How O.P. Nayyar called the tune

Remembering the composer who mentored some legendary playback singers

O.P. Nayyar passed away 15 years ago on January 28, 2022. The composer set and lived by his own rules. Though not formally trained, his music had great depth and variety. He preferred to work with only his three favourite singers, or three others who were second in line.

Geeta Dutt was associated with Nayyar right from his debut film Aasmaan (1952), followed by Baaz (1953), but the team really struck gold with Aar Paar’s (1954) superhits like ‘Yeh lo main haari piya’, ‘Ja ja ja ja bewafa’ and ‘Babuji dheere chalna’ and the Rafi-Geeta duet ‘Sun sun sun sun zaalima’.

Nayyar admitted that Geeta was responsible for this major breakthrough, followed by Mr & Mrs 55 (1955), which had Rafi-Geeta hits like ‘Chal diye banda nawaaz’, ‘Udhar tum haseen ho’ and ‘Jaane kahaan mera jigar gaya ji’. The Nayyar-Geeta duo scored 65 songs (37 of them solos) in 22 films, before he moved to Asha Bhosle.