The book released in Hindi and English late last year, and was launched by Amitabh Bachchan, who recounted an incident in Siliguri in 1977 where the sudden delay of some artistes had put the Shashi Kapoor - the organizer of the show, in a fix and Mohd Rafi obliged by getting off the plane to return do the show for a second day. The book reveals personal facets of Mohd Rafi the person that may not be known to even some diehard fans of his that are brought to life in this book, 'Mohammed Rafi - My Abba - A Memoior', written by his daughter-in-law Yasmin Khalid Rafi, and translated from Hindi by Rupa Srikumar and A.P. But while there is no doubting Mohd Rafi's prowess in playback singing, what has turned his life into the stuff of legends has been his character - a gem of a human being who did not seem to have a crooked bone in his body. Even the legendary Lata Mangeshkar, with whom he sang the most duets, felt threatened by Mohd Rafi's success in the 1960s - this somewhat sordid saga is recounted by Raju Bharatan in his book, 'Lata Mangeshkar: A Biography' - published in 1994. His contemporaries, like Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar, acknowledged the sheer mastery over playback singing that Mohd Rafi had. BalasubramaniamВ in the 1980s, Udit Narayan in the 1990s, Sonu Nigam in the last decade and a half - the list is long. Long review: While Mohd Rafi was successful and recognized, the extent to which he influenced playback singing can be seen in the way almost every male playback singer in the last thirty years has tried to emulate him, with varying degrees of success - Mahendra Kapoor in the 1950 and 60s,В Suresh Wadekar in the 1970s and beyond,В Mohd Aziz, Shabbir Kumar, Anwar, and S.P. A brief index of songs referenced in the book and twelve pages of black-and-white photographs add to the appeal of this short book. This book collects together his daughter-in-law's reminiscences of Mohd Rafi - her idol, her father-in-law, interspersed with her life before and after marriage, in Indore and later in London. That he was also a genuinely good human in an industry known for its cut-throat and back-stabbing competition is what makes him an awe-inspiring legend, even thirty three years after his death. Short review: That Mohd Rafi was a genius at his craft is well-known. Mohammed Rafi My Abba - a Memoir, by Yasmin Khalid Rafi One-line review: a daughter-in-law's honest and loving tribute to a legend.

Muhammad rafi saheb