Khayyam-A Composer who gave many immortal Songs

God has made Khayyam Saheb Special. He has given this Industry many Immortal Songs. He was born on 18th Feb 1927 as Sa'aadat Hussain in undivided Punjab. He made his debut as Sharmaji of the Sharmaji-Varmaji composer duo with the movie Heer Ranjha in 1948. He went solo after his co-composer Rahman Varma went to the newly created Pakistan post-partition. One of his earliest breaks was in the film Biwi in which the song "Akele mein wo ghabrate to Honge" sung by Mohammed Rafi was a huge hit. But he gained greater recognition from the film Phir Subha Hogi starring Raj Kapoor and Mala Sinha, in which songs written by Sahir Ludhyanvi and sung by Mukesh and Asha Bhonsle were set to tune by Khayyam, notable amongst them "Wo Subha Kabhi to Aayegi", "Aasman Pe hai Khauda aur Zameen pe Hum" and "Chin-o-Arab Humara".

The song "Jaane kya dhhonti rehti hein ye aanken mujhmen" sung by Rafi from the film Shola Aur Shabnam established Khayyam's reputation as a great composer. Latter on Songs from the film Shagun which had Khayyam's wife Jagjit Kaur sing "Tum apna ranj-o-gham" and "Tum chali Jaogi". From the film Lala Rukh "Hai Kali Kali ke lab par" sung by Rafi and from Footpath "Shyam-e-Gham ki Kasam" sung by Talat Mehmood. From Mohhabat Isko Kehte Hein "Theheriye hosh mein aa lun to chaley jaiyega" by Rafi and Suman Kalyanpur made him a popular composer.
Khayyam teamed up with Sahir Ludhyanvi once again to work in the Yash Chopra-directed "Kabhi Kabhi". The songs were super hits and showed Khayyam's versatility with huge hits like "Kabhi Kabhi mere dil mein Khayal ata hai" (Sung by Mukesh), "Tere chehre se nazar Nahin hatti" (Kishore & Lata) and "Mein Pal do pal ka Shayar Hun" (Mukesh). 
 Again pairing with Sahir in Trishul he produced great songs like "Mohabbat bare kaam ki cheez hai" and "Janeman tum kamal karti ho" and the light "Gapuchi Gapuchi gam gam". "Hazar rahen" from Thodi si Bewafai and "Aaja re o mere dilbar Aaja" from Noorie and "Dikahyi Diye" from Bazaar are some noticeable songs. Khayyam also created music for the Kamal Amrohi directed "Razia Sultan" and his "Aye dil-e-nadan" sung by Lata capturing the mood beautifully. One of popular song is Cho lene do.

How can we forget him in Muzaffar Ali's Umrao Jaan in 1981. He made Asha Bhonsle sing songs which are indisputably her best. "In Aankhon ki masti ke", "Ye Kya Jagah hai doston" and "Dil Cheez kya hai" are evergreen.

Khayyam also made several non-film albums in various styles – ghazals, bhajans, geet, Shabd – that amounted to over 200 titles. “Some of them were so popular that I was pleasantly surprised to notice that a few music directors had copied parts of their tunes and musical phrases and used them in their film songs,” he said. “They may not give me the credit, but they know that God has made Khayyam special.”

Song of Footpath 1953

Song of Phir Subha Hogi (1958)

Song of Shola Aur Shabnam (1961)

Song of  Shagoon (1964

Song of Aakhri Khat (1966)

Song of Kabhi Kabhie (1976)

Song of Thodi Si Bewafaai (1980)

Song of Umrao Jaan 1981

Song of Umrao Jaan 1981

Song of Bazaar (1982)

Song of Razia Sultan (1983)

The First Generation Composers of Bollywood

The first few songs to hit the nation as a whole may well have been from ACHHUT KANYAA and some contemporary Sagar Movietone productions. The time was 1935-36, and if this is where it started, we might have a candidate here for bringing in the Golden Age.
Hindi Film Music in the 40s was changing, new experiments and modern techniques were tried. In this decade playback singing started. The 1940s were the years of flux. A new order came into existence. More robust Punjabi style of music pushed back the soft Bangla style. Playback singers replaced the genre of singing stars.
The technique of recording song was rudimentary, The studios at that time only had two microphones. It would usually take around four to eight hours to make a song, but the preparations for a few difficult compositions would go on for a month. in spite of that many immortal songs were created by our first generation Composers. In this blog, I take four composers who gave the film songs, still in its infancy, a distinct identity.

