From Scroll:
‘Almost all Hindi film songs have beat patterns which are straight and regular. But OP Nayyar had other ideas.’
Rhythm king
The poor sarangi! Hindi film music had accorded it a rather limiting role – either in the kothas or as mournful accompaniment to melancholic songs. No music director had violated the rule. Till ‘The Disruptor’ came along and changed all rules of Hindi film songs. Not in small measure, but wholesale.
OP Nayyar took the sarangi out of the confines of the kotha and let it soar into the sky; from being an adjunct to a dirge, he transformed it into an upbeat musical instrument. He gave it a feel-good melody, a fast pace. He gave it respect. You could hear it sing joyfully, to be released from typecasting. Hear ‘Yeh Kya Kar Dala Tune’ (Howrah Bridge, 1958), and ‘Aankhon Hi Aankhon Mein Ishara Ho Gaya’ (CID, 1956).
Take the santoor. The beat allotted to it by music composers was gentle. It was elevator music. OP Nayyar used it as a fast-flowing brook – still soft but now more insistent – in the prelude to ‘Jaayiye Aap Kahaan Jaayenge’ (Mere Sanam, 1965). Never was the santoor used like this.
Continued in the link below.
Baradwaj Rangan 
musical v
March 22, 2023
Cant read this article due to paywall issues.
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musical v
March 22, 2023
https://www.readomania.com/blog/the-music-of-op-nayyar
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Madan
March 22, 2023
I am wary about claims of ‘first’ or ‘only’ and surely Dada Burman had an equal hand in promoting Geeta Dutt in the 50s. But such minor quibbles apart, splendid article. Will look for the book. I see he is a Mumbaiite. With great good luck, as Jim Corbett once put it, I hope to connect with him when I am back on annual leave from Africa.
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Madan
March 22, 2023
Wait, he MAY not be a Mumbaiite and these stories were from his Mumbai posting. Oh well!
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brangan
March 22, 2023
Madan: I am wary about claims of ‘first’ or ‘only’…
Haha. You said it. I don’t why people feel the need to say things like “no one else did this” when just the creation of any kind of lasting art is itself proof of genius. You don’t need to compare and downsize other creators — but that happens ALWAYS 😀
That said, OP is one of my favourite composers 🙂
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Madan
March 22, 2023
BR: It’s why I have found all the single composer focused books I have read to be very biased, as in, in an unreasonable way. If you read the RDB bio, Sun Mere Bandhu Re or Naushadnama, then the respective composer is beyond compare vis a vis his peers as per these books.
When I wrote mine, just the act of writing about all of these composers under one roof compelled me to keep such biases in check and focus on each composer’s merits rather than ‘compare in opposition’.
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vijay
March 22, 2023
Not sure if I would call him “rhythm king’..the examples presented are just simple usages of the 7/8 beat which he used in his other hits too like Ishaaron ishaaron mein and so on..and of course the oft repeated tonga beats..but he still had the capability to weave different interesting tunes over these standard rhythm patterns with a high emotional quotient. Jaayiye aap kahaan, Aankhon se Jo uthri etc etc. Asha Bhonsle-OPN combo was quite something. He actually preferred the younger sister to the elder one.Non-conformist and pretty clear about what he wanted. THats the thing about the HFM of the 50s and 60s.. they had a dozen composers doing their own thing and even a guy like OPN could operate only within a limited space.
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Madan
March 22, 2023
On rhythm, Burman Sr (and later Jr) and Salil used to experiment the most. And a lot more than OPN.
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Madan
March 22, 2023
And I do love Woh Haseen Dard, like tons of his other Asha solos. If anything, yes, it was his strong command of infectious melody that made his music wonderful in spite of a standard set of beats as well as standard arrangement patterns.
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brangan
March 23, 2023
Oh yeah. The two Burmans alone have far more rhythm patterns than OP. Like Madan says, I like his melodies like Pukarta chala hoon main — and yes, that tabla groove in Woh haseen dard de do is awesome. And he made a bit of a “genre” of Punjabi folk. I love Kajra mohabbat wala. Man, one good thing about these articles is that they make you want to hit YouTube 🙂
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Madan
March 23, 2023
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Madan
March 23, 2023
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Madan
March 23, 2023
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Madan
March 23, 2023
Last one. The tour de force of the partnership, at least alongside Yeh Reshmi Zulfon Ka:
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Madan
March 23, 2023
This one:
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Anu Warrier
March 24, 2023
OPN is one of my favourite composers for the sheer joy in his compositions. They are my ‘happy songs’. But he’s the first? Wha-at? Or, what Madan said above!
