Khayyam's enduring music

In a career spanning four decades, the music composer Khayyam (1927-2019) carved a unique identity for himself with a repertoire of timeless masterpieces.

Published : Sep 15, 2019 06:00 IST

Khayyam.

Khayyam.

FOR those who grew up in the 1970s or the 1980s, he was all about Kabhi Kabhie and Umrao Jaan . A handful would vouch for Noorie and Raziya Sultan too. But for those who had the privilege of coming into the world a little before India kept its tryst with destiny, the music composer Mohammad Zahoor Khayyam Hashmi was, and will always be, about Footpath , Phir Subah Hogi , Shola aur Shabnam and Shagoon . Each film was a musical masterpiece and spoke of a music director whose work was Indian in soul, woven around the innate sur of the land. Each song, each ghazal and each qawwali he composed music for was replete with pristine poetry. Each film’s music grew with time. It gave Khayyam a unique identity.

In the land of fickle deities that changed every Friday, here was a man whose legion of followers kept growing. Yet, in a career spanning four decades, Khayyam worked in only 50-odd films. A practising Muslim who made music that gave listeners a feeling of spiritual elevation, Khayyam treated each tune like a painter treated his canvas; each hue, each tone had to be perfect. Yet, he never strived for perfection, as he used to say. “Perfect toh sirf khuda ki zaat hai. Hum sab toh sirf behtari ki talash mein hain ,” he would say. (Only God is perfect. We all are merely striving to get better).

His music was consistently better than the films he scored music for. Mohammed Rafi’s “ Jaane kya dhoondti rehti hain ” is still remembered more vividly than the film Shola aur Shabnam . Likewise for Rajesh Khanna’s debut film, Aakhri Khat , directed by Chetan Anand. A song from the film, “ Bahaaro mera jeevan bhi sawaaro ”, is a Lata Mangeshkar classic. Yet hers was but a vocal expression of Khayyam’s genius. Similarly memorable are “ Woh subah kabhi to aayegi ” and “ Cheen aur Arab hamara ” from Phir Subah Hogi . The songs were testimony to Khayyam’s range. His songs were not just about romantic angst; he could handle subaltern and patriotic concerns with equal finesse.

In the first couple of decades after Independence, though, Khayyam’s best score remained that of Footpath (1953) where Talat Mahmood brought all the niceties of his Lucknow days into play in the song “ Sham-e-gham ki qasam ”. The song went on to be many a lover’s favourite for nights of separation and loneliness. If Footpath , and to a lesser extent Shola aur Shabnam , proved Khayyam to be totally different from the likes of S.D. Burman and O.P. Nayyar, the decade of the 1970s proved that he had it in him to take on the next generation. At a time when R.D. Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Kalyanji-Anandji were carving out quite a reputation for themselves as popular music directors, discerning film directors who sought a music score that thrived on Indian instruments turned to Khayyam.

Filmfare award

They were richly rewarded for their faith. The best proof came in Yash Chopra’s Kabhi Kabhie . It was also the time when Mohammed Rafi and then Kishore Kumar ruled the roost. Khayyam needed the support of neither. He delivered a masterpiece with Mukesh singing “ Kabhi kabhie mere dil mein ”. Along with “ Main pal do pal ka shayar hun ”, the song turned many reputations on their head. Penned beautifully by Sahir Ludhianvi, the songs of Kabhi Kabhie became such raging hits that for over a decade after the film released in 1976, no college function was complete without an upcoming talent singing them on stage. Khayyam’s music was no longer for the discerning alone. The masses sang along with zest. More so when he delivered “ Mohabbat bade kaam ki cheez hai ” in Yash Chopra’s next film, Trishul the song that brought together Yesudas, Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar for the first time.

Kabhi Kabhie got Khayyam the Filmfare Award for best music in 1977. Rajesh Khanna gifted him a car for the music of the film. It proved a wise investment, for in the years to come, Khayyam composed music for Rajesh Khanna starrers such as Dard , Thodisi Bewafai and Dil-e-Nadaan , with super-hit songs such as “ Pyar ka dard hai ” and “ Na jaane kya hua ” for Dard , “ Hazaar raaheinmud ke dekhi ” and “ Aankhon mein humne ” in Thodisi Bewafai . Not to forget songs such as “ Chandni raat mein ” and “Dil tera hai ” for Dil-e-Nadaan .

Around the same time came Raziya Sultan , a film remembered for yet another Lata Mangeshkar masterpiece, “ Aye dil-e-nadaan ”. Interestingly, Laxmikant-Pyarelal had been signed for the film initially. But the director Kamal Amrohi, unable to keep pace with the duo’s hectic schedule, signed Khayyam. Incidentally, Khayyam, born in 1927, hailed from undivided Punjab and had, like many others, left his conservative family to try his luck in the film industry in the 1940s. His early lessons in music were under Pandit Husnlal and Pandit Bhagat Ramunder. It was when he assisted Ghulam Ahmed Chishti in Lahore that his dreams took wing. He trained further under Pandit Amarnath in Delhi, and after a stint in the army during the Second World War, went to Bombay (now Mumbai) to try his luck in cinema.

As for Amrohi, he had heard and liked the music score of Shankar Hussain , one of the lesser-known films that he produced in the late 1970s, and signed Khayyam for a much bigger assignment in Raziya Sultan , a film that was aimed at matching the canvas and pathos of Pakeezah . While Amrohi failed to recreate the magic of Pakeezah , Khayyam managed to deliver a score that is remembered nearly 40 years after the film’s release.

For all the nuances of Raziya Sultan, the standout score from Khayyam around this time was, not surprisingly, in Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan, a film that did not set the box office ablaze, yet stays on in viewers’ memory owing to Khayyam’s timeless “In aankhon ki masti ke ” and “ Ye kya jagah hai dosto ” written by the lyricist Shahryaar, sung by Asha Bhonsle, and starring Rekha. Truth to tell, the stories of Rekha, Asha Bhonsle and Shahryaar would be incomplete without Khayyam’s Umrao Jaan.

Khayyam married the singer Jagjit Kaur in 1954. The songs Jagjit Kaur is remembered most for today are those composed by her husband, such as the timeless “ Tum apna ranj-o-gham ” in Shagoon , “ Dekhlo aajhumko jee bharke ” in Bazaar and “ Kahe ko byahi bides ” in Umrao Jaan . Sahir Ludhianvi penned some of his best poetry for Khayyam in Kabhi Kabhie . Naqsh Lyallpuri outdid himself in Dil-e-Nadaan , much like Kaifi Azmi did in Shola aur Shabnam , and Shahryaar in Umrao Jaan . Kabban Mirza was given his passport to fame by Khayyam with two songs of Raziya Sultan , “ Aayi zanjeer ki jhankaar ” and “ Tera hijr mera naseeb hai ”. The poet Nida Fazli gained a toehold in the Hindi film industry with “ Kabhi kisi ko mukammal jahan nahin milta ” set to music by Khayyam in Ahista Ahista .

This writer’s personal Khayyam favourite is the little-known film Shankar Hussain which has gems such as “ Kaheen ek masoom, nazuk si ladki ” and “ Aap yun faaslo se guzarte rahe ”. A non-star film, it marked the beginning of Khayyam’s association with Amrohi, whose son Tajdar produced the film. The success of Shankar Hussain ’s music got Khayyam Amrohi’s next, Raziya Sultan .

Until 1953, Khayyam was known as one half of the Sharmaji-Vermaji music director duo. Zia Sarhadi, along with Majrooh Sultanpuri and Ali Sardar Jafri, persuaded him to use his own name for Sarhadi’s film Footpath. The rest is history. It is a history where awards and laurels such as the Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award, the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award and the Padma Bhushan reside, a history where songs abide.

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