Saraswati Devi,(1912 – 1980), was an Indian director of music and score composer who worked in Hindi cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. She was the first female composer, working with Bombay Talkies, and is most noted for her score, Mein Ban ki Chiriyra Banke Bun Bun Bolun Re (Achut Kanya 1936). 
Also in 1936, she gave the music for the film, Janmabhoomi, it was released during the Indian independence movement, and featured one of the first explicit nationalistic songs of Hindi cinema, "Jai Jai Janani Janmabhoomi" written by J. S. Kashyap.  Subsequently, a tune from the chorus of this song was used by the BBC as a signature tune for its Indian News Service.

Song of Jeevan Naiya (1936)

She composed the song Koi Humdum Na Raha originally sung by Ashok Kumar in the film Jeevan Naiya (1936) and later sung by Kishore Kumar in Jhumroo (1961). She was also the original composer of the famous song "Ek Chatur Naar" originally sung by Ashok Kumar in film Jhoola (1941) later sung by Manna Dey and Kishor Kumar in film Padosan.

Pankaj Mullick (10 May 1905 – 19 February 1978), he introduced Rabindra Sangeet to Hindi film industry. He contributed in various capacities to Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Tamil language films for 38 years, starting in 1931. He worked as music director to artists like K.L. Saigal, S.D. Burman, Hemanta Mukherjee, Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle. He acted with famous film actors like K L Saigal, P.C. Barua and Kanan Devi. Along with Nitin Bose and his renowned sound engineer brother Mukul Bose, Mullick introduced playback singing in Indian cinema.
In 1933, he made his debut as an independent music director for a Hindi/Urdu film Yahudi Ka Ladki, a New Theatres costume drama directed by Premankur Atorthi. Pankajbabu was one of the first music-arrangers and orchestra conductors to extensively use western musical forms and instruments like the piano and the accordion in composing music for Indian films. The imaginative use of background music to emphasise the mood, action and tempo of the film scenes is one of Pankaj Mullick’s great contributions to music in Indian cinema.
Pankaj Mullick along with RC Boral  composed music for some of the most memorable films – many of these had Bengali and Hindi/Urdu versions – such as Hem Chandra’s Krorepati/The Millionaire (1936), Nitin Bose’s Didi/President (1937), PC Barua’s Grihadaha/Manzil (1936), Maya (1936), both Hindi & Bengali, 1936 and the classic Devdas (1935) in Hindi which had KL Saigal singing the immortal Balam Aaye Baso Mere Man Mein and Dukh Ke Din Ab Beete Nahin 

Song of Zindagi (1940).

Pankaj Mullick was successful in persuading  Saigal to bring down his high pitch in order to control his nasal twang and the result was evergreen songs like the lullaby So Ja Rajkumari So Ja in PC Barua’s Hindi film, Zindagi (1940).

Anil Biswas (7 July 1914 – 31 May 2003), an Indian film playback singer and music composer from 1935 to 1965, who apart from being one of the pioneers of playback singing, is also credited for the first Indian orchestra of twelve pieces and introducing orchestral music and full-blooded choral effects, into Indian cinema. 
He also worked as a singer, lyricist and composer, with the 'Hindustan Recording Company', where Kundan Lal Saigal and Sachin Dev Burman, before migrating to Bombay themselves.
Mehboob Khan's Jagirdar (1937), a commercially hit, established him as a musical force in the film industry. Soon many more independent assignments came his way, most notably, 300 Days and After, Gramophone Singer, Hum Tum Aur Woh, Ek Hi Raasta, and Mehboob Khan's Watan (1938), Alibaba (1940), the classic, Aurat(1940), Bahen (1941), before working with him again, in Roti (1942), for which he also credited with the story and concept,and which featured many songs by film's actress, Akhtaribai Faizabadi(Begum Akhtar)

Song of Kismet(1943).

A master in western symphonic music was known for the Indian classical or folk elements, especially Baul and Bhatiyali in his music. Out of his over 90 films, most memorable were, Roti (1942), Kismet (1943), Anokha Pyaar (1948), Taraana(1951), Waaris (1954), Pardesi (1957) and Char Dil Char Rahen (1959).

Khemchand Prakash ( 12 December 1907 - 10 August 1949), was assistant to composer Timir Baran in Devdas (1935 film), and he sang a comedy song 'lo kha lo madam khaana'  in Street Singer (1938). He then moved to Mumbai and made his debut as music director in 1939 with Supreme Pictures' films Meri Aankhein and Gazi Salauddin, and was soon signed up by Ranjit Movietone Film Studio.
 His biggest hit with Ranjit Studio was the film Tansen in 1943. Songs like "Diya jalaao jagmag jagmag", "Rumjhum rumjhum chal tihari", "More balpan ke saathi", "Sapt suran teen gram", "Hath sine pe jo rakh do to karara aa jaaye" were big hits.

