O.P. Nayyar, the Emperor of Rhythm: A Connoisseur’s Perspective

Gautam Ganguly

(gautamganguly2012@gmail.com)

The connoisseurs of music across India and even the world have offered heartfelt tribute on January 16 to O.P. Nayyar, the legendary music director, popularly described as the rhythm king, on the occasion of his 98th birth anniversary. January 28, 2024, marks his 17th death anniversary. Despite the passage of time, the popularity of O.P. Nayyar’s lilting, foot-tapping compositions has kept soaring, encompassing the young, vibrant generations with the immortal tunes.

Empirical experiences reveal that the ‘dance-friendly’, rhythmic compositions of O.P. Nayyar suit the tastes of fast-pace-loving present generations. Consequently,’remixed’’ versions of OPN songs outscore his equally illustrious contemporary Bollywood colleagues like Shankar-Jaikishan, S.D. Barman, and others.

Superlative perfection in composing songs based on ‘horse beat rhythm’ is attributed to O.P. Nayyar’s sky-rocketing popularity in overcoming generation gap syndrome by musical experts. ‘CLIP-CLOP, CLIP-CLOP’, the sound created by the hooves of horses galloping, is typical of his characteristic music. To quote famous music critic Bharadwaj Rangan,  ‘GHODA-GAADI BEAT’ defined the music of an era’. OP Nayyar practically held the patent on this rhythm. ‘Maang ke saath tumhara’ (Naya Daur) and ‘Piya piya piya’ (Baap Re Baap),  ‘Zara haule haule chalo’  (Saawan Ki Ghata), Banda parvar, thaam lo jigar (Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon) are some of the outstanding, all-time super hit songs composed on this rhythm. However,   ‘Yun toh humne lakh haseen dekhe hain’ is unanimously rated as the mother of all horsebeat songs with euphoric, spirit-uplifting musical resonance.

The song ‘Deewana hua badal’ remains the milestone, the quintessential romantic song till date in the history of Bollywood, that revolutionised the very concept and texture of Hindi filmy songs. The scintillatingly melodious song is one of the most popular songs, irrespective of age, culture, generation and transcending national boundaries. Composed as early as 1964, this iconic song is one of the top twenty popular songs as per ‘You Tube’ views.

Even neighboring  Pakistan, despite nationalanimosity, takes  pride in describing him as the’son of Lahore’ having been born there in the ear 1926. The rendition of ‘Deewana hua’ by Khalid Baig and Nish Asher, two Pakistani celebrated singers ably supported by breath-taking orchestration, is fantastic and soothing.

Foot-tapping orchestration and superb blending of instruments, especially guitar, saxophone, and accordion, coupled with Indian classical instruments like santoor, sitar, vina, harp, tabla, etc., are the hall marks that resulted in enriching Bollywood film songs with some magnificent opening ‘buzz’ and instrumental preludes. Even a casual listener can never miss the melodious opening buzz in’Pukarta chala hoon mein (Mere Sanam),  ‘Babuji dheere chalna’ (Ar Paar), etc. As soon as the opening buzz is played, people are seen humming these songs.  Similarly, interlude instrumental renditions in ‘Yeh Chand sa Roshan chehera (Kashmir ki Kali),  ‘Mera Naam Chun chun chu’ (Howrah Bridge), etc., are unparalleled, to name a few.

1954 saw the massive success of the film Aar Paar’ starring Guru Dutt. All songs composed with a silken melody, like   ‘Ello main haari’sung by Geeta Dutt, were smashing hits. ‘Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahan’, from the film   ‘CID’ serves to show the versatility of Nayyar that continues to pulverize music lovers even today.

For over a decade, Nayyar remained at the peak of popularity, enabling him to charge Rs 1 lakh for a film! No other composer could charge such a staggering amount in the 1960s! His popularity in those days could be judged by the fact that O.P. Nayyar’s photo and name were used by the producers and distributors to attract cinegoers. Effectively, O.P. Nayyar stood on the same platform as heroes and heroines.

O.P. Nayyar’s had a highly egoistic, stubborn, uncompromising personality with a ‘no nonsense nature’. A casual follower of Bollywood music will be surprised to know that he never used ‘Lata Mangeskar, the ‘Nightingale of India’, to sing his songs even once in his entire illustrious career and still could win the hearts of millions with his melodious compositions.

However, the Indian Nightingale, Lata Mangeshkar, who never worked with him during her career as a playback singer, said that O.P.’s “music always carried its own distinct mark.” ”His work was different from that of his contemporaries.”

One article is too small to highlight the greatness and multidimensional musical brilliance of O.P. Nayyar. I wind up my tribute with the appropriate accolades of Javed Akhtar:’Any lover of vintage Hindi film music can identify a Nayyar tune as easily as any art lover would recognise an MF. Hussain painting.’ O.P. Nayyar ji had infused unprecedented melody into Bollywood music with his foot-tapping composition. These songs are still evergreen.

Time will come and go.

Bollywood songs will come and go.

But our O.P. Nayyar ji will go on forever.