Saira Banu on husband Dilip Kumar’s favorite voice—Mohammed Rafi

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The lady stirs a very interesting brew of memories on her Instagram. Saira Banu, who joined this social medium just six months ago, already has 43,700 followers and keeps unleashing precious memorabilia in text and pictures about her legendary husband, Dilip Kumar, and also his associations with various colleagues

Dilip Kumar had multiple playback voices throughout his career, but his favorite and most popular voice was Mohammed Rafi. On December 24, 1924, Rafi was born and that makes the following year his centenary year.

However, on that day this year, Saira chose to talk about her husband’s fondness for Rafi and posted, along with a throwback picture of Dilip Kumar with Rafi, a tribute to the peerless singer. Stating that the bond between the two was mystic, she recalled that “Dilip Sahib” considering him not just a playback singer but an integral part of his own voice.

“Dilip Sahib held a mystical bond with Rafi Bhai, viewing him not merely as a great playback singer but essentially as a part of his own voice. There are numerous anecdotes about this legendary duo, including their visit to the border to entertain our precious Jawans following the Indo-China war. In the coming days, I look forward to unveiling wholesome anecdotes about Rafi Bhai and the moments he added to both Sahib’s and my life. Remembering Rafi Bhai on his Birth Anniversary!” The anecdote Saira Banu mentions is described in detail in Dilip Kumar’s words in Sujata Dev’s book, Mohammed Rafi—Golden Voice of the Silver Screen.

Saira Banu declared, “Rafi Sahib undeniably stands as one of the greatest playback singers our country has ever seen!” Incidentally, Rafi sang for him also in Kalyanji-Anandji’s films Gopi and Bairaag, two of the four movies in which the couple have co-starred.

It was in 1946 that Mohammed Rafi was given the opportunity to sing for Dilip Kumar under music director Feroz Nizami in Jugnu starring Noorjehan as well. The duet song Yahan badla wafaa ka bewafaai ke siva kya hai was a super-hit. He was also Dilip’s sole voice in his home production, Gunga Jumna, and also sang  multiple hits in films as varied as Aan, Amar Deep, Uran Khatola, Madhumati, Amar, Azaad, Naya Daur, Leader, Kohinoor, Dil Diya Dard Liya, Ram Aur Shyam, Aadmi, Sunghursh and others.

Interestingly, most of their songs were composed by Naushad, another Dilip favorite whose birthday fell on December 25. But his only association with Saira Banu came in the 1960s flop, Saaz Aur Awaz, so it understandable that Saira has not talked about the maestro.

Dilip-Rafi’s last association came 35 years later when Laxmikant-Pyarelal composed Chana jor garam, also a chartbuster, in Kranti, with co-singers Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar and Nitin Mukesh singing for Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha and Manoj Kumar.