Discerning Few : Rafi Sings For Bachchan
na fankaar tujh sa tere baad aya
mohammed rafi tu bahut yaad aya
- A song from movie Krodh
Just the other day I was watching the song and something struck me. I felt that the song was ironical in so many ways. Although its a tribute to Rafi Saab, it was sung by Md.Aziz, a so-called Rafi clone, whose voice is such a far cry from the soothing and melodious voice of Rafi. And the fact that the song was filmed on Amitabh Bachchan, whereas Rafi hardly sang a dozen songs for him.
That got me thinking of all the songs which Rafi Saab rendered for AB. Among the pearls of Kishore da songs, I really had to try hard to find the gems that Rafi had sung. And quite truly I found very few of those. I still wonder why the legendary singer was given such few songs to sing for the megastar. While I do agree that Kishore had become the defacto voice for AB, but you still had Mukesh singing for him in Kabhi Kabhie, Manhar Udhas sang a song in Abhimaan, Shabbir Kumar sang a dozen of them during the mid-1980’s in movies like Coolie and Mard, Md.Aziz sang for him in Khuda Gawah and more, Kumar Sanu gave us a nasal AB in Jaadugar and Geraftar; then why did music composers of 1970’s not give more songs to Rafi Saab? Anyways, instead of cribbing about what did-not and could-not happen, let us just enjoy whatever little that’s available of this actor-singer combination.
While I was making a quick list of the songs, much to my surprise I found that Manmohan Desai was the only director who got Rafi Saab to record for a lot of those BigB songs. And invariably, Laxmikant-Pyarelal was the music composer for the Desai flicks like Desh Premee, Naseeb and Suhaag. In fact, even outside of Manmohan Desai films, LP made use of Rafi’s tones for Dostana and Ek Nazar.
Let me start with one of the most melodious duets of Indian cinema, Teri Bindiya Re, what a composition it is! Everytime I hear it, I go into a wonderland of my own dream sequence. Lata-Rafi, at their very best, just take us back to the basics of classical training; and without straining a single chord deliver such fantastic melody. SD Burman, the music director who made this possible, should be given huge credit for this evergreen song. I only wish that Majrooh Saab had written a few more stanzas so that Lata-Rafi could cast a longer spell of magic. Why the hell is this song so short? Under 4 minutes! Ok, here I go cribbing again….forget it. Let me enjoy, thanking God for those little mercies that the song still exists in the hearts and minds of people.
Another Lata-Rafi duet, which did not get much airtime because the movie did not do well, was the song Patta Patta Boota Boota from the movie Ek Nazar. It was a LP composition, much in sync with the movie but not with the times that were. Its a forgotten song which comes up only when people talk about Mir’s poetry and/or Rafi’s voice and the effortless rendition. What a fine song, and it does not look odd on Bachchan’s persona either.
Let me stepback for a minute, one of the first songs which Rafi sang for BigB was for the movie Parwana and the song was Yu Na Sharma . Madan Mohan was the music composer and the situation was party-like where Kishore da sang the happy version of the song picturized on Navin Nischol. The same song is later sung in a sad version by Rafi for AB. The mood changes, the flavor changes, the voice changes, face changes but the melody remains. AB’s sullen expression and Rafi’s tones of dismay makes for such a beautfiul watch.
Another somber song which Rafi rendered wonderfully for AB was Mere Dost Kissa Ye Kya ho Gaya in Dostana. The strained relationship between AB and Shatru is brought out so well in this song. A restrained Rafi and a clean-shaven, boyish hair-cut and yet a grave-looking Bachchan was a treat. There is so much emotion in those words sung by Rafi and the expression on AB’s face is just unforgettable. In fact, except for this song, all other songs of Dostana were sung by Kishore da; including the title song, Dillagi Ne Di Hawa etc. And yet, for this song LP chose Rafi who did total justice to this gloomy song.
Having mentioned the above songs, let me now come to the Manmohan Desai and LP combo. Desh Premee was quite a long winded movie with so many twists and turns, typical of any Desai movie. The movie was based on patriotism, regional, caste, creed and racial differences. Kishore da sang the fun songs Khatoon Ki Khidmat Mei, Gore Nahi Hum Kaale Sahi etc. But it was Rafi’s song of unity in diversity that won hearts. The title song, Nafrat Ki Lathi Todo, was symbolic of Desai’s movies. Though this song may not count among best of Rafi songs, but its the perfect song for national integration. And keeping in tradition with all the patriotic songs that Rafi has sung.
