Posted:
Name of the Article: Who Jab Yaad Aaye
Appeared in: Marathi Daily – Sakal (Published from Pune, Maharashtra)
Date: 28th July 2005
Interview of Dilip Kumar by Mandar Joshi
Introduction:
There is never a day when you do not get to hear Mohammed Rafi's voice. He was a person with no enemies and he had acquired a lot of friends. Superstar Dilip Kumar was one of them. Dilip Kumar has not been keeping well nowadays. But when he came to know that he will be talking about Mohammed Rafi, he very happily and instantly agreed. He became very emotional while remembering Mohammed Rafi. When the song - "Madhuban mein radhika" was mentioned, before saying anything about it, he hummed that song for a minute!
Full Article:
They say that human memory is very short. But I just do not agree to that and if you ask me a reason for that then I will mention Mohammed Rafi. On the coming 31st July, it will be Rafi's 25th Death Anniversary. If human memory was indeed short then we should have forgotten him by now. But that has not happened. On the contrary, every single day reminds us of "Woh jab yaad aaye…bahot yaad aaye". Be it newspaper, radio, TV or any music related program, you just cannot ignore Rafi. You cannot proceed without acknowledging Rafi's contribution. I could spend some friendly movements with this Emperor of Voice and Melody and I consider myself extremely fortunate for that.
Time is such a thing that it makes us forget good things while bad things, even if you want to, can never be forgotten. I cannot recollect the first time I met Mohammed Rafi. The meeting most probably might have taken place in Bombay Talkies. As such it is only after constant company that any friendship grows but in case of Rafi my experience was different. It was more like "friendship at first sight"….like they say … "love at first sight". He used to look very handsome then. His personality was very impressive. As a matter of fact before his voice, it was his eyes that impressed me a lot. One look in his eyes then and I knew that I am going to have a very nice "tuning" with this man. After that I actually heard his voice for the first time and I could instantly get that this is no ordinary singer. He had come into the field of playback singing with complete preparation. It was this combination of his hard work and his natural talent which was there is abundance that gave him an extra edge. I had experienced this number of times in Bombay Talkies. All the emotions in his voice had made his singing 'complete' in all respects. Be it a tragic or a sad song, a light peppy song, a classical song or a romantic duet, he sang every kind of song with utmost ease. With Naushad, his singing used to reach even greater heights. Just listen to the song – "Madhuban mein radhika" which was sung by him and picturized on me any time. You would actually come to know what "getting overwhelmed" is all about after listening to that song. It must be around 5 decades now since that song was picturized. But even now every time I listen to that song, my reaction is still the same and I also get overwhelmed like any other music buffs out there. I just unknowingly feel like my voice has got mixed with Rafi's voice and I have started singing. His voice had tremendous talent in it. But I would still like to say that some people exploited him. Some music composers made him sing some third class songs and Rafi was so simple a person that he could never say 'No' to anyone.
He used to work very hard on each and every song that came to him for singing. As such I have done very few movies, but the songs that Rafi sang for me in these movies were all very big hits. Rafi had perfected the art of singing to suit the style of the actor on the screen. But for my dearest friend Johnny Walker, he simply created the magic. He touched the greatest heights of playback singing while singling the songs – "Sar jo tera chakraye" and "Ae Dil hai mushkil jeena yahan" that were picturized on Johnny Walker.
My friendship with Rafi lasted till the last. We used to have lots of "get-togethers" in my bungalow at Pali Hill. Naushad, Anil Biswas, Rafi….lots of such people used to meet. In such 'get-togethers', I sometimes used to try to show the 'magic' of my voice. But what was special was that in spite of my terrible voice, Rafi used to encourage me by saying 'wah-wah'. In late 60s and early 70s, people in the industry were gossiping abut how Kishore Kumar has dismantled Rafi''s position. But Rafi was not even slightly affected by it. I myself never liked any sort of comparison between Rafi and Kishore Kumar. But Rafi preferred to remain quiet. He never tried to answer the criticism that was being thrown at him with words. It was always his voice and his songs that used to do all the talking. Rafi is not amongst us today but his voice and his songs are still there with us.
