Guest article by Sivanandam Palamadai as a tribute to Rafi on his 42nd Remembrance Day (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980)

(Rafi was the most dominant male playback singer of the Golden Era of film music. Yet he remained an unassuming, simple-hearted person with malice to none. The stories of his kindness and support to unrecognised music directors are legion. If his singing could help a struggling music director, he was willing to sing free for him. He sang some of his unforgettable songs for now-forgotten music directors.

Sivanandam Palamadai is relatively a new member of SOY, but is already an active participant. He is a passionate fan of Rafi and has been writing regularly for a forum dedicated to Rafi. When he offered to write on Rafi for SOY, we tossed ideas back and forth. I suggested this topic to him which can be worthy as a debut article on SOY.

Mr Palamadai is in his late 50s. He is a native of Tamil Nadu, but has lived in Pune for over 25 years. He has been a marketing professional all his working life, now in semi-retirement by choice to be in control of his career options. He is a keen listener of all kinds of music: film songs, non-film songs of Hindi and other languages, Hindustani, Carnatic and Western classical music. It gives me great pleasure to introduce a new guest writer with this superb article on Rafi’s songs for some unrecognised music directors, as a tribute to Rafi on his 42nd Remembrance Day. – AK)

There is a famous quote from Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’: Some are born great; some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. With due apologies to Shakespeare, we should add one more category to this: “Some are unfortunate in this world to be denied their greatness!!”

To this category belong many forgotten music composers of Hindi Film Music (HFM) who, in spite of being talented and also having given some excellent songs, remain unrecognised, known to only a few serious music aficionados.

This article is about such unrecognised but talented music composers. And among the many singers who had sung for such composers, there is one gentle soul who always went out of the way to help them – the legendary singer Mohammad Rafi.

I am a late entrant to the ‘Songs Of Yore’ forum and when I was interacting with AKji a few months back, he had suggested to write on Rafi’s songs with such rare composers. From the detailed list of Rafi songs he sent to me, I did some small analysis and found approximately 30% of Rafi’s total songs were for such unrecognised composers! I would like to call them as unrecognised as they may not be commercially and critically successful but still their songs were equally melodious or catchy. I thank AKji for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I am a diehard Rafi fan (primarily) apart from being a fan of almost all the golden era singers, music composers and lyricists.

I am one of those who, when listening to a song would always try to check who were the main artists involved, that is the composer, the lyricist and of course the singer. Strangely for me the film and even the actors on whom the song was picturised were always secondary or in many occasions a distraction that I would not like to focus upon! For me “listening” was always more pleasant than ‘seeing’. While I used to pride myself on my skill to guess the composer by observing certain typical ‘signature’ while listening to a song, many a times I used to get it totally wrong. That is when I realised that a Lachiram or Ramlal or Lala-Asar-Sattar or G S Kohli or C Arjun composition could sound very well like that of a Naushad or Sachin Dev Burman or Shankar-Jaikishan or Madan Mohan or O P Nayyar etc. That was the charm of some of these unrecognised composers, who were definitely talented but may be due to many factors couldn’t succeed. One prominent reason could have been (this is purely my own guess) the fact that since most of these composers got what is generally called as B or C grade films that were typically low budget, the orchestration and even the recording quality could not have been the best in the industry. But within these constraints, some of their compositions were exceedingly good. Anyhow if we have to analyse the reasons, it would be a separate topic and let us just stick to listing out a few songs from the batons of such composers. It is impossible to cover the huge list that I discovered and, therefore, for ease of reading, shall focus on some selected ones with the ever helpful Mohammad Rafi Saheb.

There can be differences in an individual’s taste when it comes to singers and so Rafi may not be the most liked or preferred singer for some, but one thing I can safely say is that everyone agrees that as a human being Rafi was humility personified. It is very rare to see a gentle soul like Rafi in the “ego-driven” music world. He would always help those who were needy and that could be the main reason why we see around 1900 songs out of his 5600 odd songs with such composers. There are many anecdotes about how he never charged or just took a token amount from some of the composers who couldn’t afford to pay much. The most striking quality of Rafi was that his commitment and effort to give an extraordinary song with such composers was as good as what he would do for a Naushad, S D Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, Roshan, Madan Mohan, O P Nayyar etc.

