that night.

The place was houseful even though this event was for invitees only. The five people all from varied background, one was a chauffer for a hotel, one worked in private financial firm, one had participated in a singing contest for the very first time.

In addition to these 5 finalists the team members of the channel performed on Rafi’s songs as well. One was the program head, one was the production manager and one was a RJ with the channel. Man are people talented, I mean not only do they do their regular jobs well but to go and sing Rafi’s song as well, I think that is awesome and I really do admire people who are multi-talented.

The contest went on smoothly being anchored by the channel’s most popular RJ and boy was his Hindi fantastic! Mine isn’t that great (I am not proud of that fact either) and I kept troubling my husband to understand a few words that were obviously 1000 miles above my understanding levels.

The first guy started with ‘Pukarta chala hoon mein’, the next three came up with songs that I had not heard before and the last guy sang ‘Tere aankhon ke siva’ If only there was a contest for ‘Guess the winner’, I would have won hands down. I bet with my husband on the first guy and he won! He was a simple man, a chauffer with a hotel and he was so overcome with emotion. The one good thing about these contests and reality shows is they give every one an equal chance. Al that matters is your talent and nothing else.

In between the songs, the channels RJ quizzed the audience on Rafi and sadly the one question to which I knew the answer to, the RJ never saw me lift my hand:-(The loss was huge – A 3Cd pack of Rafi’s hits.

More than my husband, I’m the one who loves musical evenings and henceforth for future shows he doesn’t have much of a choice to not attend them!

The music from the golden era is simply soothing to your mind. You just have to forget the world and drown yourself in the songs. The songs from the golden era have a magical feel about them and you can but help get lost in them.

As for my favorite Rafi no. it is ‘Abhi na jao chod kar’ from Hum Dono. Kishore Kumar is definitely my favourite singer of all times but this number by Rafi-Asha is on the top of my all-time favourites list. It is so romantic that every time I hear it, I lose myself completely. You got to hear it to understand what I mean.

So till I go for another musical evening I’m leaving with you the first few lines of my favourite Rafi number. Would you want to tell me yours?

Abhi na jao chodkar
Ke dil abhi bhara nahi

Abhi na jao chodkar
Ke dil abhi bhara nahi

Abhi abhi to aai ho
Abhi abhi to..
Abhi abhi to aai ho
Bahar ban ke chayi ho
Hawa jara mehek to le
Nazar jara behek to le

Yeh sham dhal to le jara
Yeh dil sambhal to le jara
Mein thodi der jee to lu
Nashe ke ghont pi to lu

Nashe ke ghont pi to lu

Abhi to kuch kaha nahi
Abhi to kuch suna nahi


Abhi na jao chodkar
Ke dil abhi bhara nahi

Previous

How could I?

Next

Featured in DNA India…

9 Comments

  1. Vishal Gour

    Some of his pure heavenly songs are 1. tumhari zulf ke saaye main sham kar loonga
    2. mujhe teri mohabbat ka sahara
    3. barbaad e mohabbat ki dua

    See these songs are just too too good for mankind but if you listen to some other songs like chahoonga main tujhe saanjh savere, mera to jo bhi kadam hai woh teri raah main hai, teri zulfon se judaai to nahi maangi thi and so many others you will feel that each song is better than the other..So overall it all depends upon your mood..all of his songs are staright from heaven and a gift to mankind….

    Thanks
    Vishal Gour

  2. Nasir

    Of course, I love all the songs of Rafi Sahaab. But some of them like MERE MEHBOOB TUJHE; YEH MERA PREM PATRA; TERE MERE SAPNE; JANAM JANAM KA SAATH; are at the top of my romantic choice. Among his Bhajans: MANN TADPAT HARI DARSHAN KO, MUJHE APNI SHARAN MEIN LELO RAM; INSAAF KA MANDIR HAI YEH; AANA HAI TOH AA… I like the most; Among his sad songs, patriotic songs, philosophical songs, etc., the list would get very long.
    At the time when it was not easy to listen to one’s favourite songs since we had only the radiio, I remember that whenever I heard Rafi Sahaab’s MERE MEHBOOB TUJHE, I used to run to the source of the song in the manner they show a cobra running to the tune of the ‘Been’. Those golden days are synonymous with Rafi Sahaab’s dominance in the Bollywood.
    Nasir

  3. MP

    very nice article i would like to invite every body to visit my blog dedicated to rafisaab total around 100 pages with rafisaabs songs & rare pictures of rafisaab kindly visit

    http://rafifanblog.blogspot.com/

    regards

    parvez

  4. Minal

    @Sublime thoughts: See what Rafi can do to all of us:-) Well nice to see you back;-)

  5. Sublime Thoughts

    hi. here after long. hope u r doing good.

    Rafi is God yaar.Like sooo many of his songs…
    my favs:

    aapke haseen rukh is my all time fav,

    along with tumhari zulf ke saaye mein shaam kar loonga,

    ek haseen shaam ko dil mera…

    apni toh har aah ek toofan hai…

    din dhal jaaye hai, raat na jaaye…(Uff, kya kaifiyat hai iss gaane mein!)

    stopping myself, lest i go on n on…

    tk cr

  6. Minal

    @Tugga: You seem to be GOD when to comes to Rafi’s songs. I haven’t heard some you mentioned will do so now.
    Mere Mehboob is a classy song but for it being picturised on Rajendra kumar. How that guy mastered hits is a mystery to me. Guess the songs worked for him cause acting surely did not

  7. Tugga

    oops correction, ae husn zara jaag tujheishq jagaaye…

  8. Tugga

    Dude, mere fav singer ka topic nikala hai tune.. so ek kya bahot saare deta hoon..

    a) Man tarpat Hari darshan ko..

    Awesome song, Rafi takes it to heights only he can. As a classical based song from Hindi films, it is undoubtedly my favorite, rivalled only by Ketaki Gulab Juhi, by Bhimsen Joshi and Manna Dey from Basant Bahar and by Laaga chunari mein daag.

    b) Mere mehboob tujhe meri mohabbat ki kasam, fir mujhe nargisi aankhon ka sahara de de…

    His best romantic song as far as I am concerned. The video with Sadhna just adds to the experience. My fav stanza from this song is

    Dhoondta hoon tujhe har raah mein har mehfil mein
    Thak gaye hai meri majboor tamanna ki kadam
    Aaj ka din meri umeed ki hai aakhri din
    Kal na jaane mein kahan aur kahan tu hai sanam
    Do ghadi apni nigahon ka sahara dede
    Mera khoya hua rangeen nazara dede
    Mere mehboob tujhe

    c) Two of his songs that are hot favorites with me at the moment are

    Ae husn zara jaag tujhe ishq bulaaye, badle meri taqdeer jo tu hosh mein aaye..(again from Mere Mehboob) and

    Aap ke haseen rukh pe aaj naya noor hain, from Bahaarein fir bhi aayengi (God, Tanuja looks divine)

    Anyway selecting Rafi favs is probably the most difficult thing in the world; each song is better than the next:-)

Leave a Reply to Tugga Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén