Mohammed Rafi

1924–1980

Mohammed Rafi recorded somewhere over five thousand songs and could sing in almost any register a composer asked for - which is why he is the voice of Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Dharmendra and Johnny Walker at the same time, sounding like a different person for each.

He dominated Hindi playback from the early 1950s until Kishore Kumar's resurgence in 1969, and was working again at the top when he died suddenly in 1980. *Parda Hai Parda*, from Amar Akbar Anthony, is one of the last great ones.