24th December 1924-31st July 1980
There are singers who have rendered five to six times the number of songs rendered by Mohammad Rafi during his short life span of less than 56 years , but the sheer variety and quality of those 6000 odd songs he has left behind will always be cherished and talked about for centuries. That is why I never fail to dedicate a blog on his birth anniversary -24th December and death anniversary -31st July . As I keep searching for his songs, I find there are still so many that I have not heard !
On this 101st birth anniversary of Rafi sahab, I am trying to explore some of the great non-film songs, mainly ghazals , that may not be as popular as his film songs , but are definitely well-known to those who are great fans of Rafi. When there is no constraint of Rafi moulding his voice to suit a Dilip Kumar/Shammi Kapoor/ Dev Anand /Dharmendra or so many other actors for whom he sang exceptionally well, then what we get to hear is his voice in its purest form! And what a delight it is to hear his non-film songs. While selecting the songs for this article , I got a feel as if he is just sitting in front of me with a tanpura and harmonium and rendering these gems!
The versatility in Rafi’s singing is truly amazing -at the one end of the spectrum we have his intensely paced fast film songs , honey-laced romantic numbers, soulful pathos , classical gems, stirring patriotic songs , high-energy qawwalis , quirky comedy songs …the list is endless. And at the other end of the spectrum we have these non-film ghazals that have an altogether different charm ; one has to listen to them repeatedly to get immersed in the sweetness of his intoxicating vocals.
I do not have any authentic data as to exactly how many non-film songs he had recorded ; various sources mention anything between 250 to 700!! That is a huge range and so let me not get into the statistics!
I have not covered his non-film devotional songs nor those he had sung in languages like Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati etc in this blog. Maybe one day in future I will try to cover these.
While selecting the 30 songs , I have made three categories: those composed by Khayyam , by Taj Ahmed Khan and other music directors. I was surprised to know Rafi had even composed the music for some non-film ghazals. I have included one such ghazal . The songs listed here are random as I do not know their year of release and so I could not organize them in my usual chronological order. Also I am not writing anything about each song , mainly to keep the blog short -the intoxicating voice of Rafi is enough to keep one engaged, immersed in these 30 gems I have selected and would request readers of this blog to listen to them again and again to get a heavenly experience.
(1) Non-Film songs composed by Khayyam
Mohammed Zahur Khayyam Hashmi, popularly known as Khayyam was a renowned music director known for his soft & melodious tunes, often composed for some of the best lyrics either written for films or taken from famous poems, ghazals etc. In his initial years his music was superb, with Rafi singing great gems like Jane Kya Dhoondti Rehti Hai, Parbaton Ke Pedon Par, Jeet Hi Lenge Baazi , Akele Mein Woh Ghabrate To Honge etc . However he got more fame in the 70’s only, when, in my own personal opinion , his music was not of the same class as that in 50’s and 60’s. In the decade of 60’s , Khayyam worked with Rafi for some beautiful melodious non–film songs , that were mostly the works of the famous poet Mirza Ghalib. He had also worked with Rafi for some of the best non-film bhajans sung by Rafi that could be the topic for a separate blog!
I have selected ten songs composed by Khayyam and sung by Rafi that are purely my personal favourites. In all these songs , one can hear Rafi singing with a voice that touches our soul. Each and every syllable is elaborated and taken to great heights, with most of them being Mirza Ghalib’s ghazals.
Apart from Ghalib’s ghazals, Khayyam and Rafi worked together on many songs written by Madhukar Rajasthani. It is really sad to note that not much information is available about the lyricist Madhukar Rajasthani. I remember that long back in Vividh Bharati there used to be program in the evening in which all non-film songs used to be played and in that I had heard the name Madhukar Rajasthani quite often.
- Dard Minnat Kash-E-Dawa- Lyrics: Mirza Ghalib
2. Mere Geeton Ke Singar Ho tum–Lyrics: Madhukar Rajasthani
3. Tum aao rumjhum karti payal–Lyrics: Madhukar Rajasthani
4. Muddat Hui Hai Yaar Ko- Lyrics: Mirza Ghalib
Gulzar had taken inspiration for his famous Dil Dhoondta Hai Phir Wahi song for the film Mausam from this Ghalib’s line: Jee dhoondta hai wohi fursat ke raat din..baithe rahen tasavvuren jaana kiye hue…
5. Shauq Har Rang – Lyrics: Mirza Ghalib
6. Bazeecha-E-Atfal Hai – Lyrics: Mirza Ghalib
7. Pooch Na Mujh Se -Lyrics: Jan Nissar Akhtar–
This song could not be embedded here and so one has to click and go to YouTube to listen to the song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR0lN1d-GJs&list=RDWR0lN1d-GJs&start_radio=1
8. Gazab Kiya Tere Wade Pe-Lyrics: Dagh Dehlavi
9. Nukta Chin Hai Gam-E-Dil-Lyrics: Mirza Ghalib
10. Yeh Na Thi Hamari Kismet- Lyrics: Mirza Ghalib
(2) Non-Film songs composed by Taj Ahmed Khan
There is one interesting name that comes up when we look at some of the best non-film songs of Rafi and that is an obscure music composer called Taj Ahmed Khan. Just like Madhukar Rajasthani, the lyricist, it is equally strange and sad to note that there is absolutely no information about this composer!
