Posted on Saturday, July 31, 2010 - 02:46 pm:

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Chiru_fan:

gift from god to music industry!

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Posted on Saturday, July 31, 2010 - 01:27 pm:

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quote:

Twelve noon and Muneer-ud-deen reaches his pan shop, Taj Mahal, near Elite Cinema on SN Banerjee Road. He carries a huge basket, but not of pans; it is brimming with fragrant tube roses and jasmines. A few packets of incense sticks are also tucked in this basket. Wearing a grim expression, he opens the lock to his shop.

Within minutes, the shop looks beautiful. Each of the 18 portraits of playback singer Mohammad Rafi has a garland. Bouquets are placed in every available space of this little shop and incense sticks lighted. Within seconds of decking up the shop, Muneer perches in his corner. Next move: A cassette is shoved into a box-like, ramshackle tape recorder and Rafi�s songs play one after the other, with commentary in the interim by Ameen Sayani (the popular radio jockey of the seventies.). �This is my only way of paying tribute to Rafi Saab,� says the pan shop owner.

It is the death anniversary of Indian cinema�s versatile singer Mohammad Rafi. �Arrey mat poochhiye, is din ke saath kya dard juda hai (Do not ask what pain is associated with this day).� The septuagenarian shop owner urges me to pay attention to Ameen Sayani�s commentary too. As the songs play, his hands sway and head shakes, the feet tap below and Muneer is in another world.

His relationship with Rafi goes decades back. Young and full of dreams, at the age of 22, Muneer-ud-din wanted to make it big in the tinsel town. He started by hanging around Filmistan Studio at Goregaon, moved to RK Studio and then finally to Mohan Studio in Andheri. It was after a lot of struggle that young Muneer found himself a job as a spot boy. As his claim to fame, he belts out names of films like Baiju Bawra, Gharana and Dhool Ka Phool, films wherein most of the songs were sung by Rafi. Fondly remembering the singer whose career spanned over four decades, Muneer shares his experiences.

�Rafi Saab was a quiet person and extremely focused. His work was all that mattered to him, so he would not indulge in frivolous chitchat. One day when I was busy at the sets, he walked up to me and fondly asked, �Beta tum kahan sey Bombay pahunchey (Son, where do you hail from)?�� After that opening line, there was no looking back. Just a few exchanges each time they met would make young Muneer�s day. He has no diary to show, but at his age his mind � like a hard disk � throws up each and every little exchange to any keen listener. But Muneer�s stay in filmdom was curtailed and he had to return to Kolkata after a 14-year struggle in Bombay.

With friends and family telling him that filmi duniya (tinsel town) has no future, Muneer took up his father�s business. His day begins at 12 noon and ends at 11 pm daily. Four sons help him run the show but adorning Rafi�s portraits with incense sticks is a task he does not allocate to others.

Dressed in a spotless white undershirt and blue lungi, Muneer says he has no more fancies to fulfill. �You see, till a certain age you want to impress the world. By the time you reach my age, you want to just be with the Lord.�

As passers-by stop to buy their daily pan and cigarettes or a cold drink, Muneer hands out a Hawai pan to them for free. He even gives them a glass of chilled mineral water. �This is the least I can to do to pay tribute to India�s best singer.�

Hawai pan (named after the lightness of the betel) is Muneer-ud-din�s speciality. It is full of goodies and topped with cherries. These are neatly laid one beside the other on a huge slab of ice. But why treat people on the occasion of a death anniversary? �Why not? After all, Rafi Saab loved this particular pan.� Muneer would carry this preparation for the singer each time he visited Kolkata. Be it at a function at Netaji Indoor Stadium or at Kala Mandir, a packet full of Hawai pan with ice cubes would be handed over to the maestro. For most music lovers, the shop has become a soothing place as old melodious songs play one after the other. �Watch the crowd, no youngsters are interested. Their tastes have changed drastically,� says Muneer.

The poignancy in his tone cannot be missed. �Everything has changed, and so has the taste for music. The youngsters are always in a rush, so it is natural for them to go for a different pace of music too.� His own analysis: �Jitni azadi, utni barbadi (The more freedom they get, the more children get spoilt).�

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Posted on Friday, July 30, 2010 - 09:30 pm:

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Chiru_fan:

I am extremely sorry about it Ishan bhayya

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Posted on Friday, July 30, 2010 - 09:27 pm:

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Ishan:

I think its his Death anniversary not B'day

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