For the love of music
RANA SIDDIQUI
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Veteran composer Khayyam on his entry into Hindi film music, his heyday and future plans.
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“Only after I told them I wanted to take acting and music for a living they raised a furore.”
Photo: Vivek Bendre
Still going strong: Khayyam.
Agar tu ittefaqan mil bhi jaye, Teri furkat ke charche kum na honge (Even if I meet you after ages someday, it won’t lessen my grief of not seeing you all these years).
This seems to fit the veteran music director Khayyam just right, as one sees him composing music after a huge gap of 24 years. His last film as a full-fledged composer was “Razia Sultan” directed by his close friend Kamaal Amrohi and rele
ased in 1983. Though Goutam Ghose’s “Yatra” was supposed to be his comeback film, it got embroiled in unsavoury controversy, helping nobody.
Just recently, he scored music for “Zah-e-Naseeb”, a ghazal album by Anita Singhvi (Big Music). He has also composed music for seven songs in “Bikhri Aas Nikhri Preet”, the ongoing prime time serial on DD1 written by Lekh Tandon.
The legendary composer, who dominated the Hindi film scenario with fabulous scores in “Heer Ranjha”, “Footpath”, “Mohabbat Isko Kehte Hain”, “Lala Rukh”, “Shagun”, “Shola Aur Shabnam”, “Aakhri Khat” and “Phir Subah Hogi”, actually wanted to become an actor. But as he learnt music, the desire to act took a backseat.
On Kabhi Kabhie
Khayyam was in and out of film music during the late 1960s and early 1970s. His close friend, B.R. Chopra, gave him a new life by offering “Kabhi Kabhie” in 1976. He recalls, “The song Main pal do pal ka shayar hoon was from Sahir Ludhianvi’s book of poems. Yash (Chopra, director of “Kabhi Kabhie”) is a great admirer of Sahir. He wanted to include this song in the film. so he requested me to persuade Sahir, as we were good friends. Sahir said to me, ‘Aap itna kahte hain to de deta hoon’. I suggested that Yash begin the film with that song and he agreed. From then, Sahir started calling me veer (elder brother in Punjabi).
Born in a “highly academic atmosphere” as Mohammad Zahoor Khayyam Hashmi in a Punjab village at Nawanshahar district, Khayyam had four brothers and a sister. “My eldest brother Ameen manages family’s transport business; the second Mushtaq retired as the general manager from PIA; the third Gulzar Hashmi was a well known poet but he died young. And the fourth one is me, who ran away from home for the love of music after passing fifth class. Each one was able to write a poem and had good ear for music,” he recounts. So when the veteran started learning music in his school days, there was no opposition at home. “Only after I told them I wanted to take acting and music for a living they raised a furore.”
His maternal uncles fuelled his passion. He reached Mumbai where his uncle introduced him to Baba Chishti, a classical music exponent. “Baba was very nice to me. He told me that he was ready to take me under his tutelage but he wouldn’t pay me anything during the training period’ instead he would take care of my food, lodging and clothing. I agreed.”
Khayyam didn’t exactly need money for himself. But when he ate out with friends, they would pay for him too. “I felt ashamed. So I decided to go to my elder brother for money. I went straight to Mushtaq Bhai. It was midnight. He asked me, ‘So, what are you doing in Mumbai?’ I said, ‘Chishti Baba has kept me under his tutelage’. Quite pleased, he queried, ‘How much is he paying you?’ I said, ‘nothing. That’s why I have come to you for some money. I feel ashamed when my friends pay for me each time.’ Before, I could complete my sentence, bhai saab showered slaps on me and said, ‘this is what you have become? A servant with no money? What will you do in life? You are not even educated…”
In the army
This incident left a deep scar. He decided “never to ask for money from anyone”. He started to look for a job and laid his hands on an advertisement from the Indian Army offering good money to youngsters in lieu of employment after training. “I had no option but to take it. I joined the army as a sipahi. I stayed for nearly two years and after saving enough money, I went back to Mumbai again."
The veteran completed the music for “Main Phir Aaoonga” a year ago. Based on a novel by Dr. Krishnakant Pandya, it has five songs sung by Alka Yagnik, Sunidhi Chauhan and Kavita Krishnamoorthy. “The film that is closest to my heart is ‘1918; A Love Story’ with a new star cast. Based on Munshi Premchand’s ‘Bazaar-e-Husn’, it’s about the daughter of a daroga who pushed by circumstances, turns into a nautch girl. Is film ka sangeet banakar maine Premchand ji ka karz chukaya hai,” he says.
I have several tunes with me even today. Not all music scored today is bad. I like Ismail Darbar, though he made humiliating remarks about my judgement in a reality show, but I have forgiven him. But I am upset about today’s remixes. What they are doing is shor-e-badtameezi and they call it music! If you oppose it, they say, ‘we are reviving old music’. This is wrong. We don’t need revival because we are not dead.”
Khayyam, who married yesteryear singer Jagjit Kaur (remember Tum apna ranjh-o- gham?), “may come out with an album with her very soon.”
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