Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

RAFI, Mohammed

(b '24, India; d there 31 July '80) One of the technically most accomplished and greatest of the male Hindi playback singers (see Filmi), also adept at light classical music (e.g. ghazals, a poetic Northern Indian form drawing on the traditions of Islam and Persia) but primarily a popular music vocalist. Film debut as a playback singer was in the Punjabi film Gul Baloch '44; his career involved thousands of recordings and work for virtually every major film director. Playback singers in Indian film pre-record songs that the actors lip-synch; the greatest can make or break a film and are as much of a draw as the film stars themselves. Rafi rarely appeared in films himself, being the 'invisible voice' of many of the genre's greatest box-office attractions, e.g. Sunil Dutt in Ved Madan's film Ghazal '64, Shammi Kapoor in the 'kitchen sink arrangements' in S. Samanta's film China Town '62. Made a rare appearance on camera as vocalist in S. H. Rizvi's Jugnu '47; that film also saw him singing a memorable lovelorn duet (off camera) with female playback singer Noor Jehan by lyricist Asghar Sarhadi and composer Firoze Nizami. His last film was Aas Paas. No male playback singer since his death has filled his shoes; he was truly sui generis, his appeal transcending ethnic, racial, religious and national boundaries in the subcontinent. Left behind an enormous body of work that gripped his audience during his lifetime and continues to make new converts: he represented a Golden Age. After his death memorial concerts became an annual occurrence.