The Story of the 'Richly Evergreen'......(Part6)
The Becoming Of a Phenomenon
So, what made O P Nayyar a phenomenon within the film industry? Well, first of all, one could hardly argue to the fact that he was a natural musical talent. Having heard Nayyar-sahab sing “Dil ki Awaaz bhi sun” in a TV program, one could easily clear any doubt about it! One can just imagine how accurately he would have presented his songs to his singers! He was extremely hard-working who used to work on his orchestration tirelessly to get it picture-perfect before finalizing a song. He was very hard task-master and a perfectionist to the core. All notes, all bits of the melody and all throw of words on the beats had to be to the point before approving a song. He did not think much about stars and big banners - he worked tirelessly for attaining quality in any project that he undertook. We call it yardstick or benchmark, he was able to move the target a bit further with each work. Apart from all these aspects, we must also mention the fact that O P never compromised on his style and elegance. People changed, their tastes changed and to rule the charts for a span of 15-20 years is no easy task, but he did that successfully. He is one of those music-makers whose tunes have his signature all over it. Long after he became inactive, in the mid nineties, there came a film called “Andaz Apna Apna” and song in that movie “Elo elo, elo ji sanam hum…” sounded similar to tunes of the great O P Nayyar.
The Gradual Fading Away : Getting Closer to Close!
The late 60’s and early 70’s saw the fading away of O P Nayyar. Several reasons have been put forward by film historians and researchers on this subject. One of them being that his style of music started to become obsolete like what happened to Naushad. The hip hop generation started listening to R D Burman and fell in love with Rajesh Khanna. They did not quite like the rhythmic, horse-shoe tapped numbers from O P anymore. It is however very hard to buy this argument though. A personal view is that – the producers and the filmmakers ran out of ideas of how to use him to the best possible way. This is simply because here was one musician who was never tied to a certain genre of films, never banking upon the shoulders of a certain kind of star-power. Rather, here was someone who is deeply rooted to his own and unique style of music. So, in the end, it was simply a matter of disgrace that people thought that the style of film-making had changed or the style of actors had changed and therefore O P had no place anymore. Nayyar –sahab had one major setback and that was his dissociation with Asha Bhonsle. The magic was lost, however hard he tried with other female singers. The reason for this creative breakup is not the subject of my writing and especially since both have maintained such a dignified silence on this matter. Years and years later, Nayyar-sahab once again composed music for a film called “Nischay”. Although the movie did not do well commercially, the songs were exquisite to say the least. Just listen to “Kisi haseen yaar ki talash hai” by Amit Kumar and Kavita Krishnamoorthy and you will realize how disgraceful it was to miss this class composer for so long.
However, it did prove a point that you need the movie to have some substance at least in order for it to be worthy. A composer cannot be labeled outdated simply because the audience’s choice has changed. Nayyar-sahab himself said in an interview that he was disillusioned with the movie industry. However, very gracefully, he said that producers who sign trendy music directors are no fools in the end. Since they are spending so much of money in the production, naturally, they would want more returns out of it. By saying this he appreciated the likes of Guru Dutt who had once offered him Aar Paar. A movie which in its own right was indeed trendy or trend-setting. However, one is very much doubtful if the great Guru Dutt had only business views in mind and not the artistic senses!
[To Be Continued...]
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