Rafi and RD Burman

Rafi and RD Burman.

As RD Burman had been associated with Kishore Kumar for most of his compositions very little has been written about RD’s combination with Rafi. It is not known to most of the viewers that RD Burman had started his career with the film Chote Nawab where almost all the songs were sung by Rafi.

Teesri Manzil had changed the career graph of RD Burman in 1966. Viewers had forgotten all the songs sung by Rafi in the film for Shammi Kapoor including “aaja aaja mai hoon pyar tera”, “diwana tujhsa nahi”, “o haseena zulfonwali”, “jaaneman jaanejaa”, “o mere sona re sona re” became landmark hits. In fact RD Burman got a new identity in totally competitive world of composers whem Shankar Jaikishan, Naushad, Madanmohan, Roshan, OP Nayyar, were dominating the filmworld. Some of the songs were duets where Asha Bhosle had complimented Rafi in the respective songs.

In the film Pyar Ka Mausam, RD’s tunes for Rafi including “ni sultana re pyar ka mausam aya”, “tum bin jayun kahan” became landmark hits. Shashi Kapoor and Asha Parekh were at their best in the film and lot of their success was related to the brilliant music of the film. In the film Abhilasha, the song “wadiyan tera daman” picturised on Sanjay Khan, became successful.

In the film Karwan, all the songs sung by Rafi and composed by RD Burman including “are ho goriyan kahan tera desh re”, “kitna pyara wada”, etc., picturised on Jeetender and Asha Parekh became extremely successful. There were good dance sequences where Aruna Irani also did very well.

The RD and Rafi magic was replicated in the film Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin. The songs “chand mere dil”, “kya hua tera wada”, “yeh ladka hai alla”, “hum kisi se kum nahi”, were all hits. Rafi received the national award for best singer for the song “kya hua tera wada”. Also Rafi’s songs for Rishi Kapoor’s film Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai, became hits. RD Burman had experimented with many singers including Kihsore, Shailendra Singh, Manna Dey, Anup Ghoshal, Bhupinder Singh, etc., but whenever he had used Rafi the songs had created storm. The songs and the films should be restored.