OP Nayyar-Geeta Dutt: A peerless combination

A tribute to Geeta Dutt on her 45^th death anniversary (23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972) by guest author Ravindra Kelkar

(A general grievance against SoY is that Geeta Dutt has not been given her due place on the blog. There has been one exclusive post on her best songs by SD Burman which, too, incidentally appeared on her death anniversary, four years ago. My post on SD Burman’s best duets for Rafi, too, contained some songs with her. Her songs have also appeared in some other contexts. However, I am aware this is not commensurate with her appeal among music lovers. I was waiting for a worthier person to do justice to her. My wish was granted when our OP Nayyar-expert, Ravindra Kelkar offered to write a series of articles on OPN. His first article giving an overview of three distinct phases of OPN’s career was highly acclaimed. Continuing his series, he comes up with another outstanding article, on OPN-Geeta Dutt combination, as a tribute to her on her 45^th death anniversary. I am sure this would more than recompense for my omission. Thanks a lot Mr Kelkar. – AK)

OP Nayyar-Geeta Dutt association started right from OP’s first film Aasman in 1952, in which Geeta Dutt sang 4 solos. It ended with Ragini in the year 1958. She sang in 22 of OP’s films for 62 songs, which included 35 solos, 22 male duets, all with Rafi, and 5 female duets, all with Asha Bhosle. During their association in Aasman, she was impressed with OP’s potential and recommended his name to his would-be husband Guru Dutt for his maiden venture Baaz (1953), and as everybody knows it was the success of Guru Dutt’s next film Aar Paar (1954) which launched OP’s career. So, he had a lot to be grateful to Geeta Dutt.

Similar was the case of Shamshad Begum. After the success of Aar Paar, no new film offers came to OP for 22 weeks. Due to this, OP was a worried man and was in great need of money, since he was living in an hotel. Then the first film OP got was Mehbooba, where OP replaced Roshan who had already composed 4 songs. This riled Lata Mangeshkar very much to see her pet MD Roshan being unjustly replaced by OP. Lata, along with Anil Biswas and Naushad went to meet OP and asked him to quit from scoring music for Mehbooba. OP replied, “No problem, I am in great need of money, so pay me the fees which I would receive for Mehbooba and I will quit”. That was that; Lata Mangeshkar, Anil Biswas and Naushad were stunned, they never imagined that a rookie music director like OP would have the courage to defy them. Nobody said anything and left quietly. This story was told by OP in his interview taken by Ameen Sayani. After that, it’s claimed that Lata ingeniously manipulated things to ensure that neither Geeta Dutt nor Asha Bhosle would record any songs of Mehbooba for OP. The only option left for OP was to go to Shamshad Begum and plead for help. Shamshad duly obliged by agreeing to help OP out. In due course of time, of course, Geeta and Asha saw through Lata’s game plan and came around. In my view, this is the main reason as to why OP never ever employed Lata to sing for him. He justifiably felt who was Lata to take such a moral stand, since it was an issue between music directors and had nothing to do with singers? He observed that all the MDs were literally groveling before her, which made him think, is there nobody who has the guts to prove his mettle without using her voice? If there is nobody who has the gumption, why not he himself show to the world that one can have a successful career without using Lata’s voice and that was it!! This was a very brave, bold and courageous as well as a risky decision. He quickly came to the conclusion that only Asha Bhosle had the true potential to match Lata. So, as soon as Naya Daur became a hit, he fully concentrated on grooming Asha Bhosle to her full vocal abilities. Even SD Burman also opted for Asha (using Geeta very sparingly), when he had a misunderstanding (though probably there were some ego issues as well) with Lata. This clearly indicates that SD also considered Asha as the next best option to counter Lata, rather than Geeta. It took SD four years to realize that it was too much of a struggle and took the easier option of reconciling with Lata as soon as an opportunity presented itself.

