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Name
Mohammed Rafi (Pheeko)
Date of Birth
24th December, 1924
Birth Place
Kotla Sultan Singh (A
town near
Amritsar in
Punjab-British India)
Father’s Name
Hajji Ali Mohammad
Mother’s Name Fateh
Bibi
Learn
Hindustani
Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan,
Classical Music Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan,
Pandit Jiwanlal Matto and
Firoze Nizami
First Hindi Song Aji
Dil Ho Kaaboo Mein
Spouse
Bashira, (Majhi)
Children
(4 Sons) Saeed Rafi, Khalid Rafi, Hamid Rafi, Shahid Rafi
(3 Daughters) Parveen, Nasreen, Yasmin
Favourite Colour
White
Mohammed Rafi is
an Indian Playback Singer
whose career spanned four decades. A versatile singer, Rafi sang in many
Indian languages including
Hindi,
Urdu,
Punjabi,
Bengali,
Marathi,
Kannada and
Telugu. He also
recorded
English and
Persian songs.
He was one of the leading male
Bollywood
playback singers from the 1940s to the mid 1980s. He was awarded the
Padma Shri in
1965. Rafi was born the youngest of six sons of Hajji Ali Mohammad. In
1935-36, Rafi's father shifted to Lahor, and the
rest of the family followed later.
Rafi's first
public performance came at the age of 13, when he was allowed to sing at a
concert featuring the legendary
K.L. Saigal.
In 1942, Rafi, under Shyam Sunder, made his debut as a playback singer in
the duet Soniye Nee, Heeriye Nee with Zeenat Begum in the
Punjabi film
Gul Baloch. Soon after, Rafi was invited by the Lahore radio station to sing
for them.
Rafi's first song
with Naushad was Hindustan Ke Hum Hain with Shyam Kumar, Alauddin and
others, from A.R. Kardar's Pehle Aap. Around the same time, Rafi recorded
another song for the 1945 film Gaon ki Gori, Aji Dil Ho Kaaboo Mein.
He considered this song his first Hindi language song. In 1945, Rafi
appeared on the screen for the song Tera Jalwa Jis Ne Dekha in the
film Laila Majnu. He sang a number of songs for Naushad as part of the
chorus, including Mere Sapnon Ki Rani, Roohi Roohi with K.L.
Saigal
from the film Shahjahan.
Rafi got his first
Filmfare Award
for the title song of
Chaudhvin Ka Chand,
composed by Ravi.. He got
his first
National Award
for the song Babul Ki Duaen Leti Ja from the film
Neel Kamal,
also composed by Ravi.
Between 1950 and
1970, Rafi was one of the most sought after singers in Bollywood. He sang
for all the major male stars in Hindi films. In 1965, he was honoured by the
Government of India
with the
Padma Sri
award. Rafi recorded two Hindi songs in English on 7" release in 1968. He
also sang a song in Creole while on
his visit to
Mauritius in
the late 1960s. Rafi recorded two English albums as well. One of them is Pop
Hits. In Bollywood,
yodeling is
generally associated with
Kishore Kumar.
But Rafi also used yodeling in some of old songs, such as Hello Sweety
Seventeen (duet with
Asha Bhosle),
O Chale Ho Kaha, Dilke Aine Main, Unse Rippy Tippy Ho Gayee
(duet with Geeta Dutt).
Rafi made a
comeback as a leading singer in the mid-1970s. In 1974, he won the Film
World magazine Best Singer Award for the song Teree Galiyon Mein Na
Rakhenge Qadam Aaj Ke Baad (Hawas). In 1977, he won both Filmfare Award
and the National Award for the song Kya Hua Tera Wada from the movie
Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin.
The Padma Shri Mohammed Rafi Chowk in the
Bandra suburb
of Mumbai is named
after Rafi. 2001 - Rafi was honored with the Best Singer Of The
Millennium by Hero Honda and Stardust Magazine in Mumbai on Jan 7, 2001.
On Thursday, July
31, 1980, Rafi died
at 10:50 p.m., following a massive
heart attack.
His Last Song was Shaam Phir Kyun Udaas Hai Dost (Aas
Paas), which he had recorded with
Laxmikant Pyarelal
several days before his death. |
