Wednesday, August 16, 2017

La(ta)nguage didn’t Mat(hu)(te)r for Rafi

Growing up, I believed Ramaiya Vastavaiya was a random phrase.

But that’s not the case. It’s a Telugu phrase meaning, “Ramaiya, will you come?” 

It’s well known that composer Shankar spent his formative years in Hyderabad, where that’s the native tongue.

So when he and Jaikishan were working on what would go on to become possibly the catchiest song on the soundtrack of Shree 420, the retention of the phrase was agreed upon, while Shailendra penned the remainder.

The six-minute, ten-second-long song was sung by Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar and Mukesh, accompanied by a chorus.       

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