Mohammed Rafi's voice is lively four decades later

The legendary singer passed away 40 years ago on July 31

The master playback singer Mohammed Rafi, who passed away 40 years ago on July 31, remains entrenched in our memory.

His immortal songs continue to regale, touch or haunt us four decades later, whether he was singing a litany for Dilip Kumar, such as with “Aaj purani raahon se” from ‘Aadmi’ or doing a frothy Johnny Walker jaunt in “Ae dil hai mushkil” in CID.

Rafi was versatile. He has sung songs in each of the traditional navarasas. But more than that, he was the universal voice.

For one, his voice fitted artistes from four generations. Take comedians from Bhagwan to Mehmood, character artistes from Pran to Utpal Dutt and baddies like Amjad Khan and Danny Denzongpa, Rafi’s subtly modulated voice synched perfectly on all.

In ‘Tu gaddaar sahi’, the title song of ‘Gaddaar’ (1973), musically a Rafi solo, the master singer sang for about six actors within the same number.

Consider also the fact that he fitted Ashok Kumar in the 1947 ‘Sajan’ as much as his voice sat pat on Deepak Parasher (the youngest artiste he recorded for) in the cult “Tu iss tarah se” from ‘Aap To Aise Na The’ (1980).

The inflections and nuances he brought in effortlessly made his vocals sit, without a hint of incongruity, on stars as varied as Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Bharat Bhushan, Pradeep Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Guru Dutt, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Jeetendra and Raaj Kumar.

Even heroes predominantly identified with other voices such as Manoj Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Randhir Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan never had a vocal mismatch when Rafi sang for them.

Mithun Chakraborty, Amol Palekar, Naseeruddin Shah and even Bengal’s Uttam Kumar and Chennai’s Gemini Ganesh came into the Rafi fold.

But the ultimate triumph of Rafi’s magical voice was in his giving playback to his colleague, close friend and admirer Kishore Kumar in about eight songs.

The two evergreens here are “Man mora baanwra” from ‘Ragini’ and “Ajab hai dastaan teri ae zindagi” from ‘Shararat’.

But what was remarkable was that in the mischief-laden “Apni aadat hai sabko salaam karna” from Pyar Diwana, if you did not know that the actor on screen was a singer with his own style, you would think that Rafi was the perfect voice for him.

Rafi sang for Govinda in ‘Farz Ki Jung’, a film released 9 years after the singer passed. The song, “Phool ka shabab kya”, had been recorded for a movie that never took off, and the producer decided to use it.

By this time, the Rafi clones Mohammed Aziz and Shabbir Kumar had already sung many songs for Govinda.

In a sense, Rafi could also be considered a master of the clones, for no other singer has generated so many artistes who modelled their voice and singing along his lines. Composers and filmmakers missed Rafi so much that they began to hunt for a similar voice immediately after Rafi’s exit.

Anwar (who appeared in Rafi’s lifetime in 1974 and satiated the need for an “economic Rafi” for small films), Sonu Nigam (who recorded a 4-CD tribute to Rafi in 2008) and many lesser names also made their fortunes by following the path of the universal and ageless voice.

Udit Narayan, Sukhwinder Singh and Roopkumar Rathod were also inspired by Rafi, even if they had dissimilar voices and did not mimic the master.

There was no genre in which Rafi did not excel — from bhajans and qawwali to jazz, children’s songs, earthily rural and patriotic numbers.

Manna Dey summed up Rafi thus: “Rafi was a better singer than me!”