You want experimentation – take a look at Salil, MM, Sajjad!
But the point is, why should he be the ‘first’? Why can’t he just have done it well? So well, in fact, that he made a name for himself in that pantheon of the truly greats.
And what bothers me about all these books is that for the subject of the autobiography to be ‘great’, everyone else has to fall into their shadows. Why? These (mostly all) men co-existed and even helped one another, but to hear it told, one would think – depending on who is doing the telling – that each one was the ‘greatest’ and the ‘first’ to do anything!
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Anu Warrier
March 24, 2023
Oye ve… just read the article linked to in the comments and had to shake my head in disbelief! It was OP who got Geeta out of her melancholic songs? Has Mr Mankotia forgotten Tadbeer se bigdi hui taqdeer bana le composed by a certain gentleman by the name of SD Burman? Or Ae jaan-e-wafa from Anarkali composed by a certain Basant Prakash? Or Baanki adaayein from Amaanat and Din bahar ke hain from Zamana, both scored by Salil? Har ek nazar from Faraar, courtesy Anil Biswas? Mera dil meri jaan from Aab-e-hayaat (Sardar Malik)? Humne seekha pyaar mein from Guest House (Chitragupt)? Ae dil mujhe bata de from Bhai Bhai, composed by Madan Mohan? Dildaar tu hai composed by Khayyam, for Wildcat?
I mean, the OP-Geeta combination gave us some deadly songs (until he became so enamoured of Asha that he completely sidelined both Geeta and Shamshad), and I love each one of them, but to give him credit for Geeta’s ‘playfulness’ is really weird.
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musical v
March 24, 2023
The Music was composed by C Ramchandra [though initially Basant Prakash – brother of famous Music director Khemchand Prakash was entrusted with the Musical score.He had also recorded a song in Geeta Dutt’s voice]. When C Ramchandra took over, he insisted upon the Filmistan people [the producers] that all songs would be sung by Lata Mangeshkar. This was agreed upon, although in the final cut, a song of Geeta Dutt was retained and that is the famous song – “Aa jaane wafa”.
https://blog.hindilyrics4u.com/2013/11/anarkali-1953.html
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musical v
March 24, 2023
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Madan
March 24, 2023
Anu Warrier: In a stark contrast to the approach of Indian authors on great composers, I have read books about Karen Carpenter and Jeff Buckley (one by his one time band leader Gary Lucas and one by his manager) and neither reached to dubiously credit the artist with achievements or firsts while still doing full justice to the uniqueness of their work that made them beloved to their fans. I don’t know why Indian authors have such scant confidence in subjectivity, at least when it comes to music.
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Anu Warrier
March 24, 2023
@musical, I didn’t say that the music of Anarkali was composed by Basant Prakash. I said Ae jaan-e-wafa was. Anyone who follows old Hindi film music knows that this was a C Ramchandra-Lata Mangeshkar tour de force.
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Anu Warrier
March 24, 2023
Madan, that’s true. The most rational person I know becomes all irrational when it comes to discussing his favourite MD/singer/cricketer/idol du jour. The people we idolise are never allowed to be human. It’s a shame.
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musical v
March 24, 2023
I did not know about Basant Prakash until it was mentioned here. Thanks.
I googled and found out about this song and the music director. There was some pressure to remove this song.
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Anu Warrier
March 24, 2023
@musical – Anarkali was a revolving door for music directors. Film lore has it that the producers went to C Ramchandra first on condition that all the songs to be picturized on Bina Rai would be sung by (then) Geeta Roy. CR, who at the time could not think beyond Lata, refused. So the film landed up with Basant Prakash; he composed just this one song before ill-health forced him out.
Then, Hemant Kumar, who was the designated male singer, and a reputed MD, reportedly took over. People assumed that he had composed his own songs, but someone mentioned an interview where he is supposed to have credited C Ramchandra with the entire score. I haven’t seen this interview myself, and I’m very doubtful about its veracity.
In any case, when CR was roped in, he brought in Lata for all the songs. But the makers insisted on retaining Ae jaan-e-wafaa. I don’t think there was any pressure to remove the song per se, though.
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