1948 marked yet another significant film of his career, Bombay Talkies’s Ziddi. He gave the first major break to Kishore Kumar as a singer for the song “Marne ki duaaen kyun maangu”.Ziddi featured a beautiful song of Lata Mangeshkar "Chanda re ja re ja re".

But what followed Ziddi was another hit film Mahal (1949 film). the song “Aayega aane wala”Mahal made Lata Mangeshkar a popular name. 

Song of Mahal 1949

Master Ghulam Haider (1908 – 9 November 1953) was a well-known music composer who worked both in India and later in Pakistan after independence. He changed the face of film songs by combining the popular Raags with the verve and rhythm of Punjabi music, He is also known for giving a break to the well-known playback singer, Lata Mangeshkar.he got his first big breakthrough with D.M. Pancholi's Punjabi film, Gul-E-Bakavali (1939) starring Noor Jehan. This was followed by film Yamla Jat (1940). His first big hit song came with Khazanchi in 1941, which helped cause a revolution in the music industry. The music of the film Khazanchi (1941), in particular, the song Sawan Ke Nazare Hain sung by Shamshad Begum and Ghulam Haider himself caused a revolution in music composing. Other significant films were Khandan in 1942, Humayun (1945) and Majboor (1948 film), Shaheed (1948) and Kaneez (1949 film)are his other big hits.

Song of Khazanchi 1941

S D Burman was the Soul of Navketan Films

Dev Anand in an interview said "Burman Da was not only a composer to me but also a fatherly figure to Navketan. I depended on him for all aspects of the film, not just the music. I would consult him on the script and ask him whether it is okay to make a film on this theme.
When Dev was starting Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Dada was not convinced with the theme on Hippies. It was S D Burman who proposed R D Burman's name for the music of the film.
Dev Anand' liking for Dada started with the film Shikari, he liked its music. This was Dada's first Hindi film, he was the joint composer along with Anil Chand Sengupta. It was his film Vidya in which he gave the music for the first time, after that he decided it will be Dada who would give music for his Banner.

The first film of the banner was Afsar and Dada gave the music for that film. The music of that film was not very popular but Dev Anand retained him for his next film Baazi. The songs of the film became popular, The song"Tadbeer Se Bigdi Hui Taqdeer Bana Le" sung by Geeta Dutt is an immortal song.
Dev Anand had the liking for Bengali Music. In Dada's music, he found a blend of the Rabindra Sangeet and very modern rhythm. His music was very innovative and modern. It was full of hope.
With the success of their second film Baazi (1951), he made it to the top and a long association with Navketan and Dev Anand was on its way. The next film he gave music was Jaal in 1951, a ghazal that was occidentalise into a seductive song. The "Jaal" song "Yeh raat yeh chandni" by Hemant Kumar is an all-time great classic. 
After Taxi driver in 1954 he gave music in all the Navketan films except Hum Dono, it was given by Jaidev who was his assistant and was recommended by himself. This banner is known for great music and modern films. Taxi Driver released in 1954, it gave Dada the first Filmfare Award. Talat Mehmood version of the song- "Jayen To Jayen Kahan" became the most popular song of the year.
 The Dev Anand-S D Burman partnership, under Navketan banner, continued to churn out musical hits like Funtoosh(1956), Kala Pani(1958),Kala Bazar(1960),Bombai Ka Baboo (1960), Tere Ghar Ke Samne (1963), Teen Devian (1965), Guide (1965) and Jewel Thief (1967). Tere Mere Sapne and Prem Pujari (1970)

Song of Afsar 1950

Song of Baazi 1951

Song of Taxi Driver 1954

Song of House No. 44 (1955)

Song of Funtoosh(1956)

Song of Kala Pani 1958

Song of Kala Bazar 1960

Song of Tere Ghar Ke Samne 1963

Song of Guide 1965

Song of Jewel Thief 1967

Song of Prem Pujari 1970

Song of Tere Mere Sapne1971

O P Nayyar-Jaadu Nagagri Se Aaya Yeh Jadugar

O. P. Nayyar (16 January 1926 – 28 January 2007  ) started his career as a movie music composer by composing the background score for the movies, Kaneez (1949) and Aasmaan (1952). He became famous with the music of Aar Paar released in 1954 and CID released in 1956. All the songs of CID were super hit especially "Leke Pehla Pehla Pyar" and "Aye Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena Yahaan"
O P Nayyar was a genius and multitalented. He was not only a great Composer but also singer-songwriter, music producer, and musician. He wrote, "Yeh Desh Hai Veer Jawaanonkaa" (featuring Dilip Kumar and Ajit) for Naya Daur (1957). 
 He won the 1958 Filmfare Award for Best Music Director(for Naya Da ur). Nayyar worked extensively with singers Geeta Dutt, Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi later Mahendra Kapoor gave us many memorable songs.

