Mumbai, June 20 (IANS) Neither old age nor the vicissitudes of a long singing career have weakened Mahendra Kapoor's zest for music. The singer who gave us the soulful "Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se" way back in 1963 is now ready with a collection of Sufi songs.

Even at 72, the voice that took high pitch singing to unmatched levels still has a lot to offer. The affable veteran singer says that his sufiana album is something he wanted to do after he had his full in other genres of singing.

Dwelling at length on his relationship with the legendary playback singer Mohammed Rafi, Kapoor says: "Rafi saab had made it very clear, much before my career hit a high note, that we should not sing together, mainly because of two reasons. One because we shared a guru-chela relationship and there should be no competition between us and secondly because our voices are very similar."

Kapoor crooned some unforgettable Bollywood chartbusters like "Chalo ek baar phir se" ("Gumraah", 1963), "Aadha hai chandrama" ("Navrang", 1959), "Neele gagan ke tale" ("Humraaz", 1967) and "Laakhon hai yahan dilwale" ("Kismat", 1968).

Even today, he has a music teacher who comes to his Carter Road residence in Bandra in central Mumbai twice a week.

The Amritsar-born singer, who began his career with "Madmast" (1953) is genial enough to sing a couple of lines of that lilting Sahir Ludhianvi gem "Aap Aye to Khayal-e-Dil-e-Nashaad Aaya" without the airs of a veteran for this correspondent.

Excerpts from an exclusive interview with IANS:

How do you feel when you look back at your career'

Satisfied is what I would like to say. I have done what I always wanted to do as a child. I have sung in almost all genres - classical, qawwali, bhajans, romantic etc.