OP Nayyar’s film music mirrored his personality

NEW DELHI: Like the trademark perfectly-pressed shirts he wore, his music was distinctive, every note carrying his signature. A brief swagger of the accordion, a delicate flourish of the piano or just one of those easy foot-tapping rhythms — any lover of vintage

Hindi film music

can identify an

OP Nayyar

tune as easily as an art aficionado would recognise an MF Husain painting. And those who worked with the master composer, whose 10th death anniversary falls on Saturday, say the man and his music was a mirror image of each other.

“Jo shokhi (playfulness), tevar (attitude) aur bankpan (style) unke mijaz (temperament) mein tha, wohi hamein unke sangeet (music) mein milta hai,” says lyricist Ahmed Wasi, who worked with him in films like Heera Moti, Pran Jaaye Par Vachan Na Jaye and Taxi Driver.

Singer Dilraj Kaur, who sang the hit

Nayyar

composition, Sau saal jiyo tum jaan meri, in Heera Moti agrees. “Nayyar sahib was always impeccably dressed and it reflected in his music. You couldn’t spot a single wrinkle on his shirt. His rhythms were just as crisp. His personality and his music fused into one,” she says.

The composer passed away after a heart attack on January 28, 2007. But his music continues to enthuse the new generation, says RJ Sayema, who anchors the popular Radio Mirchi show, Purani Jeans. “Whenever there is an OP Nayyar special, you can sense a special energy in the show,” she says.

He grabbed Bombay cinema’s attention with his score in Guru Dutt’s Aar Paar (1954). Over the next two decades, he delivered a bunch of chartbusters in Tum Sa Nahin Dekha, Naya Daur, Kashmir Ki Kali, among other films. His composition, Ae dil hai mushkil (film: CID) was radio countdown show

Binaca Geet Mala

’s song No 1 in 1956.

Kaur recalls that Nayyar was paternal towards her and the two shared a perfect singer-composer relationship. “He created two versions of the antra in the song Tum khud ko dekhte ho (film: Heera Moti) and asked me to choose one. When I chose one of them, he asked me to explain why. When I said that this version gives the artist, Reena Roy in this case, a better opportunity to express herself, he was delighted,” she says.

The composer never used the peerless Lata Mangeshkar for his songs. He preferred the voices of Asha Bhonsle, Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum instead. In Nayyar’s films, music was often the real star. And he worked on his own terms.

Wasi narrates an anecdote to illustrate the point. In the 1980s, a well-known producer wanted to work with Nayyar and announced his name in a movie starring Big B. “To finalise the deal, he met the producer at the Taj Hotel in Bombay. When Nayyar sahib quoted his fees, the producer suggested that he should take a cut since he would be giving music for an Amitabh Bachchan movie. Nayyar sahib walked away. He later told me, I have never cared for big stars,” remembered Wasi.

In his late years, Nayyar stayed in touch with only a few friends. Music talent show producer Gajendra Singh and Wasi were two among them, according to his official website.


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