Teri Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi song, which later gave the title to Adi Chopra’s movie, was sung by Rafi for another Desai movie Suhaag, with music by LP. BigB in the disguise of a ek tara strung sardar and Rekha behind the garb for almost the entire song could have spelt disaster. But AB and Rekha carried it off, with Rafi crooning this playful number and Shailendra Singh lyrically rebutting him.
Another song from the same movie was the dandiya number, Sabse Bada Tera Naam O Sherowali, was devotionally sung by Rafi. Much later, Mehul Kumar copied the same sequence in Krantiveer, where the hero sings for Maa Sherawali while waiting for the villain to arrive on the scene. Anyways, Suhaag was an exceptional case where Rafi sang entirely for AB. There were two other songs, Athra Baras Ki Tu Hone Ko Ayi filmed on AB and Rekha in her kotha; and Aye Yaar Sun was a silly song where AB was training a blind Shashi Kapoor to ride a bike on his instructions, basically AB literally doing a backseat driving. Nowhere in the movie do we feel that Rafi’s voice does not suit BigB, at least this movie should have opened more doors for this combo. But probably the box-office report and producer’s superstition held them back from doing so.
Betwixt Desh Premee and Suhaag came Desai’s Naseeb. And much before the Hey-Baby’s and the Om-Shanti-Oms, there was John Jaani Janardhan. A star-studded song which was opportunistically filmed during the golden jubilee celebrations of Desai’s Dharam Veer. Desai made the best of the situation by shooting the song as guests kept coming in; they swayed a little, lip-synced a little and the song created history. This was another song which is a symbol of Desai’s secular credentials and all-inclusive approach. And Rafi singing to the tunes of LP was icing on the cake. He gave the song the much required gaiety and enjoyment without missing a single beat. It was one of the more overtly commercial songs of Rafi that went very well with AB’s merriment.
I would like to mention two more songs which were not sung for AB, but nevertheless AB was the proxy of the voice. The song was filmed on unknown faces, but the thoughts and feelings were of AB. One of the song is Deewane Hain Deewano Ko Na Ghar Chahiye from Zanjeer which reflected AB’s thoughts in the movie; and the other is Ruthe Rab Ko Manana Asaan Hai from Majboor. Both songs were sung with great enthusiasm by Rafi Saab, although they were not to be shot on the main lead. That goes on to show the humility of this man who valued the song for what they were, nice compositions.
Amidst all these amusement let me not forget one of my favourite romantic songs of Rafi which also happens to be picturized on AB, which is Tumse Door Rehke. The movie was Aadalat and the music composer was Kalyanji-Anandji, perhaps the only time that the duo got Rafi to sing for AB. The song has such a nice ring to it, filled with fondness and yearning and the magic of Rafi’s voice and expression.
Although Kishore da has sung more songs of AB, memorable ones too, I cherish these Rafi tracks as well. These songs should not be lost in the vast ocean of AB songs.
Tags: aadalat, ab, abhimaan, Amitabh Bachchan, bigb, desh premee, Kishore Kumar, Laxmikant Pyarelal, LP, Manmohan Desai, mohammed rafi, Naseeb, parwana, Rafi, SD Burman, suhaag
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Hey, you missed out ‘aa rat jaati hai’ from Benaam…its an awesome composition by RD, sung by Rafi and Asha. And Kumar Sanu never sang for AB in Geraftaar but yes, he did sing for him in Insaaniyat.
@rals,
will come to you selection later but Deewane hain deewano ko was picturized on famous lyricist Gulshan Bawara and Mazboor’s roothe rab wa picturised on Ravindra Kapoor (remember Caarvaan)
@Satya (1),
Kumar Sanu was (re)launched as voice of Big B in the film Jaadugar.
Aa raat jaati hai is defintely a miss and surely is a beautiful number…
For me John-Johnny-Janardan is the representative of Rafi-BigB duo.. Rafi saab could sing for any actor right from Johnny Walker to Dilip Kumar, From Bharat Bhushan to Amitabh Bachchan..
