Khayyam’s songs had more soul than sound

The lyric’s meaning never got lost when Khayyam translated it into music. A tribute to the late composer, who passed away recently

Music composer Khayyam passed away recently

After rehearsing the songs of Phir Subah Hogi , Asha Bhosle told the composer: “Khayyam Saab , aap ki subah ho gayi (Your day has dawned).”

Those words, spoken in 1958 in one of India’s sweetest voices, became prophetic. Khayyam put the days of struggle behind him and went on to establish himself as one of the greatest music directors of Indian cinema. Little may have Asha imagined at the time that Khayyam would also bring her a new dawn, midway through her career, by making her sing the immortal songs of Umrao Jaan , which remains one of the finest albums in Indian music. Very rarely has every song of a film been created with such finesse, such perfection.

Some may prefer

In aankhon ki masti ke.. ., others

Dil cheez kya hai.. , and some others

Yeh kya jagah hai doston... All of them were sung by Asha, who also rendered another gem,

Justuju jiski thi..

Umrao Jaan has also a great song that is not rendered by Asha. Zindagi jab bhi... , sung by Talat Aziz, is one of the loveliest ghazals ever to come out of Bollywood. And it was the first film song for Talat, a golden voice Bollywood failed to make full use of. I had once asked him how he got that break.

“Shortly after I was launched by Jagjit Singh as a ghazal singer, I had performed at a private mehfil in Mumbai and Khayyam was there too,” Talat said. “He offered me that song in Umrao Jaan . If Zindagi jab bhi... has worked, it was primarily because of Khayyam.”

Umrao Jaan is the masterpiece of Khayyam, no doubt. And he had worked hard on it. He felt its music would be compared with that of

Pakeezah , the 1972 film that was made on a similar theme. Khayyam worked meticulously, along with director Muzaffar Ali on each aspect of the music, reading not just Mirza Hadi Ruswa’s novel

Umrao Jaan Ada (the film’s basis), but the history of the 9th century Lucknow as well.

Khayyam with Asha Bhosle

He also imagined how Umrao Jaan, the courtesan, would have sung. So he asked Asha to sing at a note and half lower than usual. She was not keen initially but when she listened to the recording, she knew her fears were misplaced. It is her best work and fetched the first National Award for her. Khayyam too won the National Award.

And that is something you could also say about the kind of music Khayyam came up with early in his career. Listen to the incredibly melodious Shaam-e-gham ki kasam (sung by Talat Mahmood) and the way its background music was arranged. That was from the 1953 film Footpath . And it was the first film composed under his actual name (he was born Mohammed Zahur Khayyam Hashmi). Till then he had been known as Sharmaji and had made his debut, in 1948 with Heer Ranjha , partnering Varmaji.

Khayyam’s ambition, when he left Punjab as a boy, was to become an actor-singer like K.L. Saigal. It was for that purpose that he learnt music. He even sang a fine duet (with Zohrabai Ambalewali), Donon Jahaan teri mohabbat mein ( Romeo & Juliet ), but before long he realised his bigger gift was in creating melodies. And that is what he did in an extraordinary career that spanned over six decades. But, he wasn’t the most prolific of composers though, having worked in less than 60 films.

In cinema, success is determined by how busy you are. By that yardstick, Khayyam may not count among the most successful of composers, like S.D. Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, R.D. Burman or Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Though he consistently came up with stunning melodies in films like Phir Subah Hogi (‘Woh subah kabhi to aayegi...’ and ‘Chin-o-Arab Hamara’), Shagoon (‘Tum apna ranj-o-gham’), Shola Aur Shabnam (‘Jaane kya dhoondti’), Aakhri Khat (‘Baharon mera jeevan’) and Shankar Hussain (‘Kahin ek masoom’ and ‘Aap yoon faslon se’) and Mohabbat Isko Kahte Hain (‘Thehriye hosh mein’), it was only with the 1976 film Kabhi Kabhie (‘Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein’ and ‘Main pal do pal kaa’) that he became a celebrated composer.

His career, in a way, was like that of Madan Mohan, who, too, was a master in composing ghazals. The two geniuses gave outstanding music to films that didn’t have much success at the box office. But Khayyam had no complaint, though. He, however, felt he didn’t get as much credit as he deserved.

There is a roundness to his songs that you won’t always find in film music. He would take extreme care in the background music, always getting it right with the right instrument.

He got the right voice, too. The not-so-busy singers like Bhupinder Singh (‘Karoge Yaad to’ , film Bazaar ), Jagjit Kaur, his wife (‘Dekh lo aaj humko’, Bazaar ) and Kabban Mirza (‘Aayee zanjeer ki’, Razia Sultan ) would certify.

He also gave the more established singers like Lata Mangeshkar (‘Ae dil-e-nadaan’, Razia Sultan ), Kishore Kumar (‘Hazaar rahein’ , Thodi Si Bewafai ), Mukesh (‘Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein’, Kabhi Kabhie ) some of the best songs of their careers. And he got three renowned singers, Lata, Kishore and Yesudas, come together for a song (‘Mohabbat bade kaam ki’ , Trishul ).

Another quality Khayyam had was the understanding of poetry and literature. In fact, he was chosen as the composer of Phir Subah Hogi purely because he had read Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment , the novel it was based on.

Little wonder, the lyric’s meaning never got lost when Khayyam translated it into music. And he was incapable of producing mediocre music. So you don’t have a tough time while making a playlist of Khayyam’s songs. There is very little to weed out. That is the hallmark of a great master.