Late singer Mohammad Rafi rendered some immortal tracks in his long career and on his 90th birth anniversary on Wednesday, legendary playback singer Asha Bhosle reminisced about the “benevolent” talent’s “humility”.
“The beauty of Rafi sahab is that right from the door of the studios, he would start wishing everyone, ‘Aadab’. He would never fight with anyone. If anyone said something to him, he would stay quiet and would not answer. I would get irritated. I would ask him why he would not answer back. He would then tell me to let it go, there was no point in replying. Woh Allah Ke aadmi the [he was a god’s man].
“He would never praise himself, the pride of his popularity would not even show on his face,” the singer said during a radio interview on a 92.7 BIG FM show on Wednesday morning.
Rafi was born on December 24, 1924. He died at the age of 55 on July 31, 1980, following a massive heart attack, leaving behind a wealth of more than 5,000 songs, which he rendered during his 35-year-long singing career.
During his lifetime, Rafi was conferred with the Padmashri, National Film Award, Best National Singer Award, and Filmfare Awards, as well as many other national and international honours.
Bhosle, who was recently honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dubai International Film Festival (Diff), also says she is saddened that with his death, all other promises and chances of future collaboration with him, also met an abrupt end.
“The sad part is the day he passed away, a day before that, we were recording for a movie and he said, ‘Dekho, humne kitne gaane saath mein ga liye, apna toh aise hi chalega [See how many tracks we have sung together, it will remain like this]’. We were to meet again the next day, but he passed away. He was a good man,” she added.
The singer, who is lovingly called ‘Asha Tai’ by many, is known for bringing in a revolution with songs such as Dum maro dum, Piya tu ab toh aaja and Chura liya hai tumne jo dil ko.
With Rafi, she is credited with having sung numbers such as Bahut shukriya, Abhi na jao chhod kar, Uden jab jab zulfein teri and Aaja aaja main hoon pyar tera.
