OP Nayyar

The three distinct phases of OP Nayyar’s career

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 ‘YeREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Best songs of Asha Bhosle by OP Nayyar

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very Happy Birthday on her 83rd birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933)

OP Nayyar and Asha BhosleWhen 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 the line, I cannot claim that SoY is my blog. The readers have become important stake-holders in the way the blog has developed. Now I have become more aware of different tastes. While I may not have been purged of my biases, I can accept that there could be a large number of persons who are as moved by an Asha Bhosle song as by a Lata Mangeshkar’s. My favourite Asha Bhosle’s songs are predominantly composed by SD Burman, but it is commonly accepted that the most important influence in her career has been OP Nayyar. I have written on OP Nayyar’s songs for Rafi, Mahendra Kapoor and Shamshad Begum. This list cannot be complete unless I write on his songs for Asha Bhosle as my tribute to her on her 83rd birth anniversary. I hope her great fans like Arvinder Sharmaji, Hans, and my friend Arvind who appears to have been off-SoY for a while, would take it as some reparation on my part. I have to also thank our OPN-expert Ravindra Kelkar whose comments have added a great deal of information. I must add here that in that post on Asha Bhosle I did include an OPN composition – Bekasi had se jab guzar jaye from Kalpana (1960).

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Shamshad Begum’s songs by OP Nayyar

A tribute to Shamshad Begum (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) on her 97th birth anniversary

OP Nayyar and Shamshad BegumWhen 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 contribution to her. In fact the discussion on C Ramchandra-Shamshad Begum post was wholly dominated by OP Nayyar. The three-way conversation between Ravindra Kelkar, Hans and Arunji was very enlightening on statistics, some popular anecdotes about them and analysis and inferences. While there was general agreement with my observation that Naushad gave the best songs for her, our OPN-expert Ravindra Kelkar felt that OPN’s best ten would be as good if not better than Naushad’s or CR’s. With so much of OPN readily available with me courtesy these three readers, I felt it necessary to write a post on his best songs for Shamshad Begum to complete the picture. As for the comparison, it goes without saying that it is impossible to rank between three sets of outstanding songs. It is largely a matter of personal preference. But suffice it to say that OPN gave some immortal songs for Shamshad Begum. OPN also has the credit for composing her last memorable song Kajra mohbbatwala, a duet with Asha Bhosle from Kismat (1968) – a song which spawned numerous remix versions, bringing Shamshad Begum again in focus among the music lovers.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

OP Nayyar’s quintessential Rafi

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.]

OP Nayyar with RafiI 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 fact that no one was more antithetical to him than OP Nayyar. Every other great rival of Naushad had one thing common with him: Lata Mangeshkar – she gave voice to their greatest creations. OP Nayyar is the only one who could reach the top in spite of shunning her completely. And for this reason, I was not very fond of his music, until I started noticing his Rafi songs. They are the polar opposite of Naushad, but they are awesome, and we are lucky that OP Nayyar happened, bringing out an entirely different facet of Rafi. Naushad had a solid training in classical music, OP Nayyar had none, his music was instinctive. While Naushad oozed Lakhnavi nafasat, OP Nayyar personified Punjabi brashness – this also reflected in their music.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Best of Mahendra Kapoor-OP Nayyar

clip_image001Mahendra 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 Rafi. Following behind would be Kalyanji Anandji, who used Mahendra Kapoor to some degree following the great success of Mere desh ki dharti on Manoj Kumar in Upkar (1967). His songs with other music directors are few and far between.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE