‘Taarif Karu Kya Uski Jis Ne Tumhein Banaya…’
Though lyricist S.H. Bihar wrote this verse to glorify the beauty of Sharmila Tagore, in the movie KASHMIR KI KALI, yet the verse suits aptly to define its music composer, O.P.Nayyar, acknowledged as ‘Badshah of Rhythm’. He is one of the most underrated music directors but a look at his compositions reveals his mastery over the medium. On his birth anniversary January 16, Glamsham.Com pays him homage and discovers how he was initially discarded as a ‘Plagiarist’ but he proved his worth with his trademark melodies.
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Born as Omkar Prasad Nayyar (O.P. Nayyar) in 1926 in Punjab’s Patiala district, O.P., as he was lovingly called began his musical tryst with All India Radio (AIR), Jalandhar and soon found success in Bollywood as a background music director in the movie – KANEEZ (1949). The same year saw O.P. get two more movies – AASMAAN and CHAM CHAMA CHAM as full-fledged music director. Life suddenly seemed a bed of roses for the young music director. But… alas! Soon everything got shattered as all his three movies bit the dust. And what added salt to injury was the dubious stamp of a ‘Plagiarist’ that he acquired for his foot tapping Punjabi folk rhythmic style which was highly criticized to be ‘lifted’ from the Lahore based music composer, Ghulam Hyder.
Besides this, his next release, BAAZ came in for fresh criticism, this time the allegations being that the tunes have been ‘lifted’ from western source. The callous criticism didn’t dampen his fiery spirit. On the contrary it only worked as a catalyst to fuel his fire, the flames of which ignited the screen with full blaze in his next release – AAR PAAR, its famous song ‘Babuji dheere chalna’ won the third position in the prestigious ‘Binaca Geet Mala’ countdown show which beat even Naushad’s AMAR and Ghulam Mohd.’s MIRZA GHALIB numbers.
A year later O.P.Nayyar once again took the nation on his foot tapping music with C.I.D. Its mega hit – ‘Aye Dil Hain Mushkil Jeena Yahan’ gave the superstar musical duo Shankar-Jaikishan a tough fight as it threw them to the number two position for their CHORI CHORI number and carved the top position for itself in the ‘Binaca Geet Mala’ countdown show. Thus establishing O.P.Nayyar, a music director to reckon!