It would be impossible for one to select just a few from the 1900 odd such songs, but I have to make it readable and so like many such lists in any music blog, this is just a tip of the iceberg. I know fully well that SOY has so many knowledgeable readers that we shall see many such songs in the comments section. To have some logic, I have organised the list in the chronological order of the film’s release date. Also, I have excluded the early years of Rafi and started those songs from mid-50’s when Rafi was one of the leading singers in the industry.

1. Music Composer S Mohindar: Hazaaron rang badlega zamana from the film Shiri Farhad (1956), lyrics by Tanveer Naqvi

Bakshi Mohinder Singh Sarna, known professionally as S Mohinder mainly composed for Hindi and Punjabi films. There is an exhaustive post about him in SOY by AKji under the ‘Forgotten composers’ series and so I will not duplicate the same here. The Lata Mangeshkar song Guzra hua zamana aata nahin dobara from the same film is very popular but this Rafi solo stands out with Rafi’s silencing those laughing at the hero with his trademark pitch and the lines:

Na hanso pyar pe, naadan zamaane walo, kya mitaoge mohabbat ko mitane walo

This can very well be in the same league as Naushad’s ‘Zindabad ae mohabbat zindabad’.

2. Music Composer Mukul Roy: Aankhon pe bharosa mat kar duniya jaadu ka khel hai from the film Detective (1958), lyrics by Shailendra, co-singer Sudha Malhotra

Mukul Roy was the famous singer Geeta Dutt’s elder brother. Many songs from the film Detective are quite popular like the one in this article, apart from Rafi’s solo Chhodiye gussa huzoor aisi naarazi (interlude music is from Jim Reeve’s Bimbo!), Hemant Kumar-Geeta Dutt duet Mujhko tum jo mile ye jahaan mil gaya, Geeta’s solo Do chamakti aankhon mein. Not much information is known about Mukul Roy except that he was born in 1926 and died in 2009, having composed for three Hindi Films, two Bengali films and one Gujarati film (Courtesy: https://amvaishnav.wordpress.com/).

This song has an excellent mouth organ right from the beginning, and a very young Sudha Malhotra singing for the child artist Daisy Irani. Rafi excels in such peppy numbers with his typical breezy style of singing. Shailendra’s lines must have been composed for today’s ‘fake news social media’ – Aankhon pe bharosa mat kar duniya jadoo ka khel hai, Har cheez yahan ek dhokha, har baat yahan bemel hai.

3. Music Composer Bipin Dutta: Ye Bombay shehar ka bada naam hai from the film Kya Ye Bambai Hai (1959), lyrics by Noor Devasi

I think this song on Bambai (as it was known in 1959) is on the same league as the more popular Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahan from CID (1956). Bipin Dutta (or Dutt?) and Babul (will be discussed in song # 5 in this series) were assistants to Madan Mohan. They had composed jointly and also independently. This song is an out and out Rafi’s signature style. He just freaks out in such type of songs and adds the necessary zing to the lyrics. The lyricist is also an obscure Noor Dewasi (Aao huzoor tumko sitaron mein le chalun from Kismet (1968) remains his most popular song). Those who had lived in Mumbai can really enjoy this seven minute song with six stanzas that fully captures the essence of Mumbai.

4. Music Composer S Madan: Ye raat ye fizayein phir aayein ya na aayein from the film Bantwara (1961), lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri, co-singer Asha Bhosle

One more composer from Punjab who was mostly ignored in Hindi films but made his name in Punjabi films. I couldn’t get much information about this composer except for the fact that he had earlier assisted the music director Vinod (of Lara lappa lara lappa fame) and independently composed for only four Hindi films – Ambe Ma Jagdambe Ma, Bantwara, Danka and Teri Pooja Kare Sansaar. Among all the songs he composed, Ye raat ye fizayein from Bantwara remains the most popular and truly a timeless song. There is one more Rafi solo in Bantwara: Yeh kaisi deewar hai duniya. Having got rejected from Hindi films, he then went on to compose for Punjabi films and, I understand, was more successful there.

