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Good news for fans of Mohammed Rafi as they now get a chance to hear some of his WHEN Yash Chopra was making Veer-Zaara, initially he was unable to find the right kind of music to suit the film’s requirements and environment, since it was a period film. He said that the present-day composers were not able to deliver what he wanted. Since there was long flashback in the film, he wanted a period-feel in the music, which he was not getting.
With the popularity of the music of Veer-Zaara, the demand for such songs caught up and a new trend emerged — many more such recordings of composers and singers long gone by, came out of the closet. After Veer-Zaara, came Tere Bagair, an album released by Yashraj Music last year. It had songs composed and recorded by late Madan Mohan for his films, which were shelved or remained incomplete due to his death. The album was a huge hit. After the popularity of Tere Bagair, Anand-Milind, sons of composer Chitragupta, have brought out an album titled The Last Songs recorded by Mohammed Rafi in December 1979, under the baton of their father for Dilip Bose’s film Sorry Madam. The film never got released. After Chitragupta’s death, his family members had preserved the original tapes. Some years back, Anand-Milind approached some music companies to release these songs by Rafi but since the trends in music had changed, music companies showed no interest in these old compositions. After the popularity of the music of Veer-Zaara and Tere Bagair, Universal Music India released in January this year the songs rendered by Mohammed Rafi for Sorry Madam.
The original spool tapes preserved by Chitragupta’s family were sent to Equus Studios in Belgium, which digitally re-mastered these from the original spool tapes. When Rafi recorded these numbers in December 1979, he seemed quite fit and the quality of his voice gives no indication of his failing health. His voice in these numbers has a rich and pleasing timber that leaves the listener spellbound. Chitragupta has retained a freshness and simplicity while at the same time keeping the focus on making the compositions listener-friendly. This album provides a glimpse of what music buffs are missing in the present-day film music — the melody, masti and magic. The opening Rafi solo, "Teri nazar teri ada, Sabse haseen sabse juda" is a eulogy of the beauty of his beloved by a besotted lover and Rafi weaves a web of seduction through his husky voice. The other Rafi solo, "Sun mere yaar barkhurdaar, Pyiar kiya hai aise" is a soliloquy and remains a benchmark in passion. Few litanies of romance can match the sense of longing and the yearning for belonging in this masterpiece. This song best represents how young at heart and ahead of times Rafi, Chitragupta, Kafeel Aazar were. In the three Rafi-Asha duets, though Asha Bhosle matches Rafi’s singing – note for note, yet sometimes Rafi manages to steal the show. The duets bear Rafi’s stamp of quality. He appears to be on the top by dint of that one vital quality — the motivation to excel and the desire to do better than his co-singers. Though the album has been titled The Last Songs, it does not have the last song recorded by Rafi though these five songs are among some of the last few songs recorded by Rafi. The song "Tere aane ki aas hai ae dost, Shaam aaj kyun udaas hai ae dost... was the last song of his life, which Rafi recorded for the film Aas-Paas under the direction of the composers Laxmikant-Pyarelal when he died on July 31,1980. If only now some other
music companies follow in the footsteps of Yashraj Music Company and
the Universal Music India and bring out the unused tunes and songs
composed by stalwart composers like Shankar-Jaikishan, C. Ramchandra,
S. D. Burman, Naushad, Ghulam Mohammed, Laxmikant-Pyarelal etc, this
will certainly bring back an era when melody was the queen in the film
world.
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At
that time unused tunes composed by Madan Mohan and preserved by his
son Sanjeev Kohli came to his rescue and the music of the film went on
to become a huge hit across all ages.
