Last Sunday (25/12/2011), I happened to attend a musical evening of Rafi songs by Golden Greats, presented by Koushik Kothari at Sivaswamy auditorium, Chembur. Though not a huge fan of Rafi, I am definitely a fan of old Hindi film music largely from the 70s & 80s and partly from the 50s & 60s.I had gone with great expectations but was hugely disappointed to say the least. The programme seemed like a film which ends at the interval. The post interval stage was non-existent. It was like the first part of a 2 part sequel with the 2nd part not forthcoming.
It jumped back and forth in the 50s & the 60s, featuring compositions of Naushad, OP Nayyar, LP & Shankar Jaikishan only. The others were hardly represented. SD Burman, Panchamda, Kalyanji Anandji had one song each. The songs featured were mainly those picturised on Dilip Kumar & Rajendra Kumar. Even Raj Kapoor who was always loyal to Mukesh & Manna Dey, was represented by 2 rare & ordinary renditions.
The everlasting musical legacy of the Shammi Kapoor- Rafi duo, which has such a rich repertoire were represented by only 2 songs – Aasman se aaya faristha & Meri jaan balle balle, definitely not among their best! What about the legendary hits like – Aye gulbadan, Dil ke jharoke mein tujhko bithakar, Badan pe sitaare lapete hue, Taarif karoon kya uski, Deewana hua badal, Baar baar dekho, Aaj kal tere mere pyaar ke charche etc etc etc.
Dev anand – SD Burman combo was also completely forgotten except for the title song of ‘Tere ghar ke saamne’, which is not their best song by any stretch of imagination!! Not a single song from Guide – Hum bekhudi mein, Tere mere sapne –why were these songs hidden away? Neither Abhi na jao chodkar nor Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya from Jaidev’s Hum Dono.
Dharamji has sung so many great compositions of Rafi - Aap ke hassen rukh pe, chalkae jaam, hui shaam unki khayal a gaya, Main jat yamla pagla deewana, ye dil tum bin kahin lagta nahin etc but Kothariji did not feel that they deserved a place in his compilation.
Panchamda was represented by only the title qawalli from ‘Hum kisise kum Nahin’ which is absolute injustice to the talent of both Rafi & Pancham. O haseena zulfon wali, Aaja aaja main hoon pyar tera, Matwali ankhon wali. Chand mere dil, Maine pucha chand se, Ye ladka hai allah, Kya hua tera waada, gulabi aankhen jo teri dekhi – some of the best Rafi compositions of Pancham were cast away in the dust bin. LP’s later superhits from Sargam, Parda hai parda from AAA, Dardedil from Karz also did not merit any attention.
In short, it was a completely lop-sided compilation of Rafi songs, which betrayed the huge talent and versatility of the legendary genius. It was not that the presenter was handicapped by poor singers. In fact the 4 male and 2 female singers were absolutely fabulous. They were enormously talented and sounded almost exactly like Rafi. Their voices could easily be passed of as Rafi originals by unscrupulous music producers, so perfect were their vocals. The programme left me feeling cheated due to the huge injustice meted out to Rafi saab.
Dear Mr Kothari, can we expect a part II of this musical compilation featuring at least a few of the songs mentioned above??