This song is a very soft, pleasing melody that can be easily mistaken for a Madan Mohan (any coincidence on the name?! ) or Roshan tune. Rafi exudes that extra sweetness in such romantic numbers. A very interesting thing I noticed is that the audio version has the lines Ye raat ye fizayein, phir aayen ya na aayein, Aao shama bujhake, hum aaj dil jalayein whereas the film version ends with Hum aaj mil ke gayen! (There is a story behind it. This is what I wrote in my review of Manek Premchand’s book on Majrooh Sultanpuri, “Similar absurd objections of the Censors followed Majrooh Sultanpuri from time to time. For example, they objected to the second line in the immortal, Ye raat ye fizaayen, phir aayen ya na aayen, which was originally ‘Aao shama bujha ke hum aaj dil jalaayen’. To satisfy them he changed it to ‘Aao shama jala ke hum aaj mil ke gaayen’ (Bantwara, 1961, Rafi and Asha Bhosle, S Madan), which, according to me, reduces the song a great deal.” – AK)

5. Music Composer Babul: Tum poochhte ho ishq bala hai ki nahin hai from the film Naqli Nawab (1962), lyrics by Kaifi Azmi

There is an elaborate article on the composer Babul and his partner Bipin Dutta from whom he later split on this blog and also quite a good amount of information in the comments section under the same blog. I knew just the name Babul whenever the song under discussion was played on Vividh Bharati. There are many popular songs from Babul that have been comprehensibly covered in that post including this one. Rafi is a master of this type of ghazal – just note the line: Khone mein bhi paane ka maza hai ke nahin hai which he renders in his inimitable style.

6. Music Composer Ramlal Chaudhury: Taqdeer ka fasana jakar kise sunaayein from the film Sehra (1963), lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri

One can call Ramlal Chaudhury a two-film wonder, though he had composed for six films totally. Starting his career as a shehnai and flute player for many composers, he independently composed for a film called Taangewala which unfortunately was not completed. He then composed for very few films like Husn Bano (1956), Naqab Posh (1956), Naal Log (1957), and Maya Machhendra (1960) – music of which was mostly forgotten. Then came his association with V Shantaram’s Sehra (1963) and Geet Gaya Patharon Ne (1964). These two films stand out as classics even today with some career best songs of three leading singers: Rafi (Taqdeer ka fasana), Lata Mangeshkar (Pankh hoti to ud aati main) and Asha Bhosle (Tere khayalon mein hum). It is really cruel that luck (or should we say the industry?) didn’t smile upon him and tragically he died in penury.

Taqdeer ka fasana is a classic Rafi pathos song – there is an anecdote behind this which I heard from Ramlal’s own interview. Seems it was earlier recorded in Mahendra Kapoor’s voice as Shantaram had never worked with Rafi (I don’t know what was the reason!). Both Shantaram and Ramlal were not satisfied and it was Ramlal who went to Rafi and requested him to sing this. This film had two more Rafi songs – one a very popular duet – Tum to pyaar ho sajna and one that is very rarely heard or talked about but one of my personal favourites – Lagi mast nazar ki kataar, a song ‘designed’ for Rafi!.

7. Music Composer Sapan Jagmohan: Phir wo bhooli si yaad aayi hai from the film Begaana (1963), lyrics by Shailendra

There were so many “duo” composers in HFM and Sapan Sengupta-Jagmohan Bakshi were one more. They started off as singers in Salil Chowdhury’s youth choir and later on started composing music. Around a dozen Hindi films were composed by them, with Mukesh’s ‘Main to har mod par tujhko doonga sada’ in the film Chetna (1970) being a very popular one. This Rafi number Phir wo bhooli si yaad aayi hai from ‘Begaana’ sounds almost like an early Kalyanji-Anandji composition. The second antara starts off in a different way as compared to the first and third ones. Once again we can notice how Rafi sings with so much sincerity and brings out the pathos even with a relatively lesser-known composer

