First On-Screen Appearance of Mohd. Rafi

Mohammed Rafi is one of the greatest singers of Indian cinema. Between 1950 and 1970, Rafi was the most sought after singer in the Hindi film industry.

He is primarily noted for his songs in Hindi Cinema but besides that, he sang in languages like Konkani, Bhojpuri, Odia, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili and Urdu. It is believed that he sang about 7,400 songs in many languages. Apart from Indian languages, he also sang songs in English, Farsi, Arabic, Sinhalese, Creole and Dutch.

Rare & Unseen Photos of Mohammed Rafi

Rafi was notable for his voice and versatility; his songs ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs, sad lamentations to highly romantic numbers, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans. He was known for his ability to mold his voice to the persona of the actor, lip-synching the song on screen in the movie.

Classical and playback singer Manna Dey, who was also a contemporary of Rafi said, “Rafi and I could sing everything, and he was such a gentleman. He was a better singer than me, and I will say this – that no one came even close to him! He deserved everything he got! We had a great understanding and it was never about one-upmanship”. Shammi Kapoor said, “I am incomplete without Mohammad Rafi. I used to often go for the recording of my song, which was sung by Mohammad Rafi, only because I used to like telling him how I would perform on this song on the screen so that he can sing it that way. Even he liked my involvement”

For 1945 film Laila Majnu, Rafi Saab gave his first on-screen appearance. The song is “Tera Jalwa Jisne Dekha” sung by him & SD Batish.