Colors of India
Mohammed RafiMohammed Rafi
Mohammed Rafi
Get to know about the life and life history of Mohammed Rafi. Read for information on Mohd Rafi's life.

Life of Mohammed Rafi

Mohammed Rafi was born on December 24, 1924 at Kotla Sultan Singh, a town near Amritsar in Punjab. That Rafi was gifted with precious vocal talents became evident at a tender age and his elder brother Hamid took upon himself the onus of grooming Rafi's budding career. On Hamid's insistence, Mohammed Rafi made his first public performance at the age of 13 and the young lad's melodious voice immediately struck a chord with noted Bollywood composer Shyam Sunder who was present in the audience.

Shyam Sunder invited Rafi to Bombay and at the age of 20, Rafi made his debut as a playback singer with the Punjabi song, Soniye Hiriye, teri yaad ne bahut sataya composed by Shyam Sunder for the movie Gul Baloch. Rafi's virtuosity reaffirmed the composer's faith in him and he was soon swarmed with offers to work with top-notch Bollywood composers. He got the opportunity to work with composer Naushad in the 1944 film Pehle Aap.

This association spawned the birth one of Bollywood's most successful singer-composer pairs as the Rafi-Naushad duo went on to deliver some memorable numbers. The song Tera Khilona Toota Balak in Anmol Ghadi (1946) was their first hit. Mohd Rafi then teamed up with Sachin De Burman to produce some soulful renditions for Dev Anand's films. The S. D. Burman-Rafi duo also delivered classic numbers in films such as Aradhana, Abhimaan, Pyaasa, C.I.D. and Kaagaz ke Phool.

Riding on a string of massive hits, Mohammed Rafi ascended to the acme of playback singing in Bollywood and his status as the numero uno crooner stood unrivaled for two decades. Rafi enjoyed tremendous success with other composers like O. P. Nayyar, Ravi, Madan Mohan and the duo of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Mohamed Rafi's vocal talents also played a big role in the successful careers of film icons such as Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Guru Dutt, Shammi Kapoor and Rajesh Khanna.

In 1969, the superhit movie Aradhana resulted in Mohd Rafi's stature as Bollywood's lead singer being eclipsed by the emergence of Kishore Kumar. After a lean phase, Mohammed Rafi was back with a bang in 1977 when he bagged the Filmfare Award and the National Award for the song Kya Hua Tera Vaada in the film 'Hum Kissise Kum Nahin.' He also performed a number of memorable duets with Kishore Kumar. An epoch in Indian music came to an end with Mohammed Rafi's demise on July 31, 1980.


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