8. Music Composer Sardar Mallick: Mujhe tum se mohabbat hai from the film Bachpan (1963), lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri

When one talks about Sardar Mallick, Mukesh and the song Saranga teri yaad mein only come to mind. But it was amazing for me to note that Rafi had sung 46 songs for him. The song in this selection being one of the very soft, romantic melodies and can easily be considered among the top songs of Rafi. The same film Bachpan has a sweet duet with Suman Kalyanpur – Tere hum O sanam tu jahan main wahan. There is one peppy duet with Lata Mangeshkar in Saranga – Piya kaise milun tumse apart from the shorter version of Saranga teri yaad mein.

Sardar Mallik is a classic case where the son became more popular than the father, though most of the SOYers may agree that the father’s tunes were more melodious than the son’s!

The way Rafi develops on the word ‘mohabbat’ in the line ‘Mujhe tumse mohabbat hai’ in so many ways (that was his ‘patent’ or ‘trademark’) makes this sweet melody more enjoyable.

9. Music Composer C Arjun: Paas baitho tabeeyat bahal jayegi from the film Punarmilan (1964), lyrics by Indivar

Chanchalani Arjun, known just as C Arjun is another example of a very talented composer, confined to mostly B or C grade films till he got some recognition with Jai Santoshi Ma (1975). There is again a very good article by AKji on this blog and so I wouldn’t elaborate much on the composer.

The Rafi solo selected here and one excellent male duet with Talat in film Sushila (1966), Gham ki andheri raat mein are two very good Rafi songs that I could think of. Paas baitho tabeeyat bahal jayegi is the first song many think of whenever C Arjun is talked about.

10. Music Composer Iqbal Qureshi: Subah na aayi shaam na aayi from the film Cha Cha Cha (1964), lyrics by Neeraj

If you ask me, personally I would bracket Iqbal Qureshi among the top 20 composers just for the one film Cha Cha Cha. What great compositions in this movie!

Born on 12^th May 1930 in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, he later moved to Hyderabad. He was quite a tall figure, literally, at more than six feet. He was closely associated with the Urdu poet Maqdoom Mohiuddin. Although Cha Cha Cha is his best-known film, he had composed some great songs in his earlier films like Panchayat (Lata-Geeta duet Ta thaiyya karke aana), Bindiya (Rafi’s Main apne aap se ghabra gaya hoon), Love in Simla (The Urdu alphabet song by Rafi and Sudha Malhotra Alif zabar aa alif zer ae alif pesh o) and so on. Of the 25 odd films for which he composed music Cha Cha Cha was a class apart. There were totally five songs: Rafi’s solos – Subah aayi shaam na aayi; Wo hum na the – which are more popular, and a very less heard, Ek lalli ghar se chali, which is a very mellow song just in contrast to the other two solos of Rafi and two duets with Asha Bhosle – Ek chameli ke mandve tale and Tumse maano na maano tumse, with Rafi whispering the mukhda.

Of course, the song in this selection is an all-time classic with Rafi touching the peak at the end with Aa jaao, aa jaao. Not to forget the exemplary lyrics by Neeraj, starting with:

Khushi jisne khoji, wo dhan leke lauta
Haseen jisne khoji, chaman leke lauta
Magar pyaar ko khojne jo chala wo
Na tan leke lauta, na man leke auta

11. Music Composer Lacchi Ram: Gori tore nain nainva kajar bina kaare from the film Main Suhagan Hoon (1964), lyrics by Kaifi Azmi, co- singer Asha Bhosle

Whenever I used to hear the name of this composer in Vividh Bharati as they played his songs Dhalti jaaye raat, kah le dil ki baat or Tu shokh kali, main mast pawan, my thoughts would go as to why the composer of such sweet melodious songs never became popular. Till the time I read a detailed article about this composer by our AKji in SOY under the tab ‘Forgotten Composers’, I never knew anything about him.

The song selected here is very rarely played/heard and is a great composition set in the Raag Desh. The interludes have a great sitar and sarangi combination. So far I had heard the audio version in radio but when I saw the full version as picturized in the film, I was really amazed by the mastery in composition and singing by Rafi and Asha.

