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A close shave with `Rafi'

Similarities between the legendary Mohammed Rafi and the unsung crooner Azad Yusuf Mohammed, from Mattancherry, extend beyond the voice, right into a barbershop! K.Pradeep tells you how

Similarities between the legendary singer Mohammed Rafi and the unsung crooner Azad Yusuf Mohammed extend well beyond the voice. This similitude stretches to their lives too. Listen to Azad singing Rafi Saab's hits and you find the expression in the voice almost the same, the cadences that get you hooked to Rafi hits can be detected here and there when Azad sings. This quality is rare in the umpteen singers who claim to sing like him, all over the country.

Azad runs a modest hairdressing salon in one of the crowded by-lanes of Mattancherry. It gives him his bread and butter and also doubles up as a rehearsal room. A music system that keeps playing Rafi's immortal songs, a couple of pictures of this great singer and brochures of Azad's local programmes glare at you from the glass cupboards. A miniature violin, which is a memento Azad must have received for a stage show, takes pride of place in the shop. Even as he goes about his work, Azad is heard humming softly, following Rafi's voice from the recorder. A few customers wait patiently for their turn, mesmerised by `The Voice.'

"I remember listening to my father, (Yusuf Mohammed) who had his own salon, sing with a whole crowd of customers as his audience. I was never trained to sing but picked up the art of singing from those hours spent in my father's salon," reminisces Azad.

The story is that Mohammed Rafi used to spend many of his childhood days at his brother Mohammed Deen's barbershop in Punjab. It was some of the patrons of the shop that first listened to this golden voice. Young Rafi used to sing the songs of a `fakir' with perfect `sur.' The elders who used to frequent the shop used to ask Rafi to sit in the shop and sing for them. The barbershop was Rafi's first stage, the customers his first audience.

"Almost everyone who frequent my shop don't really mind waiting and listening to Rafi Saab's songs. But I don't usually sing when there is a crowd. They may not appreciate it. Of course, there are a few friends who come here more to listen to me singing and to talk about music than having a haircut. Then, when I'm alone in the shop, I practise," says Azad.

After his schooling, at the Haji Isa Haji Moosa School, Azad slipped into his father's profession.

"I was just average in studies. But I used to take part in every music competition at school. Immediately after Class X I took up this job. In 1977, I migrated to Bahrain and assisted my brother in his salon there. For nearly 23 years I stuck on there."

The Gulf was really where Azad's musical talent blossomed. And very soon this unassuming singer became a hot favourite. He was featured on television and even had a ghazal album recorded there.

But in his homeland, no one knew his calibre. "In the beginning it was singing at very informal get-togethers. We slowly formed a troupe and called it Ragam Orchestra. When it became a serious affair I knew it was necessary that I brush up my pronunciation. Talking to North Indian and Pakistani friends helped a lot. Then when it came to finding the exact meaning of Hindi or Urdu words I used to go to Guruji. Frankly speaking I still do not know his real name, all of us simply called him Guruji. I owe a lot to him."

What makes Azad's singing so special is his accent, diction and pronunciation that matches Rafi's closely. He also manages to get under the skin of Rafi's songs, rendering them with awesome emotions, putting his heart and soul into every note. "By now I know more than 300 of Rafi Saab's songs by heart. But I always rely on my notes when on stage, just to be safe. I must have listened to Rafi Saab's songs I don't know how many times. I live with it. It is always there, in the shop, in my house, inside me."

Most of his relatives and friends back home got a direct feel of the Azad magic at a programme held three years back at the Fort Kochi beach. It was in connection with the Cochin Carnival and there was a huge turnout. Azad sang a few of Rafi's songs and the crowd was stunned. "That was when I realised that I should have been here much earlier. People began to look at me differently after this event. I began getting calls from many music groups. I also began singing Malayalam songs, mostly those of Jesudas. For the first time in my life I began thinking of making a career out of singing."

Recently Azad sang a song in the Malayalam album `Dik Dik' and is now hoping to make a career in this field. "It is not yet very late, I think. My family is almost settled. My elder son, Nishad, works with a cellular service provider and the younger one, Biju, is doing his final year degree. My wife, Zahida, has been a tower of strength right through. I'm now trying to make up for lost time. Inshah Allah, I think I'll be able to do it."

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