OP Nayyar was among the Top 5 Composers of the Golden Era. Some of the great films were Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957), Howrah Bridge (1958), Jaali Note (1960), Ek Musafir Ek Hasina (1962), Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (1963), Kashmir Ki Kali (1964), Mere Sanam (1965), Baharen Phir Bhi Aayegi (1966), Kismat (1968) and Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye (1973)
His songs had a unique freshness, a rare robust beat, a flowing style similar to what you feel when you dip your hand in a running stream, blending Punjabi folk music with a rare Western-style orchestration, never heard before or since. His variety of rhythm patterns baffles the film industry, even today.

Song of Aar Paar 1954

Song of Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955)

Song of C I D(1956)

Song of Naya Daur (1957)

Song of Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957)

Song of Howrah Bridge (1958)

Song of Jaali Note (1960)

Song of Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (1963)

Song of Kashmir Ki Kali (1964)

Song of Mere Sanam (1965)

JAIDEV- A composer with the highest noumber of unreleased films.

Jaidev is one of those unlucky composers, who, despite being a Genius and highly talented, did not get his dues in the industry.
He has a long list of Unreleased films, in which he had composed some gems.
The list of such films is as following-
1.Aatish (or Daulat ka nasha featuring Simi and Sohrab modi)
2.Azaadi pachhis baras ki
3.Shaadi kar lo (included songs by Parveen sultana)
4.Ek tha Chander,Ek thi Sudha (starring AB and Jaya)
5 Khunnas
6.Amar Jyoti
7.Footpath
8Annada Didi
9Shagun
10 Chandra Grahan
11Mulaqaat.
Humsafar
Libaas
Rajlakshmi
Vandana
Sameera

Song of the unreleased film Ek tha Chander,Ek thi Sudha

Song of unreleased film Shaadi kar lo

Song of unreleased film Khunnas

Song of unreleased film Amar Jyoti

Song of unreleased film Footpath

Song of unreleased film Chandra Grahan

C Ramchandra - The Composer who Introduced Rock & Roll Music in India.

He was not only a composer but also a singer. He sang some renowned and unforgettable duets with Lata such as Kitna haseen hai mausam in film Azad or Shola Jo bhadke in Albela. Influenced by Benny Goodman, Ramachandra introduced in his compositions the alto sax in combination with guitar and harmonica. 
An outstanding feature of many of these songs is their intense curiosity about western mores and manners; they often employed western musical idioms in exaggerated fashion either for satire or irony. These songs mirrored the curiosity of the educated, urbanized Indian youth.He did numerous experiments in western/Indian and middle-eastern styles. in 'Meri Jaan..Sunday Ke Sunday..' (Shehnai) he introduced the Benny Goodman style of jazz clarinet in combination with an Indian melody.  Other westernized songs e.g. 'Shola Jo Bhadke..' and 'Ye Diwana Ye Parwana..' (Albela) employed cabaret type dance featuring bongo drums, oboes, clarinets, trumpets, saxophones, etc. He sang the title song "Shin Shinaki Boobla Boo" with Lata Mangeshkar, which included rock rhythms. He provided the musical score for the scat song "Ina mina dika" in "Aasha".

C Ramchandra with Lata Mangeshkar

He was born on 12th January 1918 in Puntamba, a small town in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra. He joined the film industry playing the lead role in Y. V. Rao's movie, Naganand. He also had some small roles at Minerva Movietone in the movies Said-e-Havas (1936) and Atma Tarang (1937). He was a good singer, he sang for all the topmost heroes of that time like Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand.
Ramachandra provided harmonium accompaniment for Minerva composers Bindu Khan and Habib Khan. He debuted as music director in Tamil movies with Jayakkodi and Vana Mohini. He received public notice as a good composer in Bhagwan Dada's "Sukhi Jeevan", and established a long association that culminated with the musical box office hit "Albela".
 C. Ramachandra's biggest success as a music composer was the 1953 movie Anarkali starring Beena Roy in the title role and Pradeep Kumar. The songs that he composed for this movie are today legendary. Songs of this movie like "Yeh Zindagi Usiki Hai", "Mujhse Mat Poochh Mere Ishq Main Kya Rakha Hai", He gave the hit music of V Shantaram's Navrang.

C.Ramchandra with Kavi Pradeep &Lata-Mangeshkar

He was the composer of the highly popular patriotic song "Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo", which was sung by Lata Mangeshkar and penned by poet Pradeep,
He died on 5 January 1982 in Mumbai.

Some of his great songs

Song of Shehnai (1947)

Song of Patanga 1949

Song of Nirala 1950

Song of Albela 1951

Song of Anarkali 1953

Song of Azaad 1955

Song of ASHA 1957

Song of Amar Deep1958