Rafi and Jeetender.

Rafi and Jeetender.

Rafi had an everlasting combination with Jeetender and contributed a lot for the success of Jeetender in bollywood films. In Farz, Laxmikant Pyarelal’s composition for Rafi including “mast baharon ka mai aashiq”, “baar baar din yeh aye”, became superduper hits. Similarly Shankar Jaikishan’s composition for Jeetender which was sung by Rafi titled “rukh se zarah naqab” from the film Mere Huzoor became very successful.

Jeetender was a very powerful dancer and RD Burman’s composition for him in the film Carwa, complimented his dancing style. The songs sung by Rafi including “are ho goriyan kahan tera desh re”, “kitna pyara wada hai” became big hits and the film also did well with powerful performance of Asha Parekh.

All the songs composed in the film Banphool by Laxmikant Pyarelal for Jeetender became successful. Rafi had sung the songs “o sapno ki rani” and other songs of Banphool extremely well. The other notable songs of Rafi which were picturised on Jeetender include “dhal gaya din”, “tick tick tick”, “mere des me pawan kare”, etc. Some of them had westernised orchestration, while the other songs were based on rural tunes.


The song “raat suhani jag rahi hai” in the film Jeegri Dost, picturised on Jeetender and Mumtaz became very very successful. The orchestration of Laxmikant Pyarelal was excellent, Rafi and Lata were at their best form, also the picturisation of the dream sequence also requires special mention.

Even Rafi’s song “bari mastani hai meri mehbooba” picturised on Jeetender and sung for Tanuja, became big hit in the late 60s. Even during the late 70s, when Jeetender shifted to other types of films including the films of Gulzar like Kinara, Rafi’s combination with Jeetender continued in films like Asha, where Rafi’s song “ashaoke sawan me” with Lata stormed the silver screen.

Even in Burning Train, the famous qawalli titled “pal do pal ka saath hamara’ was picturised on Jeetender and Neetu Singh and sung by Rafi and Asha. Had Rafi survived for a longer period musiclovers could have got more number of melodious songs sung by Rafi for Jeetender. All these songs should be preserved as they signify the golden creation during the 60s, 70s and early 80s.

By: Supriya Chatterji.

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