Mumbai: The government may not have given him the Bharat Ratna. But Mohammed Rafi, whose 100th birth anniversary is being celebrated by millions of his fans nay devotees all over the world today, was a Bharat ratna in the real sense. He was a playback singer nonpareil who strode the world of Hindi film music like a true colussus for three decades.

The range of songs he delivered was simply amazing. From the serious "Suhani raat dhal chuki" (Dulari), to the ever romantic duet "Deewana hua badal" (Kashmir ki Kali), to the devotional "Aana hai to aa raah mein" (Naya Daur), to the classical "Madhuban mein radhika", to the melancholic "Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye" (Pyasa), to the lively qawwali "Na toh karwan ki talash" (Barsaat ki Raat), to the cloying "Phir miloge kabhi" (Yeh raat phir na ayegi) or the pleasantly insistent "Abhi na jao chhodkar" (Hum Dono) he had sung them all. There is no emotion that he has not introduced into his songs.

He was the master of "harkats" (short embellishments) which vastly added to the beauty of his songs. In fact, you might have heard one of his songs a thousand times and still missed the little "harkat" he had embedded in the lyrics. So subtle were his "harkats," which enhanced listening pleasure, that even trained singers find it impossible to replicate them.

His USP was that he could modulate his voice to suit the actor on whom the song was to be picturised. If it was Dilip Kumar singing "Aaj ki raat" (Ram aur Shyam), Shammi Kapoor belting out "Yahoo... chahe mujhe koi junglee kahe" (Junglee), or Bharat Bhushan chanting "Man tarpat Hari darshan ko aaj" (Baiju Bawra), or Rajendra Kumar serenading "Kal raat zindagi se mulaquat" (Palki) or Shashi Kapoor wooing with "Kabhi raat din hum door" (Aamne Saamne), or Johny Walker offering maalish with "Sar jo tera chakraye" (Pyasa), or Dev Anand reminiscing in "Kahin bekhayal hokar" (Teen Deviyan) you could notice the genius of Rafi who was head and shoulders above his contemporary male singers including Mukesh, Manna Dey, Talat Mehmood.

Naushad said so very truly that Rafi was "God's gift to music." Lata Mangeshkar, who is known to be a perfectionist, stated with candour that Rafi was the best singer ever. Rafi and Lata had differences over the issue of music royalties. But that never stopped them from collaborating.

O.P. Nayyar was perhaps the only composer who stopped using Rafi's voice. A stickler for time, Nayyar was upset when Rafi not only turned up late for the recording of a song, but explained that it was because he was busy recording for Shankar-Jaikishan in another studio. Many years later Nayyar told this correspondent "I regret my decision to stop Rafi from singing for me. He was a gem in the real sense."

Shakti Samanta's "Aradhana" with S.D. Burman's music marked the return of Kishore Kumar. The maverick singer's re-emergence as the voice of superstar Rajesh Khanna marked the decline of Rafi in Bollywood.

Rafi, who was a teetotaller, was not only known for his musical prowess, but for his qualities as a human. He was humble to a fault and was forever ready to help struggling musicians. Noted authority on Hindi film music, Manohar Iyer said he was "Mohabbat Rafi" because everybody loved him. "In the past 45 years, I have not come across a single person who was anything bad to say about Rafi sahab."