Most of the songs that I heard of this composer are simply outstanding and I would really try to hunt for some more information about this composer in future; presently my timeline to publish this blog by 24th Dec may not permit that.
- Haye mehaman kahan ye gham-e-jana hoga– Lyrics: Dagh Dehlvi
2. Dil ki baat kahi nahi jaati –Lyrics: Mir Taqi Mir
3. Qad-E-Gesso-Lyrics :Mirza Ghalib
4. Diya ye dil agar usko bashar hai kya kahiye – Lyrics: Mirza Ghalib
5. Ek Hi Baat Zamane Ke Kitabon Mein-Lyrics: Sudarshan Fakir
6. Main Jab Se Tujhe Aye- Lyrics: Sabah Afghani
7. Saqi Ke har Nigah Pe -Lyrics: Jigar Moradabadi
8. Na Shaq-E-Vasl Ka Dawa -Lyrics: Ameer Meenai
9. Talkhi-E-Mai Mein Zara Talkhi-E-Dil- Lyrics: Krishan Adeeb
10. Falsafe Ishq Mein Pesh Aaye – Lyrics: Sudarshan Fakir
(3) Non-Film songs composed by Other music directors
It is to the credit of Rafi that similar to how he had worked with almost 250 + music composers for his film songs, he had also sung for many unknown composers for his non-film ones. Many names here are totally unheard by me till the time I started looking for the songs for this blog. As mentioned in my introduction, a surprise inclusion is a ghazal that has been composed by Rafi himself! Rafi as a composer is rarely talked about!
- Is dil se teri yaad bhulai nahni jaati – Music: Hansraj Behl; Lyrics: Rajendra Krishna
2. Hansa gagan beech roye, komal pankhon par ye – Music: Shyam Sharma Lyrics: Shyam Sharma
3. Keh ke bhi na aaye mulaqaat ko – Music: Shyam Sharma; Lyrics: Laxman Shahabadi
4. Mein Kab Gata Mere Sur Mein- Music : Shyam Sharma; Lyrics: Anjaan
5. Chale rahe hain who zulf –Music: Mohammad Rafi; Lyrics: K Mohinder Singh Bedi
6. Main Deep Jalaye Baitha Hoon- Music: Rajeshwar Pal; Naqsh Lyallpuri)
7. Pyale Se Adhar Mile- Music: Sunil Kumar; Lyricist: Harivanshrai Bachhan( ? )..I am not absolutely sure about the lyricist…
8. Jab Tere Pyar Ka Afsana- Music : Maqbool & Iqbal Hussain; Aish Kanwal
9. Tod Do Ahd-E-Mohabbat-Music: Maqbool & Iqbal Hussain; Lyrics: Aish Kanwal
10. Kash Khwabon Mein Hi Aajao -Music: Babul; Lyrics: Nyay Sharma
A small note on my blogsite completing four years:
I started this blogsite exactly four years back , on 24th Dec 2021, on Rafi’s birth anniversary . Initially I started writing about the legendary singers, music composers, and lyricist from the golden era of Hindi films music and later added a similar section on Tamil film music also.
During the last four years ,I was able to write around 43 articles on Hindi film music, covering twelve music directors individually ( Shankar-Jaikishan covered in two blogs) , eight pairs of music director-lyricist combinations, two lyricists & twelve singers ( Kishore and Lata covered in two each) , and eight exclusive blogs on Rafi on his birth & death anniversaries. I also wrote a theme- based blog on songs with the word “Zindagi”.
I am glad to see that the views on these blogs are increasing year on year and pleasantly surprised to see these coming from countries across the globe. I thank all those who are reading my blogs. I am doing this purely as a passion , with an aim to cover the maximum number of artists who had contributed to the richness of film music.
I am more pleased to find that the views for the blogs on artist from Tamil film music m are much higher than those for the blogs on Hindi film artists. Maybe one day this blogsite can become a unique single source to read about both Hindi & Tamil films songs!
Acknowledgement & Disclaimer
I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources for the information that I could gather for this article:
- You Tube
- Wikipedia
The songs mentioned are from the popular, public domain and have been embedded here only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. The photograph is taken from the internet, duly recognizing the full copyrights for the same to the original creator or the site where they were originally displayed .This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights.
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