Harjap Singh Aujla
The Tribune, Dec 28, 2025 IST
BORN in the dusty village of Kotla Sultan Singh in Amritsar district on Christmas Eve in 1924, Mohammed Rafi was wonderstruck when he heard, at the age of 13, a radio being played in the famous Hall Bazaar of the holy city. He had already heard the sound of a gramophone amplified by a battery-powered loudspeaker at village weddings. In that era, most of the Punjabi gramophone records were of classically trained Amritsar-born Rababi singers. Rafi used to copy them and sing while grazing cattle. He had virtually no schooling and could hardly write in Urdu.
He was blessed with a rich voice ranging from the highest to the lowest notes. He was in his teens when his father called him to Lahore to take up a job at a salon. While shaving beards of customers, he used to sing Punjabi folk songs that he had learnt in his village. These songs were about legendary lovers such as Heer-Ranjha, Mirza-Sahiban, Sassi-Punnoo and Sohni-Mahiwal.
All India Radio, Lahore, came to know about his silken voice. Pandit Jiwan Lal Mattoo, head of the radio station’s music department, showed up to listen to him. Mattoo was so impressed that he offered him the job of a casual artiste after an audition in 1943. Mattoo’s second-in-command Budh Singh Taan was deputed to polish Rafi’s singing. He learnt the finer points of classical music from Ustad Barkat Ali Khan in Lahore. Rafi was a great admirer of Sikh musicians Bhai Samund Singh of Gurdwara Janam Asthan Nankana Sahib and Bhai Santa Singh of the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
His fame reached Bombay through radio waves and he was invited to sing movie songs. One of his early duets with Noor Jehan — “Yahan badla wafa ka bewafai ke siva kya hai…” — from Jugnu (1947) became very popular.
Rafi often pined for Amritsar. He paid a visit to his home town in 1957 along with music director Sardul Singh Kwatra. I was in the crowd during his performance. One of the high-pitched songs he sang was “O duniya ke rakhwale, sun dard bhare mere naale…” (Baiju Bawra, 1952). The audience, mesmerised by his voice, started singing too. The amazing experience left a lasting impression on me.
Rafi, who breathed his last in 1980, lived a life of contentment. After the Partition, he helped rookie film producers by waiving his fee. He also did not take any payment for singing soul-stirring songs such as “Suno suno aye duniya walo Bapu ki yeh amar kahani…” and “Watan ki raah mein watan ke naujawan shaheed ho…” The latter was from the Dilip Kumar starrer Shaheed (1948), the very film that inspired Dharmendra to become an actor. Rafi sang many hit songs for the cinema icon and fellow Punjabi who passed away last month.