Quite obviously, the three Grand Marshalls of Film Playback—Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar—did a good amount of work outside Hindi cinema. Regional films, non-film Hindi and in regional languages, with Kishore and Mukesh also as composers outside cinema and Rafi even taking on foreign language songs formed their oeuvre. But it was their bond that was special.
The Name is Bond, Gems’ Bond!
As Rafi’s son, Shahid Rafi, put it, “In 1970-1971, my father went for Haj, and the maulanas there told him that he was sinning against Allah by singing in films. Being very God-fearing, he was demoralized and went to London to my brothers instead of coming back and stayed there for almost six months, thinking of quitting music. But finally, my brothers told him, ‘Dad! Music is what you were born for. You are no businessman and you don’t know anything else!’”
Rafi had also started doing shows – from the 1950s. From the late ‘1960s, there would be at least one annual trip to USA, UK or Canada. Each tour would take six to eight weeks, and almost no one waited for any singer that long. “These were the more likely explanations that my father’s recordings reduced in the early and mid-‘70s rather than just a Kishore Kumar wave,” said Shahid. “For example, there was this incidence where one hero refused to shoot because a song was to be recorded by some other singer since my father was leaving for a tour. My father had to oblige, learn and record the song very fast before he left!”
ADVERTISEMENT
But Shahid insists that on a personal level, Kishore was not just Rafi’s close friend and fan but also worshipped him as a singer. “When my father was to record a male duet, he would be especially upbeat if it was with Kishore Kumar, who would spring surprises, and my father would look forward to an enjoyable day! And I have said this often, and Amit Kumar can vouch for it too, that at my father’s funeral, Kishore Kumar held his feet and wept like a baby!” said Shahid recently to Free Press Journal.
When Mukesh passed away in Detroit, USA, during a concert tour, Rafi had had a mild heart attack and had been admitted in hospital. He had recovered but the doctor had suggested a few more days of rest. But when he came to know that Mukesh’s body had landed from the States, he insisted on going for his funeral without an ambulance, and returned to the hospital!
While there is no story known about the personal friendship between Mukesh and Kishore Kumar, Mukesh’s elder son, the late Mohnish Mukesh, who was an ardent music lover and a businessman, once took this writer to his bedroom where a huge picture of Kishore was hung from a wall. His father, he told me, knew about it and in fact had once told his son, “It was as if Kishore had told both Rafi and me that look, I am an actor now. Enjoy your innings for 20 years. Phir main aaoonga (and then I will come)!”
The only song on which all three collaborated was Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s Humko tumse ho gaya hai pyar kya karen (along with Lata Mangeshkar) from Amar Akbar Anthony. But in 1981’s Kranti, L-P got back almost the same combination in Chana zor garam, with Mukesh’s son Nitin Mukesh in place of his father!
And Nitin remembers both Kishore and Rafi with great affection. “Kishore-da was making funny faces and making me lose my cues or expressions, as was his wont, at the recording! Finally, Pyare-bhai scolded me, and Lata-ji set the record straight by stating that a certain naughty man was the actual culprit!”
The last part of the song, Mera chana hai apni marzi ka, was mainly between Rafi and Nitin Mukesh, and was recorded separately with Rafi encouraging the young singer and looking after his comfort, added Nitin.
Another singer who was personally and professionally in awe of Rafi was Amit Kumar. Kishore’s son carries forward his father’s admiration for Rafi by singing a minimum one song of the senior singer on his shows. And as luck would have it, one of Amit’s earliest songs was Salaam kijiye aali janaab aaye hain, the first of quite a few duet and ensemble songs with Rafi, in Aandhi.
Kishore also composed the song Band mutthi lakh ki for his own film, Chalti Ka Naam Zindagi, in which Rafi was his co-singer with Manna Dey. The late composer Laxmikant would smilingly remember how Kishore would mock-rebuke to him, Tum log to Rafi ko hi yaad karte ho, for their best songs!
And while it will always remain a conundrum why Mukesh never sang a song composed by Kishore, Amit Kumar, in a video interview in which he was asked about who was the “best” from among Rafi, Mukesh and Kishore, replied that this was a “childish” question. “Everyone has his opinions, but there are also anti-Rafi and anti-Kishore lobbies, whose stand is that Rafi or Kishore as the case may be, “did not know anything” and that the other was supreme!
“I have myself seen the singers together—competitors on the microphone, but deep friends before and after the ‘takes’,” said Amit. “Rafi-saab was big while my father was a struggler. And then I saw them come together. They would even ask each other for suggestions and tips about singing certain parts in a song!”
Last but not the least, Mohammed Rafi has sung playback for around a dozen songs enacted on-screen by Kishore Kumar! The composers have ranged from Shankar-Jaikishan and O.P. Nayyar to Anil Biswas, Madan Mohan, Chitragupta and small-timers Bipin and Lala Sattar! The most popular were Ajab hai dastaan teri ae zindagi (Shararat), Man mora baanwra (Ragini) and Apni aadat hai sabko salaam karna (Pyar Diwana).