Kochi: It was a Fakir who had whipped up the passion for music in Millenium singer Mohammad Rafi when he was only a boy born on Christmas eve in 1924 in Kotla Sultan Singh in British India.
The young Rafi was so mesmerized by the song that he followed him for a long distance to hear more of his melodies while the fakir went about seeking alms in his neighborhood, Rafi told the BBC in an interview.
Thereafter, it was his quest to learn music that took him to Ustad Abddul Wahid Khan where he learnt classical music.
An ardent fan of Kundan Lal Saigal, Rafi made his maiden stage appearance in a programme connected with Saigal when he was only 13.
Second among six brothers, Rafi reached Bombay in 1944 and camped in a rented 100 square feet room in Bhendi Bazar.
His first song was ‘soniye ni, heeriye ni’ by music director Shyam Sunder in the Punjabi film Gul Baloch in 1941 but was released in 1944.
His first song in a Hindi film was Gaon ki gori released in 1945. Besides singing thousands of songs for films in different languages, Rafi had sung countless bhajans, qawalis and ghazals.
He had won a number of awards and was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1967. He was selected best singer of the millenium in 2001 and he was voted greatest voice in Hindi by a CNN-IBN survey.
His song on Mahatma Gandhi after his assassination had impessed the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru so much that he invited Rafi to his house to render the same.
Rafi was a kind hearted person and was compassionate and was aware of the financial difficulties of film making. He would not take remuneration from filmmakers, whose film failed in box office. He was also against claiming royalty. He died on July 31, 1980.
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