Can easily be in the same league as any classical raag based composition by the legendary composers!

12. Music Composer Snehal Bhatkar: Aapne huzoor mujhe kya se kya bana diya..meharbaani from the film Fariyaad (1964), lyrics by Kedar Sharma, co-singer Suman Kalyanpur

Snehal Bhatkar, real name Vasudev Gangaram Bhatkar, was born in 1919 and lived till 2007. He had composed for some 30 odd films in Hindi and Marathi. With a limited repertoire he has left behind some landmark songs like ‘Kabhi tanhaiyon mein yun hamari yaad aayegi which is considered as the best by Mubarak Begum, Suman Kalyanpur’s Haal-e-dil unko sunana tha, even making Nutan a singer in the film Chhabili – Ae mere humsafar rok apni nazar.

Most of his tunes are extraordinary with the song selected in this blog being a sort of tongue twister – Mere teri dum se teri meri dum se hai ye zindagani zindagani….meharbani.

The film Fariyad has one more peppy, unique composition with Mahendra Kapoor and Suman Kalyanpur getting excited with a papiha that has seen them! Dekho dekh raha tha papiha, Papiha bhala chup kyun rahega papiha!

Snehal Bhatkar initially composed under the name B Vasudev also and had a great combination with the lyricist and film maker Kidar Sharma.

13. Music Composer Lala Asar Sattar: Main to tere haseen khayalon mein kho gaya from the film Sangram (1965), lyrics by Esh Kanwal.

Lala Gangawane, Asar & Sattar Khan, were a trio – a rarity in HFM which had many duo composers. They were mostly percussion players/ assistants for the legendary composers and as a trio composed for a handful of films before Asar, from the group parted. Sangram had some very good unique songs like Lata Mangeshlar’s ‘Ho masti mein dole jiya ho’ and the Rafi solo, Main to tere haseen khayalon mein kho gaya.

Totally they may have composed for some ten odd films only.

14. Music Composer G S Kohli: Maana mere haseen sanam from the film Adventures of Robin Hood (1965), lyrics by Yogesh Gaur

If we ever wanted to imagine how Lata Mangeshkar would have sounded in an O P Nayyar composition, there were the songs from the 1963 film Shikari composed by his long-time assistant Gurusharan Singh Kohli. Tumko piya dil diya, Chaman ke phool bhi tujhko, Agar main poochun jawab doge and Baaje ghungroo chham chham – all were fabulous songs of Lata Mangeshkar as duets and solo.

G S Kohli, in spite of composing independently, continued to assist OPN till 1968. As with most of these unrecognised composers, in spite of being immensely talented they could get the ‘so called’ B or C grade films only .

This Rafi’s solo from the Adventure of Robin Hood remains among the top songs of Rafi, with the typical romantic style in which he excels.

15. Music Composer Brij Bhushan: Kahin aisa na ho tum ajnabi raahon mein from the film Milap (1972), lyrics by Naqsh Lyallpuri

Except for the details that his full name was Brij Bhushan Sahni and had married the younger sister of the famous actress Madhubala, I couldn’t get any information about this composer. Milap had the evergreen Mukesh song, Kai sadiyon se kai janmon se. The Rafi song selected here Kahin aisa na ho tum ajnabi is another very rare but a haunting melody, with excellent use of guitar.

16. Music Composer Ganesh: Dil ne pyar kiya hai ek bewafa se from the film Shararat (1972), lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri

When I started doing some research for this article, I realised that for some of these unrecognised composers, even being in the family of a very illustrious and successful artist doesn’t help. Ganesh , in spite of being the younger brother of Pyarelal Sharma (of Laxmikant -Pyarelal duo) remained in the side-lines. Even after composing for 16 films he couldn’t get the fame and success as his brother. In fact, there were two more brothers in the family, Naresh Sharma and Gorakh Sharma also in the music industry as arrangers/ assistants. Incidentally, Mithoon, son of Naresh Sharma is a very successful music composer in today’s Bollywood. Sometimes the luck smiles upon the next Gen!

