Some Eye-openers On Rafi Saab's Songs Break-up

The reason why Lata thought Rafi saab could follow her in the royalty issue is because she had noticed that Rafi had already emerged as the top-most male playbcak singer, far ahead of the competition by the time 1963 came along, so she thought she could receive support from him.

The two just stopped singing together until Jaikishan patched them up. Thank God they did or we would have lost alot of great duets that came later. The Lata-Rafi duet pair is golden and the greatest ever.

Yes, the majority of MD's preferred Rafi saab to Lata during the rift which shows that none could replace him.

Adding to the list, Lata's tiff with SDB, but that's another story for another time.

Friends,

Well, coming back to the centre of our main topic after straying into a few diversions, Rafi Saab had sung the following no.s of duets with various male singers:

1.Manna Dey--58
2.Kishore Kumar---34
3.Mukesh--15
4.Balbeer-- 15
5.Chitalkar--8
6.Talat Mehmood-6
7.G.M.Durrani--6
8.K.L.Saigal--1

These are just duets with the above male singers and do not include group songs featuring them.

Venkat

Venkat ji, many thanks for bringing the train back on the track.



This is a very good piece of information. Rafi saab is one of the luckiest singers who has got to sing along with the legendary Kundanlal Saighal saab.

Parag

May be not but nethier can one form an opinion based on gossip in magazines or base less hear say!

I think had it not been for Lata's protest HMV would not have given any royalty ever. And there were other
singers who did support her in her action. Had Rafi saab joined may HMV would have given in sooner.?
But it was choice and no one faults him for it. Lata did stood up for what she believed in and may be paid
the price for it. But I think it is absurd that you think less of her beacuse of it. Remember it was after
her protest that they started giving names of the play back singers in the film credits and records.

Ramesh

1.Her boycott of Shankar and Raj Kapoor are not 'gossip' or 'baseless hearsay' as you would like to imagine! She herself had openly admitted to this boycott habit of hers (Rafi, Shankar, Raj Kapoor) on Vividhbharati recently in her own voice. Prince Ali had just revealed that the list of her boycottees includes SDB also!

2. She had just nothing to do with HMV giving Royalty to singers a full decade after she indulged in these boycotts and tamely ended them also. As I mentioned earlier, she tamely ended her boycott of Rafi Saab in 2 years after she realised her foolishness and that her calculation did not work!

3. Lastly, as I also mentioned earlier, I have nothing against her demanding anything from HMV. Is she entitled to high-handedly demand compliance from everyone and that everyone should follow her?
If you really mean what you write, let me propose this to you. I want to ask Pradeep Ji to reduce the Fee from $30 to $5. Please join me. Otherwise, I will boycott you. How would you like that?

Venkat

Besides, you mentioned that "other singers did support" her royalty demand. What exactly is the meaning of "support", in this context? Not just asking or writing to HMV. Lata had a grand game-plan of herself and Rafi Saab together arm-twisting HMV by both stopping to sing for HMV. Rafi Saab would not have minded just putting in a word from his side to HMV to consider this issue. But, there was no way that he would join these arm-twisting tactics of Lata, because he was not so desperate about it as Lata was! It was then that Lata had announced her boycott of Rafi Saab with the wrong calculation that it would be a great loss to him. But, it backfired very badly on her!

As I said earlier, she ended her boycott of Rafi Saab when she ralised the phenomenal loss she was suffering on a/c of it. But, though she ended this boycott and sang once again with him, she kept on sulking against him throughout later. Only recently, after seeing the writing on the wall and to control further damage to her popularity on this, she started saying somewhat conciliatory things in interviews/Vividhbharati, etc.

Venkat

That total for Rafi-KK duets is incorrect. Someone posted a list here a while back and it was in the high 60s.

Flex Ji,

I have the list of 34. The source of info., as I said earlier, is Mr. Salim-ul-Haq's database of 4931 Rafi songs. As most of his enumerations have turned out correct, I assumed this too must be correct. Do you have the list of 60+?

Venkat

Sadly I don't, but I'm sure someone else will come up trumps here.

Some time back, we had discussions on this site pertaining to Saleem's book - I think it was when he became a member - the general consensus was, though useful in some ways, the book is inaccurate not to mention badly written. I wouldn't treat it as gospel especially considering Saleem is planning to bring out a second volume.

Jerk !! how dare he says that!!

The fact is NO one knows/remembers ANIL Biswas and there are millions who know/remember Rafi, everyday.

Is there anyone on earth who can render Gulabi Aankhen Jo Teri Dekhi like Rafi? ... ANIL .. go die!! .. oh wait .. u are already dead.

That's a tad harsh there my brother, I think the subtle approach like YM employed is the way to go.

Azgar bhai...My 2 cents

Cool down bro. We dont have to stoop to Anil Biswas's nonsense.

AB had a bias against Rafisaab and this disgusting statement of his is the testimony of his closed mindedness. He and CRamChandra both came to industry to be sigers but were a failure. No other singer has sung more for AB than Anil Biwas himself, Mukesh and Talat too have not sung more than 30 songs or so for AB.

Rafisaab is a talent beyond compare, the only in his elite class and no wonder all aspiring singers had to struggle or take up other careers as Rafisaab was and is the best in his elite class. Jealousy and desperation lead to such distasteful comments.

Anil Bisawas must have being embarased in later years to see that Rafisaab is a benchmark for all singers, past and present with rare skills that come once in a million years.

Rafisaab has sung for over 220 MD's......would like to know if someone has more info on these MD's.

Cheers
SS

Very well said, SS Ji.

Venkat

Friends,

As a penance, if I have hurt anyone during the recent past, I am uploading this nice Video clip of Rafi Saab. Please see, hear and enjoy a very mischievous Rafi Saab in the company of Sharmila Tagore and SJ!

Venkat


 Rafi_Saab_Live_Video_Asmaan_Se_Aaya_Farishta.MPG ( 7.97 MB ) Number of hits: 144 by members

I am adding this post just to bring my Video clip upload to the forefront.

Venkat