Guest article by Hans Jakhar as a tribute to N Datta (12 December 1927 – 30 December 1987) on his 93rd birth anniversary with his songs for Rafi
(You can’t get a more passionate fan of Asha Bhosle than Hans Jakhar, and she was the principle female playback singer for Ravi. Therefore, he was the most natural choice to write on her best songs for Ravi in the series of tributes on him last year. The discussions on that post led to N Datta for whom Asha Bhosle was even a more predominant singer. Hans again became the natural choice for writing on her anniversary this year with her best songs composed by N Datta.
A most welcome bonus was that he offered to write on N Datta’s songs for Rafi. This was the classic case of one thing leading to another, but he became terribly busy with his personal affairs. It was very kind of him to, nevertheless, squeeze time for this post, though we have overshot N Datta’s 93rd birth anniversary by a day.
Readers are aware that Hans never does anything half-heartedly. This post too bears his exhaustive research, and you get not only an excellent selection of songs, but also an overall perspective on N Datta’s rise and fall, and despite that, his great talent in composing some everlasting songs.
Let us pay a tribute to the unlucky genius N Datta with his songs for another genius Rafi, on his 93rd birth anniversary. Thank you Hans for you efforts. – AK)
Last year in the series on Ravi, I wrote on Ravi-Asha Bhole and Ravi-Shakeel Badayuni. In my second post, Mumbaikar8 commented that she would have liked me to write on Ravi-Rafi. By that time both of Ravi-Rafi posts had already been written by AK. I am sure every reader on SOY knows that not only AK’s write-ups and song selection are exemplary, but also the song descriptions. I am sure Mumbaikar8 agrees with me on that and the reason for her wish was due to the fact that she wanted to see a write up from the perspective of a Rafi fan. AK also agrees to the difference of perspectives and because of that he asked me to write on N Datta-Asha Bhosle, though he has already written a number of great posts on her. This time I requested him to allow me to write on N Datta-Rafi to which he kindly agreed.
{ 58 comments }