Happy birthday to Mohammad Rafi.

Happy birthday to Mohammad Rafi.

The listeners of music all over the world wish happy birthday to Mohammad Rafi on 24^th December, 2011. The noble soul had left his admirers 31 years ago. Yet he is alive in numerous everlasting hit songs which are heard and cherished for generations.

Very significantly he was associated with all the leading actors of bollywood industry in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, which starts with Bharat Bhushan, Pradeep Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Rajender Kumar, Raj Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Joy Mukherjee, Biswajeet, Guru Dutt, and extends upto Big B, Rishi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, Jeetender, etc. Even comedians like Johnny Walker, Mehmood were indebted to the maestro for his modification of the voice in favour of them which entertained the audience to a big extent.

Filmfare can start creating separate category of musical awards under different types of playback songs in the name of Mohammad Rafi.

There should be a filmfare Mohammad Rafi award for the best ghazal sung in a bollywood film in the respective year. Rafi had sung immortal ghazals in his everlasting career. In fact Rafi won the filmfare award for the best male playback singer in 1960 for the ghazal “chaudavi ka chand ho” composed by Ravi in the film Chaudavi Ka Chand. He sang other brilliant ghazals like “tumhari zul ke sayeme sham karlunga” composed by Madanmohan, “mere mehboob tujhe” composed by Naushad, “jane wo kaun hai” composed by Roshan, “unke khayal aye to” composed by Shankar Jaikishan, etc.

There should be a filmfare Mohammad Rafi award for the best qawalli sung in a bollywood film in the respective year. Rafi had made listeners spellbound with his rendition of landmark qawallies like “yeh ishq ishq” in the film Barsaat Ki Raat composed by Roshan Lal Nagrath, “parda hai parda” in the film Amar Akbar Anthony composed by Laxmikant Pyarellal, “hum kisi se kum nahi” in the film Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahi composed by RD Burman, to name a few.

There should be a filmfare Mohammad Rafi award for the best western song sung in a bollywood film in the respective year. Rafi was phenomenal in the western songs “dil ke jharoke me” composed by Shankar Jaikishan, “nazneen bara rangeen hai wada tera” composed by OP Nayyar, “dil tarpe tarpaye” composed by Salil Choudhury, to name a few. The list just goes on.

There should be a filmfare Mohammad Rafi award for the best eastern classical song sung in a bollywood film in the respective year. Rafi had sung classical songs with excellence including “madhuban me radhika nachere” composed by Naushad, “aajahu na aye” composed by Shankar Jaikishan, “phir tere shahar me” composed by OP Nayyar,etc.

Rafi had been cherished in the minds of musiclovers all across the world. The singers of the present generation should learn from Rafi and improve their own style of singing.

     Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey and Talat Mehmood.