Naushad: Composer of the century
Naushad acknowledged the peerless Shamshad Begum as having a super share in his meteoric rise to the number one position. Of Shamshad, he always said: "What transparency her voice had! Just savour how she comes through, under my baton, in Jab usne gesu bikhraaye (Shahjehan) and Gham ka fasaana kis ko sunayein (Mela).
It might sound odd that I have, so far, essentially touched upon Naushad's female performers first. Such an approach is made to grant Suhani raat dhal chuki's Mohammed Rafi his unique niche in Naushad's repertoire. This master composer first made both Mukesh (Andaz) and Talat Mahmood (Babul) sound surpassingly individualistic on Dilip Kumar.
Meanwhile, Naushad was, near clandestinely, getting Mohammed Rafi ready for the big leap. From his first Anmol Ghadi solo, Tera khilauna toota baalak (1946), to O door ke musafir on Dilip Kumar in Uran Khatola (1955), Rafi came a long, long way, once the Baiju Bawra (above) miracle happened in 1952.
Whether it be O duniya ke rakhwaale in Darbari, or Man tarpat Hari darshan ko aaj in Malkauns, or Insaan bano insaan bano in Gujjari Todi, Rafi first began scaling classical peaks, all his own, in the charismatic custody of Naushad, vocalising for Baiju Bawra Bharat Bhushan opposite Meena Kumari.
O door ke musafir from Uran Khatola, for instance, comes to us as in Raag Durga. "It was, initially, a Rafi ghazal in Raag Patdeep," revealed Naushad. "After recording it as a ghazal, I felt something missing in the finished piece. Everyone, including Dilip Kumar, felt it sounded rarely resonant as a ghazal in Rafi's voice. Actually, I ignored a litany of protesters in going ahead and re-recording the song. Rafi alone, after having worked really hard on the original ghazal, remained unaffected by it all. He instinctively deduced that something must have been amiss if 'Naushadsaab' wanted to record O door ke musafir afresh. He simply asked, 'When do I come for the rehearsal?'"