Coming back to your list Some of the notable misses are (since the list is small, the numbers are significant)
1. Koi aur duniya me tumsa haseen hai – Pyar Ki Kahani
2. Ek Pate Ki baat bataaon sun mere humzoli – Pyar Ki Kahani (Chitrahaar favorite)
3. Mile jo kadi kadi ik janzeer bane – Kasme vaade
4. Oonchi Oonchi baaton se kisi ka pet bharta nahin – Mr. Natwar Lal
5. Ik Rasta do raahi – Ram Balram
and ofc the Benaam number.. there are a few more..
and not to forget a duet that Rafi-BigB sung together.. Chal Mere Bhai in Naseeb
@satya: i have heard the ‘dhoop mei nikla na karo’ song from ‘geraftar’ in a kumar sanu version. i m sure kumar sanu sang in that movie. will check again…
It was Kishore Da, not Sanu.
@pavan: did not know abt ravindra kapoor and gulshan bawra, never seen their faces. tat was nice bit of trivia
.
rafi did not sing for AB in ‘mile jo kadi kadi’ and ‘chal mere bhai’. in the former, it was for randhir kapoor and the later for rishi kapoor
.
‘ik rasta do raahi’ again… rafi for shashi kapoor
.
if u start taking into account all duet songs then i should have included ‘yamma yamma’ as well…but tat was not the intention
@pavan: i think i overlooked ‘pyar ki kahani’, thanx for pointing that out. will try and check it out soon.
. thanx again
.
mr.natwarlal … i really did not recall this song. requires another dekko from me
good one oye! me the likes.
@rals(5),
Always confirm before you discard the opinion… Do not put a response blindly..
“Rafi did not sing for AB in ‘mile jo kadi kadi’ and ‘chal mere bhai’. in the former, it was for randhir kapoor and the later for rishi kapoor”
Do check “Mile Jo Kadi Kadi Again”.. how can you forget a late entry of Amitabh (Shankar) and Rafi saab in the song which gets started by Kishore (Randhir).. See it again..
‘Ik Rasta Do Raahi’ is not ‘Ik Rasta Hai Zindagi’ but Ram Balram song with Dharam-Amitabh driving the mini car.. I specifically mentioned it as Rafi saab did lip synced a small portion for Big B (Kishore was his voice and Rafi saabfor Dharam) (unintentionally as a mistake of the director)
(observed the same in Lambu Ji-Tingu ji song -coolie, where Shabbir and Shailendra Singh got interchanged for Rishi-Amitabh due to the director’s negligence in a small portion)
On ‘Chal Mere Bhai’, I never meant Rafi Singing for BigB.. But I meant was that they have sung a duet together (Playback together) and mentioned it for trivial purposes..
@rals(5),
check “Mile Jo Kadi Kadi” here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DFMrQp4xOc
and “oonchi oonchi baaton se” here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3S_Q5kqTRA&feature=PlayList&p=31345FC9FFD3B5B3&index=2
While I agree, I am getting older.. yet anything concerning to BigB of (late) 70s and early 80s is unforgettable however good or bad it was..
@pavan: plz chillax bhai. i m a huge fan of AB too, and thats the very reason i brought this out. mine was not an absolute list, and i m glad that u r contributing immensely to it.
.
i have already apologized for missing ‘oonchi oonchi baaton se’, tat was a mistake
.
‘ek rasta ahha ahha’ … if the lip-sync was messed up for one line, it again goes into the unintenional range. but as such, rafi was not AB’s voice.
.
‘mile jo kadi kadi’ … shankar shambhu bachao humey….
.
include kar liye apne dimag ke database mei. but plz see the intention of the post. even after adding all this, its less than a score[20]. tats all i was trying to highlight…
.
bhool-chook maaf ho sarkar, lekin hamari mehnat majdoori ka thoda tou kadr karen :(
@Rals,
The post was good but nothing exceptional specially to feed passion quotient..
Thanks for writing and all the mehnat.. Never said the post was lazy or kaam chalaau.. The thing that put me off was your discarding the facts without even checking.. also when the number is less, the omissions surely becomes a significant miss (btw there is a raise of 75% when you say a dozen or make it 20)
“Ek Rasta” pointer was never intended as a omission, but for trivial part and ofc the fun of it, as a reader I was adding on to your post..
Dont take PFC Readers for granted
and do a bit more hardwork than you are doing… write a post.. nourish it.. check every word.. cross check again.. and believe more on your inner world more than wiki or google.
@pavan: your advise has been taken in good heed, i really appreciate it. believe me, i did as much as i could. anyways…
by the way, wo percentage wala thought was fantastic ….
