A tribute to Rafi on his 35th death anniversary
It is certain that readers would have been expecting something on Rafi with Naushad today, but they would find the inclusion of C Ramchandra surprising and somewhat contrived. While Naushad is the most important composer to have laid the foundation of the Rafi legend, C Ramchandra does not figure among the composers who gave great songs for Rafi. Naushad, SD Burman, OP Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishan, Roshan, Chitragupta, Madan Mohan, Ravi – these are the names that come to mind instantly when you think of Rafi. As a matter of fact, I have read a comment somewhere (not by Raju Bharatan) that CR shared his mentor Anil Biswas’s antipathy for Rafi.
I find this comment surprising, because in my early years when I was hooked to the radio I associated CR with having created the earliest superhit songs for Rafi. Rafi started with Naushad in 1944 with Pahle Aap, and with CR two years later with Safar. Yet if you count their songs till 1949, Rafi had about 20 songs with CR, as compared to about 15 with Naushad. But more important is the qualitative comparison during this period.
CR-Rafi and Naushad-Rafi comparison till 1949
In Pahle Aap (1944), Rafi is secondary singer to Shyam Kumar in two duets. In a chorus song Hindostan ke hum hain Hindostan hamara, HFGK does not credit the singers, but Arunji in his article on Atul’s blog mentions Rafi as one of the singers along with Shyam Kumar, Alauddin Naved and BM Vyas. His next appearance with Naushad is in 1946 in two films. In Shahjehan, he is in a chorus in KL Saigal-dominated Mere sapno ki rani – it was fulfillment of his dream to sing with his idol and the legend. In Anmol Ghadi, he gets to sing a solo Tera khilona toota baalak, but it is overshadowed by Surendra’s songs.
CR on the other hand gives two solos for Rafi in Safar, whereas he himself sings duets with Binapani Mukherjee and Shamshad Begum. One of the songs is a pure gem. Readers can instantly recognise several songs on this Punjabi folk tune that were composed later, one of the most well-known being Dil le ke daga denge (Naya Daur, 1957).
1. Kah ke bhi na aye tum ab chhupne lage taare by Rafi from Safar (1946), lyrics GS Nepali, music C Ramchandra
While the above song has been mentioned earlier on this blog a couple of times, here is the other one from the same film, less heard but no les charming. You can see Rafi is very sure of himself and shows all the modulation for which he became famous later.
2. Ab wo hamare ho gaye iqraar karen ya na karen by Rafi from Safar
Contrast this with his early song for Naushad, who leaves no doubt that Shyam Kumar is the lead singer. Rafi sounds decidedly tentative behind his senior partner. The song is absolutely delightful though.
3. Tum Dilli main Agre by Shyam Kumar and Rafi from Pahle Aap (1944), lyrics DN Madhok, music Naushad
Naushad gives a miss to Rafi in 1947, even though it was a very productive year for him: Dard had only female singers; Surendra was the male singer in Elaan, and Amar in Natak. But CR creates a big Rafi bang in Saajan, with a roaring hit Humko tumhara hi aasra, which had a solo version, and a duet version with Lalilta Deulkar which seemed to be more popular. He had another duet with her in the film, and two more triad songs with Lalita Deulkar and Geeta Dutt. I understand Ashok Kumar wanted to sing his own songs as a hangover from the earlier era, when even non-singer actors got to sing their songs, but CR put his foot down and had Rafi as the lead singer. Even though playback technology had been discovered as early as 1935, 1947 is regarded as the year of resurgence of independent great playback singers.
4. Humko tumhara hi aasra tum hamare ho na ho by Rafi and Lalita Deulkar from Saajan (1947), lyrics Moti, music C Ramchandra
In 1948, Naushad’s male singers in Anokhi Ada are Mukesh and Surendra, and in Mela the lead singer is Mukesh for Dilip Kumar. Rafi gets to sing the title song though, which is picturised on an itinerant singer, an unknown side character.
5. Ye zindagi ke mele duniya mein kam na honge by Rafi from Mela (1948), lyrics Shakeel Badayuni, music Naushad
But CR does one up on Naushad by composing a Rafi song for Dilip Kumar. This is his iconic duet with Lalilta Deulkar (singing for Kamini Kaushal) in Nadiya Ke Paar. This is besides the widely-discussed dadadaa dadadaa dadaa dadaa (डडडा डडडा डडा डडा) song – Khushiyan manayen kun na hum jalnewale jala karen – in Khidki, in which Rafi is one of the voices.
