INTRODUCTION
- Muhammad Rafi was an Indian playback singer.
- His songs ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs,sorrow songs to highly romantic nsongs and qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans.
- He was known for his ability to change his voice to the person and style of the actor giving lip movement to the song on screen in the movie.
- He is remembered as one of the most influential playback singers of all time.
A WALK THROUGH HIS LIFE
- He was born on 24th December 1924 in the city of Lahore in British India (now in Pakistan).
- He was the fifth son of his father Haji Ali Mohammad and mother Allahrakhi Bai.
- His family moved to Bombay when he was 10 years old.
- Rafi began his singing career as a child artiste in the mid-1930s.
- He was trained by Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan and Ustad Ghulam Ali Khan – two of the finest musicians of the time.
- In 1935,His first performance was in a stage play called Kirtan.
- His first song was for the film Gaon Ki Gori was composed by Shyam Sunder.
- In the early 1940’s,He began to make a name for himself when he started singing for films like “Pukar” and “Chandni Raat”.
- In 1940’s,He also sang for several other films including Jugnu, Anmol Ghadi and Bhakta Surdas.
- He gained popularity after singing the song “Hindustan Ke Hum Hain” for the film Khandan.
- Rafi moved to Bombay in 1945 and began to work with the music director Naushad Ali in the film Andaz.
- In 1945,His career got established when he sang for the film “Dard”.
- He went on to sing for successful films like “Bazaar” (1949), “Awaara” (1951) and “Shri 420” (1955).
- He also sang for other music directors including Anil Biswas, Sachin Dev Burman, Shanker Jaikishan, O.P. Nayyar, C. Ramchandra, Madan Mohan, S.D. Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal.
- Rafi sang for some of the most popular actors of the time including Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Sunil Dutt and Shashi Kapoor.
- He also sang in many other languages including Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu and Malayalam.
- He sang over 4,500 songs including solos, duets and qawwalis in over 1,000 Hindi films.
- His voice was versatile and he could sing sad, romantic and comic numbers easily.
- He also sang duets with some of the biggest singer’s in Bollywood such as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Manna Dey and Shamshad Begum.
- Rafi beacame famous both nationally and internationally for his great performance of ghazals, qawwalis, bhajans and devotional songs.
- In 1967, He was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri.
- In 1969 and 1972,He received the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer .
- In 1975,He received Lata Mangeshkar Award.
- He died of a heart attack on July 31, 1980.
- In 1982,He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema after his death.
- Rafi’s legacy lives on in film and music.
- He remains one of the most influential singers of the 20th century.
- His voice and style of singing have been an inspiration to many playback singers, both in India and abroad.
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