Appeared in: Marathi Daily – Sakal (Published from Pune, Maharashtra)
Date: 28th July 2005
Interview of Dilip Kumar by Mandar Joshi
Introduction:
There is never a day when you do not get to hear Mohammed Rafi's voice. He was a person with no enemies and he had acquired a lot of friends. Superstar Dilip Kumar was one of them. Dilip Kumar has not been keeping well nowadays. But when he came to know that he will be talking about Mohammed Rafi, he very happily and instantly agreed. He became very emotional while remembering Mohammed Rafi. When the song - "Madhuban mein radhika" was mentioned, before saying anything about it, he hummed that song for a minute!
Full Article:
They say that human memory is very short. But I just do not agree to that and if you ask me a reason for that then I will mention Mohammed Rafi. On the coming 31st July, it will be Rafi's 25th Death Anniversary. If human memory was indeed short then we should have forgotten him by now. But that has not happened. On the contrary, every single day reminds us of "Woh jab yaad aaye…bahot yaad aaye". Be it newspaper, radio, TV or any music related program, you just cannot ignore Rafi. You cannot proceed without acknowledging Rafi's contribution. I could spend some friendly movements with this Emperor of Voice and Melody and I consider myself extremely fortunate for that.
Time is such a thing that it makes us forget good things while bad things, even if you want to, can never be forgotten. I cannot recollect the first time I met Mohammed Rafi. The meeting most probably might have taken place in Bombay Talkies. As such it is only after constant company that any friendship grows but in case of Rafi my experience was different. It was more like "friendship at first sight"….like they say … "love at first sight". He used to look very handsome then. His personality was very impressive. As a matter of fact before his voice, it was his eyes that impressed me a lot. One look in his eyes then and I knew that I am going to have a very nice "tuning" with this man. After that I actually heard his voice for the first time and I could instantly get that this is no ordinary singer. He had come into the field of playback singing with complete preparation. It was this combination of his hard work and his natural talent which was there is abundance that gave him an extra edge. I had experienced this number of times in Bombay Talkies. All the emotions in his voice had made his singing 'complete' in all respects. Be it a tragic or a sad song, a light peppy song, a classical song or a romantic duet, he sang every kind of song with utmost ease. With Naushad, his singing used to reach even greater heights. Just listen to the song – "Madhuban mein radhika" which was sung by him and picturized on me any time. You would actually come to know what "getting overwhelmed" is all about after listening to that song. It must be around 5 decades now since that song was picturized. But even now every time I listen to that song, my reaction is still the same and I also get overwhelmed like any other music buffs out there. I just unknowingly feel like my voice has got mixed with Rafi's voice and I have started singing. His voice had tremendous talent in it. But I would still like to say that some people exploited him. Some music composers made him sing some third class songs and Rafi was so simple a person that he could never say 'No' to anyone.
He used to work very hard on each and every song that came to him for singing. As such I have done very few movies, but the songs that Rafi sang for me in these movies were all very big hits. Rafi had perfected the art of singing to suit the style of the actor on the screen. But for my dearest friend Johnny Walker, he simply created the magic. He touched the greatest heights of playback singing while singling the songs – "Sar jo tera chakraye" and "Ae Dil hai mushkil jeena yahan" that were picturized on Johnny Walker.
My friendship with Rafi lasted till the last. We used to have lots of "get-togethers" in my bungalow at Pali Hill. Naushad, Anil Biswas, Rafi….lots of such people used to meet. In such 'get-togethers', I sometimes used to try to show the 'magic' of my voice. But what was special was that in spite of my terrible voice, Rafi used to encourage me by saying 'wah-wah'. In late 60s and early 70s, people in the industry were gossiping abut how Kishore Kumar has dismantled Rafi''s position. But Rafi was not even slightly affected by it. I myself never liked any sort of comparison between Rafi and Kishore Kumar. But Rafi preferred to remain quiet. He never tried to answer the criticism that was being thrown at him with words. It was always his voice and his songs that used to do all the talking. Rafi is not amongst us today but his voice and his songs are still there with us.
Advocate Anjali Awasthi
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