For years, songs like 'Kabhie Kabhie mere dil mein' and 'Dil cheez kya hai,' have inspired young and old romantics alike. The music composer who gave life and music to these expressive lyrics is the genius named Khayyam. Khayyam is known in the Hindi film industry to have been very 'choosy' and a 'perfectionist.' While making music for the film, 'Shola Aur Shabnam,' he brought to life the poetry of Kaifi Azmi by providing music that complimented the lyrics and did not overpower it. The song 'Jaane kya dhoondti rehti hein ye aanken mujhmen' sung by the great singer Mohammad Rafi became very famous but little did people know that Rafi had given 21 takes to perfect the song! The same thing applied to another great singer, Asha Bhosale. Asha had never sung in the ghazal genre and Khayyam made her sing for Muzzafar Ali's iconic film, 'Umrao Jaan.' Apart from providing hit music for films, Khayyam has also provided music for ghazals, devotional songs, sufi songs and bhajans. The most notable amongst this is actress Meena Kumari's poems 'I write, I recite,' for which Khayyam gave music which made the poems come to life of their own.
Contributed by :- Shri. Mitul Kansal , kansalmitul@gmail.com