OP Nayyar

OP Nayyar unlike OP Nayyar

OP Nayyar December 14, 2017

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar (OP Nayyar lived life king size. Even when he was in financial difficulty in his later years, he was immaculately dressed and had a regal bearing; there was no dent in his famous pride – he refused the Lata Mangeshkar Award for music, which carried a substantial cash award for […]

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Duets of OP Nayyar: Part 2

OP Nayyar December 3, 2017

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar (Of the 223 total duets composed by OP Nayyar, the most conspicuous are male-female duets in which the male voice is Rafi and the female voice, either Geeta Dutt or Shamshad Begum or Asha Bhosle. These are 119 in number, and were the subject matter of Ravindra Kelkar’s last post […]

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Duets of OP Nayyar: Part 1

OP Nayyar November 23, 2017

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar (SoY readers would recall that Ravindra Kelkar has been making valuable contributions on OP Nayyar through his guest articles and, thus, filling up a gap in SoY. He has contributed three articles so far: ‘Three distinct phases of OP Nayyar’; OP Nayyar-Geeta Dutt: A peerless combination’; and OP Nayyar’s influence […]

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OP Nayyar’s influence on other Music Directors

OP Nayyar August 31, 2017

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar (OP Nayyar was a craze for some years from the mid-50s. Every music director was imitating his style, composing OP-type songs from time to time. If you thought it was simply a bandwagon effect, our OP Nayyar-expert Ravindra Kelkar unravels several factors that were at play. Some did it voluntarily, […]

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OP Nayyar-Geeta Dutt: A peerless combination

OP Nayyar-Geeta Dutt July 20, 2017

A tribute to Geeta Dutt on her 45th death anniversary (23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972) by guest author Ravindra Kelkar (A general grievance against SoY is that Geeta Dutt has not been given her due place on the blog. There has been one exclusive post on her best songs by SD Burman which, […]

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The three distinct phases of OP Nayyar’s career

OP Nayyar January 28, 2017

A tribute to OP Nayyar on his 10th death anniversary (16 January 1926 – 28 January 2007) by guest author Ravindra Kelkar (After I had written on OP Nayyar’s best songs for Mahendra Kapoor, Rafi, Shamshad Begum and Asha Bhosle, I had no intention of writing any more on him. But the readers’ clamour for ‘Ye […]

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Best songs of Asha Bhosle by OP Nayyar

OP Nayyar and Asha Bhosle September 8, 2016

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very Happy Birthday on her 83rd birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933) When I wrote on my favourite ‘special’ songs of Asha Bhosle about five years ago, I was somewhat dismissive of her songs by OP Nayyar. At that time I viewed SoY as a स्वान्तः सुखाय self-indulgence. Five years down […]

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Shamshad Begum’s songs by OP Nayyar

OP Nayyar and Shamshad Begum April 14, 2016

A tribute to Shamshad Begum (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) on her 97th birth anniversary When I did two back-to-back posts on Shamshad Begum’s songs by Naushad and C Ramchandra last year there was inevitably a reference to OP Nayyar as he is the third member of the trinity which made the greatest […]

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OP Nayyar’s quintessential Rafi

OP Nayyar and Rafi January 28, 2015

A tribute to OP Nayyar on his 8th death anniversary January 28 (January 16, 1926 – January 28, 2007) [Songs of Yore is now on Facebook.] I read a comment somewhere that OP Nayyar rescued Rafi from the staid classicism of Naushad. I ignore the sarcasm targeted at my favourite Naushad, but it underscores the […]

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Best of Mahendra Kapoor-OP Nayyar

Thumbnail image for Best of Mahendra Kapoor-OP Nayyar January 9, 2011

Mahendra Kapoor was the favourite singer of BR Chopra Films, and Ravi was their favourite composer. BR Films-Ravi-Mahendra Kapoor combination gave a large number of well known songs. After Ravi, the only music director who used Mahendra Kapoor in a significant manner was OP Nayyar, apparently on rebound when he had some rift with Mohammad […]

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