Born in 1927 as Mohammed Zahoor Khaiyyaam Hashmi in a sleepy town Raahon in Punjab, music maestro Khaiyyaam has been a sentimental favourite to many generations of music lovers. The hallmark of Khaiyyaam’s music has been the manner in which he adorned adabi shairi, with minimal orchestrization and a lot of sukoon & thehraav in the compositions.
His musical journey can be classified in three phases- 1946-1975, 1975-1982 and Post 1982. 1946-1975
Khaiyyaam came to Bombay in 1946 and started his musical struggle with a few fringe assignments as assistants to leading composers like Bulo C Rani & Husnlal-Bhagatram. His first major break came in 1953 in Dilip Kumar-Meena Kumari starrer Footpath (1953) whose song Shaam-e-gham ki kasam (Lyrics:Majrooh Sultanpuri & Ali Sardar Jafri) is still an immensely popular number among lovers of old songs. Though the success of Footpath did not result in very many offers, Khaiyyaam did not lose heart and focused on reading Urdu poetry and composing non-filmi ghazals for C.H. Atma.
Films trickled and Lalarukh happened in 1955. My favourite from this movie is Hai kali kali ke lab par, tere husn ka fasaana, mere gusitaan ka sab kuchh, tera sirf muskuraana.
The next biggie was Phir Subah Hogi, based on Dostoevesky’s Crime & Punishment. Who can forget the optimistic Woh subah kabhi to aayegi, the romantic Phir na keejay meri gustaakh nigahi ka gila, the sarcastic Cheen-o-arab hamaara & Aasmaan pe hai khuda and the playful Jo bore kare yaar ko us yaar se tauba.
Khaiyyaam’s brand of music bloomed in Shola aur Shabnam (1962) with Jeet hi leinge baazi hum tum, khel adhoora choote na. Another landmark number from the movie is Jaane kya dhoondti rehti hain yeh aankhein mujh mein, raakh ke dher mein, shola hai na chingaari hai.
Shagun, featuring Waheeda Rehman and her future husband Kamaljeet, saw one of the best piano songs of all times, Tum Apna Ranj-o-gham, apni pareshaani mujhe de do, rendered with a personal touch by Jagjeet Kaur, Khaiyyaam’s better half. The song Parbaton Ke Pedon par Shaam Ka Basera hai also stood out for its laid-back, romantic feel.
Mohabbat Isko kehta hain had the romantic Thehriye hosh mein aa loon, to chale jaiyega (Mohd Rafi-Suman Kalyanpur), a truly unique composition.
Chetan Anand’s Aakhri Khat happened next with three absolutely out-of-this-world numbers- Bahaaro, mera jeewan bhi sanwaaro and Mere chanda, mere nanhe, not to forget Aur kuchh der thehar, aur kuchh der na jaa.
Then came a phase when Khaiyyaam’s works virtually disappeared from Bollywood.The beneficiaries were punjabi films and non-filmi ghazals. It was during this phase that he composed prolifically for Begham Akhtar’s albums. Works of Mirza Ghalib and Sudarshan Faakir provided the lyrical inputs.
Meena Kumari, the great actress of yesteryears, was quite a poetess herself and rendered her works in the album I write, I recite which were composed by Khaiyyaam.
1975-1982
The period 1975-1982 marked the most momentous phase in Khaiyyaam’s career.
Kabhi Kabhie (1975) saw Khaiyyaam’s rise as he churned one of the most celebrated filmi scores of all times. Each number (penned by Sahir Ludhainvi) is worth its weight in gold- Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayal aata hai’ Mere ghar aayee ek nanhi paree, Main pal-do-pal ka shayar hoon, Pyaar kar liyato kya and my personal favourite Main hare ek pal ka shayar hoon.
Trishul (1979) had Mohabbat bade kaam ki cheez hai as its most popular song, though I am more fond of Tu mere saath rahega munne.
Noorie (1979) saw Aa ja re O mere dilbar aaja and Chori chori koi aaye, both numbers have a feel of a jharna flowing close by.
Lovers of romantic songs can simply not ignore the magic in Shankar-Hussain- Aap yoon faaslon se guzarte rahe and Kahin ek masoom, nazuk si ladki. And who can forget Lata’s immortal Ae dil-e-nadaan from Razia Sultan. Other songs included Jalta hai bada and Choom kar raat jo sulayegi to neend aayegi. A former presenter at Vividh Bharti- Kabban Mirza- was launched as new singer with Tera hijr mera naseeb hai and Khuda Khair kare.
Khaiyyaam scored for Ahista Ahista and Nida Fazli’s song Kabhi kisi ko muqammal jahan nahin milta, kahin zameen to kahin aasmaan nahin milta was the fantastic result.
My all time favourite Khaiyyaam number is from a less heralded film Chambal ki kasam (1979). The song is Simti hui yeh ghadiyaan, phir se na bikhar jaayein, is raat mein jee lein hum, is raat mein mar jayein.
Thodi si bewafai (1980) saw Khaiyyaam & Gulzar giving numbers like Hazaar raahein mudh ke dekh and Aankhon mein humne aapke sapne sajai hain.
Umrao Jaan (1981) remains, without doubt, the brightest jewel in Khaiyaam’s crown. The troika of Shaharyaar (lyricist), Asha Bhosle (singer) and Khaiyyaam gave absolutely out-of-this world songs. Immortal gems like In aankhon ki masti ke, Yeh kya jagah hai dosto and Dil cheez kya hai aap meri jaan leejiye resulted in National award to all three. It also had Talat Aziz’s launchpad Zindagi jab bhi teri bazm mein laati hai humein.
Bazaar (1982) had masterly compositions on adabi shairi revealing his class. Dikhai diye yoon (Mir Taqi Mir), Dekh lo aaj humko jee bharke (Mirza Shauq), Phir chhidi raat, baat phoolon ki (Makhdoom Mohiuddin) and Karoge yaad to har baat yaad aayegi (Bashar Nawaz) were the result.
Post 1982 works
Khaiyyaam accepted very few assignments in this phase, but whatever he did bore his trademark stamp of quality.
He joined hands with yricist Naqsh Lyallpuri for Dil-e-nadaan and Dard. Former had Chandni raat mein ek baar tujhe dekha hai, latter had Pyaar ka dard hai and Punjabi wedding song Mehfil taan sajdi je nachhe kudi di maa.
Anjuman (1986) is surprisingly one of his most unsung works, though it was full of novelty and class. It had Shabana Azmi do her playback with Aisa nahin ke isko nahi jaante ho tum and Ghulab jism ka yoon hi nahin khila hoga. Khaiyaam too sang Faiz’s Kab yaad mein tera saath nahin (duet with Jagjeet Kaur).
He seemingly bowed out with Parbat ke us paar (1988) and Jawani Zindabad (1990), only to make a late come-back in 2006 with Yatra. Khaiyyaam has scored for TV serials Dard, Jai Hanuman and Bikhri aas, nikhri preet. Dard had the popular ghazal Dard bola to sunai dega. He also seen in Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa as a ’Mahaguru’.
Let us wish this living legend the best of health and pray for his long life.