Now, one also must remember that due to her marriage problems, Geeta had become a bit unreliable, especially from 1959 onwards and, possibly, many MDs faced some issues about her ready availability. Add to this the fact that OP had got emotionally involved with Asha, with the result that all the female songs went to Asha from 1959 onwards. All this explains why Asha has 324 songs, inclusive of 167 solos in 60 films for OP, which is more than three times that of Geeta (62 songs) and Shamshad (39 songs) put together. If one listens carefully to Asha songs for OP up to the year 1958, one can easily list at least 10/20 songs which were ideal for Geeta, but went to Asha, since OP wanted to boost Asha’s level of confidence. Asha had an inferiority complex with both Geeta as well as Lata. Hence, OP first had to work on Asha extensively, to overcome her inferiority complex with Geeta, before grooming her to take on Lata.

OP has admitted many times that he was very unfair to both Geeta and Shamshad in spite of them helping him so much in his struggling years. In fact, Geeta, sometime in 1964, rang up OP and asked him ‘Why are you no longer asking me to sing your songs? What wrong have I done?’ OP was tongue-tied and just could not utter a single word. OP carried this regret forever for the rest of his life.

OP used to call Geeta Dutt a “Black Beauty”. She had dusky complexion and was easily the prettiest of our playback singers. There was a certain charm about her, a sort of a serene personality with a very calm and composed temperament. She had a lilting voice and her throw of words was matchless. This effortless throw of words was God’s gift to her and, in my view, this is where she was beyond the reach of both Lata and Asha. She also had a very sharp brain and picked the tips instantly. She was a picture of confidence in front of mike and her recordings invariably went very smoothly without any glitch. What did OP think of her? He wrote an article in Filmfare titled ‘My Favourite Singers’ sometime in 1956. This is the gist of what he wrote about Geeta Dutt. “Cultured, comely and well-read, Geeta could easily be a leading lady as she is a top playback singer. But she sincerely believes that she has found her niche in the realm of ghost-singing. And who will deny that there is a unique quality in her singing? Give her a blatantly westernized tune this moment and a complex classical composition the next, and she will do equal justice to both with an ease of expression which a singer can only be born with. She is especially very good for songs accompanying boisterous jamborees. With the tantalizing tilt and the fascinating curves she puts into her singing, she is the ideal choice if it is a seductive allure you want in the song. A linguist, sober and serious by nature and of a thoughtful disposition, Geeta is very considerate of others and punctilious to a fault. She is an asset to any music director.” Geeta Dutt also had the highest admiration for OP Nayyar as a composer. It was Geeta who told Guru Dutt that “OP composes feelings, not words”. OP had a very fair complexion, with rosy cheeks, which made Geeta wonder whether OP applied some cream to glow his face.

The eminent ghazal singer Madhu Rani has written very perceptively about Geeta-OP musical association in the Vishwas Nerurkar’s book ‘The Legendary OP Nayyar’. She writes, “The combination of OP Nayyar and Geeta Dutt is an amazing one. Geeta was not a trained singer, neither did she possess a voice from which a composer could extract subtle inflexions. She had several limitations and her voice was nasal. But she was an expressive singer. I feel Nayyar Saab made Geeta a true playback singer. While hearing Geeta sing for Nayyar Saab, you get the impression that she was indeed trained and her rendering was smooth. Many singers sing with their minds. Others with their hearts. Very few use the mind to control the heart to give a balanced interpretation. This is not an easy task, for it needs a guru like Nayyar Saab to guide and Geeta was very fortunate in this matter, to have worked with him.”

Geeta was an outstanding musical singer and had an inimitable style of singing. We have seen many imitators of Lata, Asha, Rafi, Kishore, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar. But we have not had imitators of Geeta and Shamshad. This speaks a lot about the unique talents they possessed. By heartlessly sidelining both of them from his music after 1958, OP’s music most certainly became poorer. Using them judiciously throughout his career would have enriched his music even more. It’s my contention that arguably, Geeta and Shamshad gave more female solo hits than Asha under OP’s composing baton, in spite of having sung less than one third of the songs that Asha sang (50 solos by Geeta and Shamshad put together as against 167 solos by Asha).

It was very tragic the way Geeta Dutt lost a well-established and extremely flourishing singing career in the heartburn process of losing her husband to Waheeda Rehman after Pyasa. I am certain that otherwise, we would have had the pleasure listening to many more gems of Geeta Dutt. I suppose we should be grateful about what we have got, instead of what we have not.

