Music composer Ravi, who gave dozens of iconic songs, never learnt music and once worked as an electrician, even spending days in homelessness.
It is one of Hindi films' most cherished and eternal romantic songs, featuring the urbane Guru Dutt and the ethereal Waheeda Rehman, but the dream-like music for ‘Chaudhvin Ka Chand Ho’ was scored by its composer within 10 minutes and its opening lyrics took even lesser time. Music director Ravi, to whom we owe this melody, revealed the tune came to him as he was returning home from work and it took him "just 5 to 7 minutes" to refine it.
It is not bad for a self-taught musician, whose foray into (the then) Bombay had him spend the night at railway station platforms and subsist by repairing household electrical appliances.Ravi Shankar Sharma, or Ravi as he became known in his film career, was interested in music but received no formal training in it and picked up its nuances from hearing his father sing bhajans. He worked as an electrician in the Posts and Telegraph Department in New Delhi from 1945 to 1950 and occasionally sang on AIR, before moving to Bombay in 1950. Waiting for a break, he revealed he used to clean ceiling fans at Rs 2 per piece and repaired the electrical appliances of his creditors.
He did not have to wait long, however, as S.D. Burman selected him for the chorus for a song in Naujawan (1951) and then, Hemant Kumar first used him in the chorus of the iconic ‘Vande Mataram’ in Ananda Math (1952), and then, made him his assistant.
His first independent work was the film Vachan (1955) - where he also wrote lyrics for ‘Chandamama door ke’ and sang a duet with Asha Bhosle. He would go on to give Asha Bhosle a prominent place in playback with songs ranging from the playful ‘C A T cat, cat maane billii’ to the wistfully romantic ‘Jab chali thandi hawa’, to the entrancingly philosophical ‘Aage bhi na jaane tu’.
Ravi also helped Mahendra Kapoor evolve from yet another Mohammed Rafi clone, and set Shammi Kapoor on his rollicking career with songs like ‘Baar baar dekho’ (China Town, 1962).
Some of Ravi's best-known works include ‘Ae meri zohra jabeen’, influenced by an Afghan folk song, ‘Tum agar saath dene ka vada karo’ from Hamraaz, and the Arabian-themed ‘Ghairon pe karam’ in the spy flick Aankhen (1968), and there are many more evergreen songs to his name from his 100-odd films,
He only worked sporadically in the 1970s before making his comeback with Nikaah (1982) and then reinvented himself, as a music composer for Malayalam films, ostensibly at the urging of singer Hariharan. As 'Bombay Ravi', he did some 15-odd films between 1986 and 2005, of which at least 10 were super hits. Ravi spent his last years in peaceful retirement before passing away a few days after turning 86 in 2012.
(IANS)
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 "Ravi with Mohammad Rafi")
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