Staff Reporter –
Lovers of quality and original music will be given an opportunity to get back on time as the melodies of the late maestros O P Nayyar and Madan Mohan are rendered by our own band of singers and instrumentalists later this month.
Swar Sadhana Academy of Music is organising the event called, ‘Sunehri Yaadein,’ on Saturday, May 21, 2016 from 630 pm at Dorothy Winstone Centre, Auckland Girls Grammar School in Central Auckland.
Sandhya Badakere
Academy Director and Principal Sandhya Badakere, who has organised a number of similar events in the past years, is keen to present a programme that would establish yet another milestone in her impressive musical and show business career.
Thirteen singers are currently rehearsing anxious that they should do justice to the renowned composers and earn the appreciation of music lovers in New Zealand.
Among them are Arun Khotkar, Ashish Ramkrishna, Ekta Kumar, Guncha Singh, Joseph Moolam, Kanika Diesh, Mayuri Bhole, Neel Patel, Rachit Bhatia, Ritika Badakere, Sandhya Rao Badakere, Srishaa Iyer and Vibha Trivedi.
O P Nayyar
O P Nayyar (‘Opee’) was born in undivided India (Lahore) on January 16, 1926.
He started his career as a movie music composer by composing the background score for the movies, ‘Kaneez’ (1949) and ‘Aasmaan’ (1952). He started receiving increasing public recognition from his compositions for Guru Dutt’s ‘Aar Paar’ (1954), ‘Mr & Mrs 55’ (1955), ‘CID’ (1956) and ‘Tumsa Nahin Dekha’ (1958).
Opee went on to notch up even higher distinction through his compositions for ‘Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon’ and ‘Mere Sanam.’ The former movie included his enormously popular song, ‘Bandaa Parwar,’ ‘Thaamlo Jigar,’ while the latter included ‘Jaayiye Aap Kahaan Jaayenge’ and ‘Pukaarataa Chalaa Hoon Main.’
His scores for ‘Kashmir Ki Kali,’ gained high popularity.
Opee was known to have a stubborn individuality, and traits of aloofness and imperiousness. However, he was always generous with struggling newcomers and artists who had been marginalized in the movie industry. The press was always deferential to him, and frequently referred to him as a ‘rebel composer.’
He died in Mumbai on January 28, 2007 at the age of 81.
Madan Mohan
Born on June 25, 1924, at Baghdad, where his father Rai Bahadur Chunilal was employed as Accountant General with the Iraqi Police, Madan Mohan spent the first five years of his life in the Middle East.
As a two-year-old boy, Madan Mohan used to spend hours listening to gramophone records and cultivated the uncanny ability to recognise and pick up any record from a pile of hundreds. When his father had guests at home, he would ask Madan to pick a particular record from a pile and he could do so with unerring precision, leaving the visitors wonderstruck as to how a tiny tot, unable to read or write, could accomplish this near impossible feat.
His first recorded film song was ‘Preet Lagaa Ke Maine Ye Phal Paayaa’ in ‘Ankhen’ (1950), sung by Mukesh. Shekhar, his friend from Delhi was the hero. The film was directed by Devendra Goel who, like him, was making his debut.
In his later years, he struggled in life which took its toll.
Madan Mohan passed away following illness, on July 14, 1975.
We will publish more information about the two famous composers in our next issue.