All the songs included here belong to the phase two (except the Baaz song) of OP’s career. When asked about this phase, he used to tell us, “In this phase, I gave music mostly from my heart, whatever came to my mind. I was sure that it was my time to be successful in whatever I did and I was proved right; the public lapped up my music and I enjoyed immense popularity. Musically speaking, my quality of music was much better from Ek Musafir Ek Hasina onwards, I consciously made attempt to compose music with more emphasis on melody, I put more thought in my orchestration as well as I put extra focus on the poetry that I wanted.” You can definitely experience this for yourself. All these songs are easy to listen, with very simple and attractive tunes, which register in hour heart instantly. So let us hear some of the most beautiful songs of this great combination.

1. Zara saamne aa from Baaz (1953), lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri

This song has a significance of its own. For the first time we hear clarinet/flute combo with violins, dholak, castanets, double bass and full Punjabi rhythm in OP’s music. OP almost patented this style later and it served him very well for many years. The interlude music is played with a staccato or a cut-note effect, not in a legato pattern. This aspect of OP’s music was inspired by Master Ghulam Haider. Music director Sajjad Husain used to admire OP’s use of cut-notes effect. As is to be expected, it’s very well picturized.

2. Babuji dheere chalna from Aar Paar (1954), lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri

This song starts with an excellent accordion piece, played by Goody Seervai. The music for this song is almost exclusively accordion based. You don’t normally associate OP’s orchestration with accordion. As every music lover knows, accordion was an integral part of SJ’s orchestration. However, in a few of his earlier films, OP did make good use of accordion. For example, Mangu, Mehbooba, Hum Sub Chor Hain, Howrah Bridge, Quaidi, Hong Kong etc. Shakila lisps the song on the screen. This possibly was her debut film. Her sister Noor also debuted in this film as Johnny Walker’s heroine. Later, Johnny Walker married her.

3. Ban dhadkan kajaraare naina dole re from Miss Cocacola (1955), lyrics Majroh Sultanpuri

This picture was produced by Kuldeep Kaur under the banner Danny Films. Danny was the name of Kuldeep Kaur’s son. OP was living in the hotel Favel on Marine Drive where Kuldeep Kaur came with the offer to score music for Miss Coca Cola. Shammi Kapoor and Geeta Bali were the lead pair. Shammi and Geeta Bali fell in love with each other during this film. OP and Shammi Kapoor were good friends, OP used to pull Shammi’s leg by teasing him that ‘you got your wife as well as you made your career because of me, since I was the MD for Miss Coca Cola and Tumsa Nahin Dekha’. Not much is known about this film, since it’s not available on DVD. Interestingly, this movie has 3 solos each to Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle. One feels that all the Asha Bhosle solos should have gone to Geeta in normal circumstances, Asha was still not ready to challenge Geeta at this stage. One is forced to conclude that OP had already started the Asha grooming process keeping the larger picture in mind.

4. Thandi hawa kaali ghata aa hi gayi jhoom ke from Mr. and Mrs. 55 (1955), lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri

This was Guru Dutt’s next film after Aar Paar. This is a light comedy based on women liberation movement. This film remains a classic, worth watching till date. Lalita Pawar is Madhubala’s aunt and the leader of the women liberation movement. Madhubala’s father is Lalita Pawar’s brother. He puts a condition in the will that the estate will go to his daughter, 6 months after her successful marriage. Obviously, he had put this condition knowing very well the views of her sister regarding marriage. Mudhubala is in love with Ramesh, India’s no one tennis player. Mudhubala sings this song, after his father’s will had been read. She feels happy, thinking that, she will now get married to her love, without any objections being raised by her aunt. This is a happy, rhythmic song, where OP has captured the mood beautifully.

5. Dil de dala, de dala nazaraana from Musafirkhana (1955), lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri

This film was from M Sadiq Productions. The film had Shyama and Karan Dewan as leading pair, with Johnny Walker as side hero. This film was a success mainly due to OP’s music, which became hugely popular. This song is superbly sung by Geeta, and has a highly catchy tune. I feel, Geeta was at the peak of her singing prowess in this period, full of verve, confidence and alluring vocals. This song is enacted by Shyama. Like Madhubala, Shyama also acted as heroine in 6 OP films and OP considered her to be as beautiful as Madhubala.

