Shammi Kapoor Death Anniversary: Here’s all about the actor’s great association with Mohammed Rafi

By Subhash K. Jha -

August 14, 2023 - 3:28 PM IST

Shammi Kapoor owes his superstardom to Dev Anand. Producer-director Nasir Hussain wanted Dev Anand for Tumsa Nahin Dekha. But the film’s financier Tolaram Jalan wanted his special friend Ameeta to play the female lead, and Dev didn’t want to work with her.

Shammi Kapoor Death Anniversary: Here’s all about the actor’s great association with Mohammed Rafi

This was how Shammi Kapoor bagged the film that turned his career also. It was also the first of innumerable musical hits that Shammi did with Mohammed Rafi.

Shammi’s second major hit Teesri Manzil was also supposed to star Dev Anand. In this case, producer Nasir Hussain was unhappy with Dev and sacked him from the project. Shammi, with whom Nasir had already done two hits, happily stepped in to sing R D Burman’s hits, which were all sung by Rafi. Interestingly, soon after Teesri Manzil, R D Burman switched almost completely to Kishore Kumar.

Almost every hero of the 1950s and 60s loved Rafi’s voice. But they also used other voices. For instance, Dilip Kumar used both Rafi and Talat Mahmood, and sometimes Mukesh. But can you imagine a single chartbuster of Shammi Kapoor that \is not sung by Rafi? From ‘Yun Toh Humne Laakh Haseen Dekhe Hain, Tumsa Nahin Dekha’ in Tumsa Nahin Dekha in 1957 to ‘Tum Mujhe Yun Bhula Na Paaoge’ in Pagla Kahin Ka in 1971, every memorable song that Shammi sang on screen was ghost-voiced by Rafi.

“He was my voice, just as Mukesh was my brother Raj Kapoor’s voice. But my brother sang in other voices too. I couldn’t dream of any other singer. Rafi could capture my wildness, my unpredictable dance moves in his voice. It was as if he could penetrate my body and soul,” Shammi once said.

Shammi was right. A lot of his stardom was attributable to Rafi’s singing. ‘Dil Deke Dekho’ (title song), ‘Baar Baar Dekho’ in Chinatown, ‘Govinda Aala Re’ (Bluff Master, the film also had a rare non-Rafi hit for Shammi in the form of ‘Socha Tha Pyar Hum Na Karenge’ by Mukesh), ‘Yeh Chand Sa Roshan Chehra’ in Kashmir Ki Kali, ‘Chahe Koi Mujhe Junglee Kahe’ in Junglee, ‘Tumse Achcha Kaun Hai’ (title song), ‘Badan Pe Sitare Lapete Hue’ in Prince, ‘Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyar Ke Charche’ in Bramhachari… these were the songs that defined and qualified Shammi Kapoor’s swag and stardom.

Shammi made it a point to be present for all the song recordings. But once, just once, he was out of the country. The song was ‘Aasman Se Aaya Farishta’ in Shakti Samanta’s An Evening In Paris. When Shammi returned to India and heard that the song was recorded in his absence, he had a huge showdown with Shakti Samanta and composer Jaikishan. They insisted he listen to the song. When Shammi heard what Rafi had done in ‘Aasman Se Aaya Farishta’, he was speechless. Shammi had said, “Rafi had sung exactly the way I was going to enact the song on screen. How did he do it?”

Playback singers and Indian leading men have shared a terrific association over many generations. For instance, Rajesh Khanna and Kishore Kumar. But then Khanna also had Rafi singing hits for him in Mehboob Ki Mehndi, Do Raaste and The Train.

Shammi stuck to Rafi’s voice right till Rafi’s sudden untimely death. Shammi was on the way to a pilgrimage spot with his wife Neela Devi when he was informed of Rafi’s passing away. “It was like my voice was gone. I could never be the same Shammi Kapoor again,” Shammi mourned till he lived.

The last great song that Rafi sang for Shammi (in the film Pagla Kahin Ka) was prophetically worded: ‘Tum mujhe yun bhula na paoge/ Jab kabhi bhi sunoge geet mere/ Sang sang tum bhi gungunaoge’.