Sanjeev Rambhadran's first claim to fame was when he became the winner of the famous Saregama competition on Zee TV in the mid-90s. The program then was hosted by a young Sonu Nigam and the judge for the finals was none other than the doyen of Hindi film music- Anil Biswas.

Born and brought up in the US, Sanjee is now an acclaimed and much sought-after singer in the US program circuit. He is also a multi-instrumentalist. In this special series to commemorate Mohammed Rafi's 40th death anniversary, Sanjeev brings out various facets of Rafi's gaayaki through his songs with 40 different music directors. He also brilliantly pens his thoughts on these musical gems. Here is the fifth one from the series.Over to Sanjeev Rambhadran for a musical treat!

DAY 7: Composer Chitragupt was a prolific presence in Hindi Films whose work touched a wide range of films ranging from the devotional/mythological to the more formulaic romantic action drama variety. Despite seldom getting signed for “big-banner” films, he composed successfully in pretty much very established style (and with pretty much every singer) featured by his contemporaries with classical, folk, and modern influences as appropriate. While some music-lovers have been befuddled and even vexed by the alleged lack of a specific “signature” in his music, I have somehow never been bothered by it. He left us with a long list of endearing melodies that became popular even despite the films themselves often being consigned to relative obscurity.