Death Anniversary | July 31, 1980
Mohammed Rafi was one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian sub-continent who was globally acclaimed for his versatility.
Rafi could mould his voice to the movie character's style who is lip-syncing the song on-screen. His songs varied from classical numbers to romantic ones, ghazals, patriotic songs and even qawwalis & bhajans.
He is known as the voice of Indian Cinema since his soulful melodies have become a trademark of Bollywood's golden years.
Here are some lesser known facts about him:
Mohammed Rafi's nickname was Pheeko. He originally belonged to Kotla Sultan Singh in Amritsar but later moved to Lahore with his family. He died in Mumbai on July 31, 1980.
He married twice but kept his first marriage a secret as revealed by his daughter-in-law in her book 'Mohammed Rafi My Abba'. The couple even had a son but it did not work out as his first wife 'Bashera' lost her parents in the partition riots and refused to come to India with him. Later, he got married to 'Bilkis' and had three sons and three daughters from this marriage.
Rafi started singing by imitating the chants of a fakir in the streets of Amritsar. Later, he learnt classical music from Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Firoze Nizami and Pandit Jiwan Lal Mattoo.
His first public appearance was in Lahore at the age of 13 where he featured K. L. Saigal
His playback singing debut was in 1994 at Lahore where he sang a duet with Zeenat Begum, 'Soniye Nee, Heeriye Nee' in the Punjabi film Gul Baloch (1944) which was the 2nd highest grossing film of that year. All India Radio Lahore also invited him to sing for them.
His Bollywood journey began in 1945 with the film Gaon Ki Gori.
When Mahatma Gandhi died, Husanlal Bhagatram, Rajendra Krishan and Mohammed Rafi created the song, 'Suno Suno Ae Duniyawalon, Bapuji Ki Amar Kahani' overnight in his memory. Rafi was even invited by Jawaharlal Nehru to sing at his residence.
Here's the link of the song
Rafi sang more than 4,500 Hindi songs, 112 other language songs and over 320 personal songs. The highest number of duets he sang were with Asha Bhonsle, Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar.
With over 10,000 attendees, Rafi's burial was one of the largest funeral processions in India. Over 9,000 musical tributes were organised on his death anniversary.
Here's the link of one tribute video with Dharmendra
Rafi's most popular Hindi song, as voted in BBC Asia Network poll, was 'Baharon Phool Barsao'
In a CNN-IBN survey, Rafi was voted as the greatest voice of Hindi Cinema. He won around six Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award.
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