Remembering the legend

To talk about legendary playback singer Mohammed Rafi whose 100th birth anniversary falls on December 24, is like "Kahan se chhedoon fasana, kahaan tamaam karoon?"

- Sumit Paul

(Where to start it from and where to end it). Not just a rich cornucopia of more than 7,000 songs in his close to 40 years as a playback singer, his persona endeared him to all, too.

Though we tend to use adjectives and superlatives such as genius and legend rather loosely, Rafi is someone for whom all superlatives fall woefully short. The saying that humility is the hallmark of a great person is true to the last syllable about Rafi. He was an extremely kindhearted singer who never condescended to or hurt anyone. Yours truly interviewed the famous composer Ravi Shankar Sharma (popularly known as Ravi) who said that while Rafi would observe the hero or character's demeanour before singing for him, he never pontificated if the hero or character was rather unknown or new.

In 1963, Rafi sang for Vijay Kumar (Wahiduddin Qazi or Waheed) in the movie Kaun Apna, Kaun Paraya, which was a promotional movie for Waheed, younger brother of Johnny Walker. Rafi was very close to Johnny Walker. He didn't take a penny for the movie and immortalised the song, Zara sun haseena-e-naazneen, composed by Ravi.