Foot Tapping & Heart Stopping Op, The King of Rhythm Options

[swarapriya]

Foot Tapping & Heart Stopping O.P.

The King of Rhythm

After a great night’s rest, you wake up one fine morning and start sipping a cup of fresh brewed coffee admiring the eastern skies reddened with beautiful sunrise. Then all of a sudden you hear a distant radio playing a familiar tune permeating the tranquility of the quiet morning. Did your heart flutter? Did you miss a beat or two? Then perhaps you were listening to a song carried through the gentle morning breeze composed by the King of Rhythm, O.P. Nayyar Saab. That music, like the beautiful morning you are enjoying, lifts your spirits even further up. For that moment you forget all of the life miseries and transcend in the joy the song provides shelter for. Now, that is the power of moving music!

There is some definite magic in the O.P. style of music. It is as stylish as the man himself. It is as interesting as the genius behind the music. It is as intoxicating as the distinctly sweet voice of Geetaji or beautifully seductive voice of Ashaji or the unique vocals of Shamshadji. The clip-clop sounds with the fusion of folk music and the modern instruments make his music a standout.

OP Saab provided countless number of some of the most memorable and hummable tunes ever. In a span of 42 plus years, he composed music for 54 movies. Except for one or two in the beginning of his career and one or two at the tail end of his career, he delivered one hit after another hit. This was one continuous hit parade ever put on display. Based on the premise to make melodious music, he created new sounds. He experimented by juxtaposing sounds of various instruments in coming up with some of the most melodious and memorable tunes ever composed in Hindi film industry.

OP by his own admission was an illiterate in music. He couldn’t read the music notations or the alphabets of music. Yet this “handicap” must have given him a new perspective of how an everlasting melody should be created. Sometimes literacy can impede in growth by discouraging to try experiments that create strange new sounds. Well aware of his own limitations, OP Saab still created many beautiful new sounds through the tunes.

I have been fond of OP’s music ever since I started losing myself in good music and the rich lyrics the poets seems to generally endow them with. Enthusiastically I have been collecting his albums over the years. Currently I have in my possession 32 CDs. That represents 60% of his films. I also have most of other songs from his other movies obtained from various sources including some from different CDs. In the coming weeks I would like to share with you the music of OP Saab from the CDs I own. The filmography of these CDs is shown in the following table.

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Aug 5 2008, 07:00 PM

[swarapriya]

C.I.D. (1956)

This was the movie in which Guru Dutt, the producer, introduced Waheed Rehman to Hindi audience. She just made a sensational debut in a Telugu movie (“Rojulu Maarayi”) in South, and Guru Dutt immediately signed her for a long term contract to act in his movies. For all practical purposes this was a stunning debut. Waheeda went on to act in many successful movies and reaped many rich laurels on herway to the top.

This was the movie also in which Raj Khosla, who was assisting Guru Dutt, made a second start as a director. He was a close friend of Dev Anand and Guru Dutt. He earlier directed Dev Anand in the movie “Milap” that was a commercial failure. He got a second chance when Guru Dutt offered him to direct “C.I.D.” This time Khosla didn’t waste his opportunity. He made a great movie comparable to any crime noir thrillers of Hollywood ala Bogart. Very stylish and very suspenseful. Also to embellish this was rich music with beautiful song picturizations. Raj Khosla had training as a singer and wanted to be one when he arrived in Bombay. This background and working with Guru Dutt made him realize the importance of songs and their picturizations. The picturization of songs of “C.I.D.” are still talked as much as its music composed by the one and only O.P. Nayyar Saab.

With this movie, Guru Dutt also was sort of “paying back” his friend Dev Anand. Guru Dutt got a break as a director with Dev’s own movie “Baazi.” For a brief period in mid-50’s, Dev was going through a “lean” period and was looking for a major hit. This movie offered him that chance.

There were only a few songs in this movie, but each one of them is a marvel. The rustic charm of Shamshadji’s voice comes through in her two solos as well as the complex “Leke Pahla Pahla Pyar” song. The seductive mysticism of Geetaji comes throug in both of her duets and especially the song “Jaata Kahan Hai Diwane.” The picturization of “Leke Pahla Pahla Pyar” was just astonishing. Shakila looked very impish and beautiful in the song to Dev’s trademark stroll by the seaside promenade. This song had all of the melodic charm as it was picturized on three different singers.

Then there was Johny Walker who almost stole the show from Dev Saab. His song sung by Rafi Saab, “Yeh Hai Bombai Meri Jaan” with Geetaji is another one of those beauties (horse carriage trots again!) that is still considered a homage to the great city.

Now for details of songs and the songs themselves …