Coming back to Ganesh, there are a few songs that immediately come to mind, Asha Bhosle’s Hum tere bin ji na sakenge sanam from the film Thakur Jarnail Singh and the song in this list. Rafi is always known for articulating a phrase in different ways in a song. The way he sings Dil ne with his inimitable style adds so much to the great composition. Without knowing the composer, if we listen to this song we can easily assume it to be Shankar-Jaikishan with the piano and violin orchestration being top class. Adding more charm to this song are Hasrat’s lines:

Dil humara tha
Humne hara tha
Tum pe wara tha

17. Music Composer Shyamji Ghanshyaamji: Apni aankhon mein basakar from the film Thokar (1974), lyrics by Sajan Delavi

Contrary to popular perception this is not a duo composer team but a single individual! Having changed his name from Ghanshyam to Shyam and then finally to Shyamji Ghanshyamji, he achieved fame with this one song from Thokar. And what a composition! It can very well be considered among the top 50 songs of Rafi. Like many of the olden day songs, there are two versions of this song – one with two antara is more commonly heard but the one with the third antara is too good with Rafi in his usual elements.

A few other songs of this composer that I could remember – Teri jheel si gehri aankhon mein with a rare combination of Vani Jayaram and Nitin Mukesh (film Dhuen Ki Lakeer), Meri hasraton ki duniya tu mile kahin jo mujhko, Rafi and Krishna Kalle (from a strangely titled film Gaal Gulabi Nain Sharabi!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv87jmRp7zo

18. Music Composer Shambhu Sen: Nav kalpana nav roop from the film Mrigtrishna (1975), lyrics by Shambhu Sen

One more example of next Gen becoming more popular – Shambhu Sen’s son Sameer and Sameer’s uncle Dilip became very successful composers as the duo Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen, whereas Shambhu Sen, son of the illustrious Jamal Sen remained in the shadows.

Shambhu Sen had only one main film, Mrigtrishna with songs by Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Rafi, and even a solo by Mehdi Hasan. Of all these songs, Rafi’s Navkalpana nav roop se set in Raag Yaman can be one among the many good Nritya – based songs. A classic example of how Rafi with his total dedication to singing makes even lesser-known composers immortal.

19. Music Composer J P Kaushik: Sona re tujhe kaise milun from the film Aankhen Dekhi (1978), lyrics by Padma Sachdev, co-singer Sulakshana Pandit.

Although I had listened to this song a few times, I had not heard this composer’s name! I was surprised to learn that J P Kaushik had composed for some 50 odd films in Hindi, Haryanavi, Rajasthani and Gujarati films. Incidentally J P Kaushik composed for the debut film of Big B – Saat Hindustani and some more films of K A Abbas.

I understand that he worked in the Indian Air Force as an officer, had also taken part in the freedom struggle. Basically from Rohtak, Haryana, he got in touch with the noted composer Jaidev after leaving the Air Force and got into the music industry. K A Abbas had given him a lot of opportunities and his first film as a composer Shahar Aur Sapna fetched the National Award for best film in 1963.

The song Sona re tujhe kaise miloon is a rare but sweet duet that most of us might have listened in the past without knowing who had composed it.

20. Music Composer Manas Mukherjee: Khushbu hoon main phool nahin hun jo from the film Shaayad (1979), lyrics by Nida Fazli

Manas Mukherjee was the son of Jahar Mukherjee, a Thumri singer, composer, lyricist and a film producer based in Kolkata, West Bengal. He unfortunately passed away at young age of 43 years leaving behind his son and daughter, Shaan and Sagarika Mukherjee who went on to become famous singers.

This song picturised on Naseeruddin Shah has Rafi continuing his sweet melodies even at the time when music had become mostly noisy. The lyrics seem to be a perfect fit for being the last song in this series:

Khushboo hoon main, phool nahin hoon jo murjhaaunga,
Jab jab mausam leharaayega, main aa jaaunga

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chjBjaOXRyU

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer:
The song links have been embedded from the YouTube only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights.

The post Rafi’s songs with some unrecognised composers first appeared on Songs Of Yore.