Rafisahab Sang Landmark Songs for Raj Kapoor
Raj Kapoor Gave Lips In More Than 25 Songs Sung By Rafisahab.
Whenever Rafisahab sang any song in Raj Kapoor's film it became grand hit. Rafisahab adjusted his voice for rendering songs for Raj Kapoor as hero and he did absolute justice to the songs.
As majority of Raj Kapoor’s songs were sung by Mukeshji and Manna Deysahab, the combination of Rafisahab with Raj Kapoor went unnoticed. As Raj Kapoor himself understood music, and his main composer Shankar Jaikishan had great fascination for Rafisahab, it was obvious that Rafisahab was required in certain songs in his films.
- In the film Andaz in 1949, while Naushad Ali used Mukeshji for Dilip Kumar songs, he used Rafisahab in the song “yun to aapas me bigadte hai” for Raj Kapoor. Andaz was the 2nd biggest blockbuster in 1949 after Raj Kapoor’s Barsaat.
- In the film Dastan, Naushad Ali composed all the songs for Raj Kapoor including “taraari yaraari yaraari, sawan rut hum aur tum”, “dhadhak dil dhadhak dhadhak”, “dil ko haye, dil ko teri tasveer se bahlaye hai”. Suraiya as the actress and singer of the film sang the duets opposite Rafisahab. Dastan was the 3rd biggest blockbuster of 1950.
- In the film Sargam in 1950, C Ramchandran used Rafisahab for 2 songs of Raj Kapoor including “main hoon alladin” and “baap bhala na bhaiya sab se bara rupaiya”.
- After Naushad Ali, Ghulam Mohammad was the first music director who gave all the songs of film Amber to Rafisahab. Amber was released in 1952 where Raj Kapoor and Nargis played the lead roles.
For the first time Rafisahab sang both solos and duets for Raj Kapoor. The songs in the film included “duniyame nahin, zamana such kehta hai”, “hum tum yeh bahaar, dekho rang laya pyaar”, “shama jali parwana aya”, “rote hai naina gham ke maare”, “dhoom dharakkha dhoom dharakkha”, “churakar dil ko yun, ankhe churana kisse sikha hai”. The songs were very well taken by the audience. Ghulam Mohammad showed the courage of using Rafisahab in 6 songs for Raj Kapoor in the same film.
- In the meantime Raj Kapoor stormed Bollywood with blockbuster films like Awaara in 1951, Aah in 1953 and Shree 420 in 1955. While Mukeshji cemented his voice for Raj Kapoor in Awaara with songs like “awara hoon, yah gardish me hoon aasmaan ka taara hoon”, “dum bhar jo udhar mu phere”, in Aah with songs like “aaja re aab mera dil pukara”, Manna Deysahab cemented his voice for Raj Sahab with songs like “mur murke na dekh”, “dil ka haal sune dilwala”, “pyar hua ikraar hua hai” in film Shree 420.
- Few music directors still persisted with Rafisahab for Raj Kapoor. For example S Mohinder in the film Paapi composed 3 songs for Rafisahab including “tera kaam hai jaalana parwane kahin shama jale yah na jale”, “meri zindagi hai tu, mujhse teri justju”, “le le gori pehle choori”. Rafisahab maintained both the romantic andaz and comedy andaz of Raj Kapoor in the film.
- In Shree 420, although Rafisahab did not sing for Raj Kapoor, there was a duet song “ramaiya vasta maiya” which Rafisahab started, it was then sung by Lataji and finally Mukeshji. Rafisahab sang songs for Bhagwan titled “sawa lakh ki lottery” and Johny Walker titled “all line clear” Raj Kapoor starrer Chori Chori in 1956. The music was composed by Shankar Jaikishan.
- In Raj Kapoor's Jagte Raho, Rafisahab sang the song "agar mai jhut boliya, oy na oy na" composed by Salil Choudhury. The film was released in 1956, Raj Kapoor and other actors gave lips in the song.
- If Rafisahab had sung maximum number of songs for Raj Kapoor in one film it was Do Ustad released in 1959. Madhubala acted opposite Raj Kapoor. OP Nayyar sahib used Rafisahab to sing all the 7 songs in the film. The songs included both solos and duets with Asha Bhosleji. Majority of them were super hit songs. The songs list included “nazron ke teer maare kas kas kas, ek nahi do nahi aat nau das”, “tere dil ka makaan saiyaan bara alishan”, “ruk ruk ruk kaha chali diwani koi roke”, “rik rik tik tik tik boom boom tik, tere mere do dil ho gay eek”, “khyalon me mere chaye hue”, “aaka ka baaka, baaka ka taaka”, “tu ladki mai ladka, tujhe dekh mera dil dharka, ladka”.
- In Raj Kapoor’s Mai Nashe Me Hoon released in 1959 there was a brilliant song of Rafisahab titled “lo khoon se khoon juda hua, mushkil se jo mil na paya”. The song was picturized on Nazir Hussain who played the grandfather of Raj Kapoor in the film. It was composed by Shankar Jaikishan. Although it was not picturized on Raj Kapoor, the song was the theme song for the film and was played at different times of the film.
- In Raj Kapoor’s Chalia in 1960, Rafisahab sang the song “gali gali sita roye, aaj mere desh me”. It was composed by Kalyanji Anandji. Nutan acted opposite Raj Kapoor in the film.
- In Raj Kapoor’s film Nazrana in 1961, Rafisahab’s song “baazi kisi ne pyar ki” was majestic. Ravi Shankar Sharma composed the music and it was played when Raj Kapoor left his son at the marriage of Vaijayantimala and Gemini Ganeshan.
- Rafisahab sang the song “tum hi tum ho is jeevan me, pyar hi pyar ho jaise chaman me” in Raj Kapoor’s film Ek Dil Sau Afsane in 1963. It was composed by Shankar Jaikishan. It was a duet song and Lata Mangeshkar sang the song for Wahida Rehman along with Rafisahab.
- In Raj Kapoor’s Sangam released in 1964, Rafisahab sang the landmark song “ki tum naraaz nahi hona” which was played twice in the film, especially after death of Rajender Kumar in the film. It was composed by Shankar Jaikishan and at the end of the film it was played at the background, so it was not picturized on Raj Kapoor. It became the biggest hit of all the songs of Sangam.
- In Raj Kapoor’s Around The World in 1967, Rafisahab sang 2 songs for Mehmood and Om Prakash, “ayo ate kyun nahi” and “cowa chale hanski chal”. But the songs were not picturized on Raj Kapoor. They were composed by Shankar Jaikishan.
- In Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker, Rafisahab sang the song “sadqe heer tujhpe hum faqeer sadqe”. It was picturised on Raj Kapoor and music was composed by Shankar Jaikishan.
More than 25 songs were sung by Rafisahab for Raj Kapoor which were picturized on Raj Kapoor and more than 25 songs were sung in Raj Kapoor films where the song was picturized on other actors. Rafisahab’s association with Raj Sahab was very grand and huge popularity of the songs being created more than 50 years gives the value of the classic creations. The songs and the films require publicity.