6. More raja ho le chal nadiya ke paar by Rafi and Lalita Deulkar from Nadiya Ke Paar (1948), lyrics Moti, music C Ramchandra
Now we come to the most important watershed year, 1949, in the history of Hindi films. It is a major watershed primarily for the Tsunami wave of Lata Mangeshkar. But on the CR-Naushad-Rafi front, too, we see a distinct transition taking place. Each composed 10 songs for Rafi, but Naushad takes a huge leap in terms of quality and impact, because this was the year of Suhani raat dhal chuki from Dulari, the earliest career-defining song of Rafi by Naushad. I also find his duets with Shamshad Begum in Chandni Raat absolutely charming. And in Dillagi his two solos – Is duniya mein ae dilwalo dil ka lagana khel nahi and Tere kooche mein armanon ki duniya le ke aya hun – for the hero Shyam make quite an impact in the face of two incredibly sweet Shyam Kumar-Suaiya duets in the film – Murliwale murli baja and Zaalim zamana mujhko tujhse chhuda raha hai. These songs compensate for the insignificant place given to Rafi in Andaaz as compared to the lead singer Mukesh for Dilip Kumar. Perceptive listeners would notice a very subtle ‘inspiration’ from Ghata ghanghor ghor in the instrumental interludes in the following song. Not surprising, because Naushad had been assistant to Khemchand Prakash.
7. Is duniya mein ae dilwalo dil ka lagana khel nahi by Rafi from Dillagi (1949), lyrics Shakeel Badayuni, music Naushad
CR’s ten songs for Rafi on the other hand do not stand in the same league. The songs include solos as well as duets, triads and more than three singer songs, some of which are quite popular as we have seen in Patanga. But this is about it. None can be regarded as a landmark song, unlike CR-Rafi songs of the preceding years. One of the nice songs is the following (somehow it reminds me of school prayers, which were generally based on this tune):
8. Rona hai to ro chupke aansoo na bahe aawaz na ho from Duniya (1949), lyrics (?) music C Ramchandra
CR-Rafi and Naushad-Rafi comparison 1950 onwards
1950 onwards or more precisely 1951 (Deedar) onwards, Naushad zooms off in a different orbit with his Rafi songs. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he laid the foundation of Rafi legend, and gave many immortal songs. While CR more than matched in numbers until 1949, and gave some of the earliest landmark songs for Rafi, 1950 onwards he is not in the Rafi race. Late 50s onwards every major composer joins the Rafi bandwagon, making him ‘The Male Playback’ singer of Hindi films. CR plods on, composing about 65 songs for Rafi (not a small number), compared to about 150 by Naushad. It is surprising that with much smaller number of songs for Talat Mahmood, CR is regarded as one of the major composers for him.
So, did CR harbour some ‘antipathy’ for Rafi like his mentor Anil Biswas? I have a very different view on this, and I believe many readers would agree with me on this. Fifties onwards he became so fixated with Lata Mangeshkar that he was not a great one for male songs (with the exception of Talat Mahmood). He could himself chip in to sing, and had the talent to make many of his songs everlasting hits.
I have already done a post on Naushad’s best songs (solos) for Rafi. Their songs are too well-known to bear repetition. CR, however, is not a washout with Rafi. In several films he had Rafi as the lead singer, giving some very memorable songs. I end this post with some post-1950 songs of their combination which can be categorized as outstanding.
9. Ye hasrat thi ki is duniya mein bas do kaam kar jaate by Rafi from Nausherwan-e-Aadil (1957), lyrics Parvez Shamsi, music C Ramchandra
10. Taaron ki zubaan poar hai mohabbat ki kahaani by Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar from Nausherwan-e-Aadil
11. Dekh humein aawaz na dena O bedard zamaane by Rafi and Asha Bhosle from Amar Deep (1958), lyics Rajendra Krishna, music C Ramchandra (Happy version)
Notes and acknowledgements:
1. Muveen (muveen 123@yahoo.com) has prepared an Excel sheet of complete list of Rafi songs. This is a very convenient source to look at his songs year-wise and MD-wise. If any reader is interested I can mail it to him. This was sent to me by Sudhir Kapurji.
2. Hindi Film Geet Kosh (HFGK): We tend to take HFGK as a given, something like we treat a dictionary on our mantelpiece. But it is important to pay a tribute to the awesome work of Harmandir Singh ‘Hamraz’ji in preparing the monumental compilation. The knowledge about old Hindi film songs can be clearly divided between before and after HFGK; prior to HFGK writing about old film songs was quite literally like groping in the dark. We easily believed claims, such as some singer having sung 25000 songs, HFGK’s arrival proved that the real number was not more than a quarter of this figure.