Rafi was notable for his voice and versatility his songs ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs, sad lamentations to highly romantic numbers, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans. Mohammed Rafi was an Indian playback singer and one of the most popular and successful singers of the Hindi film industry. Apart from Indian languages, he also sang songs in many foreign languages including English, Farsi, Arabic, Sinhalese, Creole and Dutch. He sang in many other Indian languages including Konkani, Assamese, Bhojpuri, Odia, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili and Urdu. He sang around 7405 songs in many languages. Rafi is primarily noted for his songs in Hindi, over which he had a strong command. In 1967, he was honoured with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India. He received six Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award. He was known for his ability to mould his voice to the persona of the actor, lip-syncing the song on screen in the movie.
