MUMBAI: Call him the uncrowned king of Bollywood music, or a modern day Tansen as the great music composer Naushad would call him, Rafi is definitely the one who still mesmerises us with his evergreen songs. Be it a devotional song like ‘Oh Duniya Ke Rakwale’ from Baiju Bawra  which must have really brought tears in the eyes of God  or a romantic track like ‘Likhe Jo Khat Tujhe’ must have actually made the lovers write letters to their beloved. There was no single genre that remained untouched.  Radioandmusic.com pays a tribute to the legendary singer on the occasion of his death anniversary.

Born at in Kotla Sultan Singh, a village near present-day Amritsar in Punjab, Rafi, was nicknamed Pheeko. His singing lesson started off by imitating the chants of a fakir in his village. In 1920, Rafi's father moved to Lahore where he ran a men's salon in Noor Mohalla in Bhatti Gate. His elder brother, Mohammad Deen, had a friend, Abdul Hameed, (future brother-in-law), who spotted the talent in Rafi in Lahore and encouraged him to sing. Abdul Hameed later convinced the family elders to let Rafi move to Mumbai; he accompanied him in 1944.

During his initial days, he and Hameed rented a ten-by-ten-foot room in the crowded downtown Bhendi Bazar area. It was Tanvir Naqvi, the poet who introduced him to film producers including Abdur Rashid Kardar, Mehboob Khan and actor-director Nazeer. Shyam Sunder was in Mumbai and provided the opportunity to Rafi to sing a duet with GM Durrani, ‘Aji dil ho qaabu mein to dildar ki aisi taisi,’ for Gaon Ki Gori, which became Rafi’s first recorded song in a Hindi film.

Anu Kapoor on his show once narrated an incident on how did Rafi the playback singing for the film Baiju Bawra. Originally the songs were to be sung by Talat Mehmood.  However Naushad caught Talat smoking which annoyed him, whereupon he gave the songs Rafi.

It was all thanks to the great dedication of Rafi that bagged him the collaboration Rafi's association with Naushad helped the former establish him as one of the most prominent playback singers in Hindi cinema.

Talking about the singers’ sincerity, Nausad had once in his interview said that it was after the recording of his film Dulhari the singer came to his house the following day saying that the song that he recorded haunted his thoughts for the whole night. Rafi felt as if he did not do full justice to the song although Naushad was fully satisfied. The singer wept like a child requesting Naushad to record again. This stunned Naushad as he could not believe the dedication of this singer. Naushad recorded the song again and Rafi was satisfied.

The relationship of Naushad and Rafi had always been that of a, ‘Guru Shishya’. Fame did not even bring an ounce of a change in Rafi. Naushad’s father sent Rafi with the recommendation letter. Rafi was introduced by Naushad first as a chorus singer. Although Rafi worked with different music directors, he was always an obedient student with Naushad from beginning till the end.

He is always remembered as a person who was helpful not only to the film fraternity but also to the needy. In one of the episodes of his show Anu Kapoor mentioned about how he helped his driver get a cab after he imported a car. Since the Indian cars have a right handed steering wheel and the new car that Rafi bought had a left hand steering. The driver was not comfortable and he informed Rafi about the same. But, Rafi knew that the drivers’ livelihood would get affected, if he driver would quit the job. Thus he lent the driver a sum of Rs. 60,000 and helped him get a taxi. He is often termed as a gem of a person.

Despite of the fame he kept his children away from the limelight. Shahid Rafi the son of the legendary singer while speaking to Radioandmusic.com said,” We did go for our premiers, but very rarely. He kept us away from lime light. He was an equally good father and had been with us always.”

Even before hours of his death, he recorded a song,’Shaam phir kyun udaas hai dost’ from the film ‘Aas Pass’.  Rafi died of a heart attack on July 31 1980. Though the voice ’Aja Re Aa Zara’ will continue to flutter the hearts of millions.