@jehan: well, i have already mentioned in previous comments that i am glad pavan is contributing immensely to it. i m not defending the post, why should i? i was just discussing a few facts, tats all. there is a thin line of difference between debate and discussion. the fact, that one line of a song was wrongly lip-synced, i did not count it as rafi singing for BigB. but where i have gone wrong, i have accepted fault. its a great way to learn, i believe
@Shailesh Lodha: [error consumed post] ??? … plz point to one error in the post. i may have missed out on something, but haven’t put anything wrongly. and these comments and discussions will enhance the post. plz do not put down such comments blindly. and yes, i m not looking for any applause, its not a prize distribution ceremony. that ‘bhool-chook’ thing was written in jest, as i have interacted with pavan earlier too. he happens to be a huge database for movies and fact-files, a big fan of AB, gulzar etc . i always look forward to his comments. a little more sensitivity required, plz.
@Crazyrals
Chota Moon, Badi Baat.
But dude, if Pavan sir is contributing so well, you should be glad and happy, not sure why you keep going on about the ‘intention’ of the post. If he’s pointing out some amazing intricasies, why are you trying to defend yourself in every comment.
Sorry, dont mind, just saw this pattern on quite a few posts by you, take it in your stride and be happy we have a genius here
Pardon me again.
Remember on PFC, you should be the source for wiki and google to quote, rather than you quoting them..
btw just got hold of this article.. (apologies in advance)
http://www.mohdrafi.com/meri-awaaz-suno/mohammed-rafi-and-amitabh-bachchan.html
can you tell me the value addition your article has to it?
Speaking of Ravanidra Kapoor, he surely was not an unknown face (unknown name may be to many).. Was more regular than a hero in Nasir Hussain films.. Even had prominent roles in QSQT, JJWS, HKSKN..
His biggest fame was Jitendra’s sidekick in Caarvaan (remember Hum to hain raahi dil ke or daiyya ye main kahaan aa phansi)..
The other day I found an interesting set of videos on Youtube. There was a film called Duniya Ka Mela (1974) starring Sanjay Khan and Rekha. It had a Rafi-Lata duet Tauba Tauba. The film was supposed to have AB, who was later replaced by Sanjay Khan. Both versions of the song are available on youtube.
AB version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGPMFI5UzZo
Sanjay Khan version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR9Zdwme-F8
Aditya,
Have some background info on this song which I will be posting soon
Pavan
Geet Pehle Bana tha from Chupke Chupke. Not sure who sung for who – Kishore and Rafi for Dharmendra and Amitabh.
Mohd Rafi was a great singer and he sang in different styles for Dilip Kumar, Johnny Wallker, Guru Dutt and Shammi Kapoor and modulated his voice differently for them. He had a soft, sweet and melodious voice and his voice did not suit Amitabh. Kishore’s voice suited Amitabh more and Kishore sang brilliantly for Amitabh as evident in songs like ‘Khaike Pan Banaras wala’ or ‘Pag Ghungroo’ and many more. ‘O Saathi Re’ from Muqaddar ka Sikandar is one of the best examples of Kishore’s voice being a perfect match for Amitabh and Amitabh lip syncs excellently. You feel as if Amitabh is singing.
Manmohan Desai had this habit of having Rafi or Shabbir Kumar singing for Amitabh. But the best song in a Manmohan Desai movie picturized on Amitabh is definitely ‘My name is Anthony Gonsalves’ which again was brilliantly sung by Kishore. You can hardly tell when Amitabh is singing and when Kishore is. Amitabh lip syncing to Rafi did not look good as you could feel that his voice was completely different to Amitabh’s and Rafi’s singing style too did not suit Amitabh.
@sputnik:another fantastic song where voice of kishore and AB cannot be differentiated is ‘jahan char yaar’ from sharaabi. we just dont know when kishore stops and AB continues. in fact, ‘log kehte hain mai sharaabi hoon’ is another fine example of kishore’s vocals for AB
. the day this horse begins to run, he would leave all filmstars behind, is what mehmood said :D
.
@pavan, aditya pant: mehmood recommended AB for the movie ‘duniya ka mela’ but roshan was not happy with him and wanted to remove him after 2 schedules of the movie. but the signing amt was paid etc, so roshan pestered mehmood to obtain NOC from AB, so he could replace him. BigB not only gave the NOC but also returned the signing amount of Rs.30,000/-.
.
in fact, even ‘anand’ and ‘parwana’ came on mehmood’s recommendation. mehmood always believed tat AB would make it big. ameen sayani once interviewd mehmood and quizzed him on racing horses, to which mehmood said that the fastest horse he knew was AB
@crazyrals
agree with you on ‘jahan char yaar’.