Mohammed Rafi was a playback singer for the Indian film industry. He was considered to be one of the most famous and influential personalities of India. He was a Padma Shri award winner in the year 1967. His most popular genres were Qawaali, Ghazal, Sufi, and Filmi.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Mohammed Rafi was born on Christmas Eve, the 24th of December in 1924 in Kotla Sultan Singh, Punjab, British India (present-day Punjab, India). He was 55 years old
when he sadly passed away on the 31st of June in 1980 in Bombay, India. His zodiac sign was Capricorn and he followed the Islam religion.
REAL NAME Mohammed Rafi
NICKNAME Pheeko
DATE OF BIRTH 24.12.1924
ZODIAC SIGN Capricorn
AGE 55 (at the time of his death)
DATE OF DEATH 31.06.1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Kotla Sultan Singh, Punjab, British India (present-day Punjab, India).
PLACE OF DEATH Bombay, India
CAUSE OF DEATH Heart attack
PROFESSION Playback Singer
NATIONALITY Indian
PARENTS MOTHER: Allah Rakhi FATHER: Hajji Ali Mohammed
SIBLINGS Chirag Bibi
Reshma Bibi
Mohammed Shafi
Mohammed Deen
Mohammed Ismail
Mohammed Ibrahim
Mohammed Siddique
SPOUSE Bashira Bibi
Bilquis Bano
CHILDREN Saeed
Parveen
Khalid
Nasreen
Hamid
Yasmeen Shahid |
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AWARDS National Award for the song “KyaHua TeraWaada”in1977 PadmaShriin1967 Silver medal from the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru,on the first anniversary of the Indian Independence Day in1948. |
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
HEIGHT (approx) In feet & inches- 5’7” In meters- 1.70m In centimeters- 170cm |
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WEIGHT (approx) In kilograms- 85 kg In pounds- 187 lb |
EYE COLOUR Black |
HAIR COLOUR Black (semi-bald) |
FAMILY
Mohammed Rafi was the second eldest of six brothers born to Haji Ali Mohammad. The family originally belonged to Kotla Sultan Singh, a village near present-day Majitha in the Amritsar district of Punjab, India.
Rafi married twice; his first marriage was to his cousin; Bashira Bibi which took place in his ancestral village. The marriage ended when his first wife refused to live in India following the killing of her parents during the riots of the Partition of India and moved to Lahore, Pakistan. His second marriage was to Bilquis Bano. Rafi had four sons and
three daughters; his first son Saeed was from his first marriage.
According to Mohammed Rafi Voice of a Nation, a book authorised by Rafi’s son Shahid, Rafi was known to be of a very gentle calm demeanour who always remained a humble, selfless, ego-less, devoted, God-fearing and family loving gentleman throughout his life.
CAREER
He recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and sang songs in many Indian languages as well as foreign languages, though primarily in Urdu and Punjabi, over which he had a strong command. He recorded as many as 7,405 songs in many languages. He sang in many Indian languages – Konkani, Assamese, Bhojpuri, Odia, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili, etc. Apart from Indian languages, he also sang songs in many foreign languages, including English, Farsi or Persian, Arabic, Sinhala, Creole and Dutch. Rafi was notable for his versatility and range of voice; his songs varied from fast peppy numbers to patriotic songs, sad numbers to highly romantic songs, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans to classical songs. He was known for his ability to mould his voice to the persona and style of the actor lip-syncing the song on screen in the movie. He received four Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award. In 1967, he was honored with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India. In 2001, Rafi was honoured with the “Best Singer of the Millennium” title by Hero Honda and Stardust
magazine. In 2013, Rafi was voted for the Greatest Voice in Hindi Cinema in the CNN-IBN’s poll.
The last song sung by Rafi was for the movie Aas Paas. One source says it was “Shaam Phir Kyun Udaas Hai Dost / Tu Kahin Aas Paas Hai Dost”, recorded just hours before his death while another source says that it was “Shehar Mein Charcha Hai” from the same film.
