MUHAMMAD RAFI
Name: Mohammad Rafi (Pheeko)
Birthday: December 24, 1924
Star Sign : Capricorn
First Film : Anmol Ghari
Mohammed Rafi was born at Kotla Sultan
Singh (or Kotla
Sultanpur), a town near Amritsar on December 24, 1924. In 1935-36,
Rafi's father
shifted to Lahore, and the rest of the family followed later. In 1944,
Rafi
decided to move to Bombay (now Mumbai). After participating in several
chorus
songs Rafi was first noted for the song Tera Khilona Toota Balak from
Mehboob
Khan's Anmol Ghadi (1946). His duet with Noor Jehan in the film Jugnu
1947,
Yahan Badla Wafa Ka became a hit song. Rafi established himself as the
number
one playback singer in Bollywood with the songs of Baiju Bawra (1952).
Naushad
started using Rafi as the male voice in almost every song composed by
him. Rafi
sang a total of 149 songs (81 of them solo) for Naushad. In 1950s and
1960s,
Rafi became the favorite singer of other composers too. Between 1950 and
1970,
Rafi was the most sought after singer in Bollywood, some say, at the
expense of
the careers of contemporaries like Manna Dey, Talat Mahmood, and Hemant
Kumar.
In 1965, he was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Sri
award.
Kishore Kumar overshadowed Rafi as the most sought-after singer in
Bollywood in
1970s. From 1970-1976, Rafi's output was less, but he sang several hit
songs
during this period. Rafi made a comeback as a leading playback singer in
mid-1970s. In 1974,
Rafi died at 10.50 p.m. on July 31, 1980 due to a
massive
heart attack. Mohammad Rafi claimed to have recorded 28,000 songs in 11
Indian
languages between 1944 and April 1980. he has sung over 28,000 songs.
However,
according to the available figures, Rafi has sung 4,516 Hindi film
songs, 112
non-Hindi film songs, and 328 private (non-film) songs from 1945 to
1980.