In January 1958, playback legend Mohammed Rafi flew down to Kochi — then Cochin — to sing at a wedding. The marriage of Abdul Razaq and Rabia Bai, cousins and members of a wealthy Kutchi Memon family, was on January 11.
At a special event the next day, Rafi mesmerised the guests with his soulful voice. He started off with his hits, and then, much to the delight of the newlyweds, sang a song composed specially for them. Sadly, all copies of that recording have since been lost.
Mohammed Rafi Fan Blog, a film by Nihaal Faizal, an artist based in Bengaluru and grandson of Razaq and Rabia, chronicles two intriguing episodes in his family’s history linked to Rafi; the first is the big wedding and the lost recordings of the Urdu song which opened with the line Meri Pyari Rabia Beti. The second is about a blog on the singer started by the couple’s eldest son Mohammed Parvez (brother of Faizal’s father’) which remained hugely popular with Rafi fans until he discontinued it in 2014.
