Mumbai, Dec 23 (PTI) Lunch, a Coke and then to the studio. Other singers may have worried about a sore throat but not his father, the “god gifted” Mohammed Rafi, a man of simple tastes who didn’t like socialising and preferred a game of carom with his children over film parties, recalls his son Shahid Rafi.
Mohammed Rafi, the man behind the velvety voice that playbacked for screen legends down the generations, right from Dilip Kumar and Shammi Kapoor to Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor, would have been 100 on December 24. With a legacy of more than 5,000 songs, Rafi was the music legend extraordinaire.
For his family though, he remained the simple, soft spoken person who opted for a quieter life away from the glitz of Bollywood.
“He was a great singer, his voice was different. It was velvety. He was an excellent human being and a father. He was very soft spoken… whenever my dad would speak, we had to listen carefully. He would tease us saying, ‘Can't you hear me, are you deaf’?” Shahid told PTI in an interview.
"All of us (children) saw Rafi sahab as a father. We respected him as a father and not as a singer. My father would often tell us, ‘I’m not Mohammed Rafi, I’m your father'," he said.
The 63-year-old, who is also a singer and performs in stage shows, is the youngest of Rafi’s seven children.
The singer behind evergreen hits such as “Abhi na jaao chhod kar” and “Aaja, aaja” was not someone for birthday celebrations and it was left to his family to bring in the cake.
"As kids, we would try to do something nice for him, like getting a cake. He was a homely person; he would never socialise. His idea was... ‘We celebrate but we should think that actually one year closer to death’. He never celebrated his birthday."
Rafi died in 1980 of a sudden heart attack. He was just 55.
Shahid remembers his father as someone who was a foodie but not very picky in his choices.
"After lunch, he would have a Coca-Cola and then head for a recording. People would rather think about getting a sore throat but my dad was a god gifted person,” Shahid said, recalling that his father loved spending time with his children and the family would often have a game of cricket in the large compound of their house.
“Dad had friends but he was not one of those who would meet his friends every day. He would never socialise. He would rather come home and spend time with us. He was fond of flying kites. He would play carom with us, besides playing badminton at Bandra Gym (with his friends). On weekends we would go to Lonavala house where he had made a pond there and he would swim with us.”
Rafi, who could not study beyond Class 4, was a lenient father. But he was the strict disciplinarian was when it came to his children's education.
"He wanted us to be disciplined and have etiquette. My home was my school. He was strict about studies. He had kept tuition teachers for us. He would often ask us, ‘Did you study well?’ and later he would ask my mother, ‘Are the kids studying properly?’ He wanted us to study well, and become successful," Shahid said.
His father would sometimes do his ‘riyaaz’ in Chowpatty.
“We were told by my mother that dad was staying in a chawl in Bhendi Bazaar when he first came to Mumbai. People would get disturbed when he was doing his ‘riyaaz’ so he would go walking to Chowpatty and practise on his tanpura and harmonium at the beach.”
Though he sung thousands of film songs, many of them still etched in the hearts and minds of people across generations, Rafi would rarely watch movies.
"We would go to the theatres maybe once or twice a year. We had a projector in our house and whenever he felt like watching any film, we would all watch it together," Shahid said.
According to him, Rafi was close friends with screen icon Dilip Kumar, for whom he sung the memorable “Madhuban Mein Radhika Naache Re” and “Ude Jab Jab Zulfein Teri”, music composer Naushad and lyricist Shakeel Badayuni.
"They had their own group. They would go to play badminton early morning at 6 am at Bandra gym. He was very fond of playing badminton with his group. He stopped playing badminton after he sprained his leg, he was diabetic,” Shahid said.
Rafi also had a great equation with actor Johnny Walker (remember “Sar Jo Tera Chakraye”) for whom he sang about 100 songs, producer Gaffar Nadiawala and screenwriter Salim Khan, the son said.
Rafi was born on December 24, 1924, to Allah Rakhi and Haji Ali Mohammad in a Punjabi Jat Muslim family in Kotla Sultan Singh, a village near Amritsar. He was the second of six brothers. The family moved to Lahore. From there, Rafi travelled to Bombay to make a career in playback singing.
Shahid said Rafi used to serve home cooked food to 'fakirs' twice a month and would frequently share a meal with them.
"He was a very charitable person, he took care of so many people in terms of their education or got them married. Dad never said no to anyone.
"During Eid, many delicacies were made at home and so many people would come including family, friends, colleagues from the industry. They would come especially to have 'sheer khurma'. My mother would cook everything at home," he added.
According to Shahid, Rafi never found any song difficult.
“He would himself say, ‘Meri koi aukaat nahi, yeh toh sab upar wala karwa raha hai, yeh allah ki den hai’ (I am not at all capable, it's all because of god and his blessings).”
Asked whether Rafi ever disclosed his favourites amongst the many songs he sang in his four-decade career, Shahid said the singer never identified any but there are some he can guess.
"When I toured with him in 1979 in America, Europe and Cananda, there were three songs which I feel he loved very much because in every show he would sing these songs, which are, ‘O Duniya Ke Rakhwale’ (from ‘Baiju Bawra’), ‘Suhani Raat Dhal Chuki’ (from ‘Dulari’), and ‘Madhuban Mein Radhika Nache Re’ (from ‘Kohinoor’), irrespective of whether people would request him to sing these songs or not," he said.
Shahid has announced a biopic on his father. It will be directed by Umesh Shukla of "OMG: Oh My God" fame.
He is expected to announce the actor who will play Rafi in the biopic on the musician's 100th birthday on December 24.