6. Jab baadal lehraya from Chhoo Mantar (1956), lyrics Jaan Nisar Akhtar

This was another M Sadiq Productions film, with the same cast as that of Musafirkhana. This was even bigger musical success than Musafirkhana. This is a highly entertaining film. This song has a wonderful, breezy prelude piece. The orchestration almost entirely consists of clarinet, flute, violins and mandolin. But the effect is magical. In this phase of OP, the use of clarinet/flute/violin as a combination in the orchestration was almost given. In fact, Asha Bhosle, used to say jokingly that, once OP’s music became a rage, clarinet players started to move around in cars, since so much work and money they started to get.

7. Jata kahan hai deewane from CID (1956), Majrooh Sultanpuri

This is a fantastic song. Superb prelude piece, sung beautifully by Geeta with just the right amount of sensuality in her voice. OP has said that “Guru Dutt taught me to compose a tune first and then insert the words into it. I was actually, strongly, opposed to it. My motto, was not to touch the harmonium till I get the full song in my hands. However, Guru Dutt was Guru Dutt. On top of that, he had a great affinity for inclusion of senseless words like ‘Kuchh tere dil mein phee phee, Kuchh mere dil mein phee phee’. I used to get amused by this. But Guru used to say ‘People like such songs and it ends there’. He was, of course, right; music of his films was always loved by the general public . This song was picturized on Waheeda Rahman wherein she forces Dev Anand to imbibe a drugged drink, so that he would not remember much about the meeting. It’s claimed that it was cut from the film, because censors took objection to the words ‘Phee Phee’ alluding to vulgar intentions. Such a pity!!

8. Neele aasmaanee from Mr. & Mrs. 55 (1955), lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri

Outstandingly sung by Geeta. It’s difficult to imagine anybody could have sung it better. High pitched flute catches your attention. Majrooh’s words are also wonderful. The song is enacted by Cuckoo. The song situation is that Madhubala feels let down when she comes to know that Guru Dutt is her hired husband and wants to put him in his place. That’s why she is dancing with someone else, just to displease Guru Dutt.

9. Aaj jo hum tum mil gaye from Mr. Lambu (1956), lyrics Jaan Nisar Akhtar

It was a Sheikh Mukhtar Productions film, and the only film of Suraiya for which OP scored music. Suraiya rated OP Nayyar very highly as a composer. Jaaiye aap kahan jaayenge, Ye hai reshami zulfon ka andhera and Deewana hua badal were among her favourite OP compositions. This is a typical song tailor made for Geeta Dutt; you can’t fail to take notice of the use of accordion in the inter loops. The electric guitar, another favourite of OP, is played by Hazara Singh. This movie is not available on DVD.

10. Meri zindagi ke humsafar from Shrimati 420 (1956), lyrics Jaan Nisar Akhtar

This a very melodious and soothing song. The feature of this song is superb orchestration. A perfect example of how he comingled the different musical pieces with the song in a wonderfully harmonious way. Geeta brings out the dulcet quality of her voice and embellishes the aural ambience so well. This film was produced by GP Sippy and presumably has Meena Shorey (of La ra lappa fame) and Johnny Walker as a leading pair. The film is not available on DVD. This film enjoyed a reasonable success at the box office, with OP’s music playing a no mean part. The lyrics are by Jaan Nisar Akhtar (father of Javed Akhtar). This tune was used by RD Burman for the song Ek main main aur ek tu in the film Khel Khel Mein.

11. Humko chhod ke kahan jaaoge from Shrimati 420 (1956), lyrics Jaan Nisar Akhtar

Another melodiously wonderful song from the same film, with excellent, soft orchestration. This song is influenced by New Theatre effect, here we don’t have Punjab effect. You feel the Bengal melody here. Musical inter loops are excellent. No percussion instruments are used by OP, which is a rarity in itself and Geeta has sung it with her tremulous and base tonality. The sudden and brief overtures of the flute catch your attention. Rafi sings in between, a couple of times, words like “Oh ho” or “Ah ha”. But I have treated this as a Geeta solo. To agree to sing for the song, where he had only a marginal part to sing, probably indicates how humble Rafi was and the sort of friendly relationship OP and Rafi had. Lyrics are again by Jaan Nisar Akhtar. Jaan Nisar Akhtar wrote 84 songs for OP in 14 films. He was one of OP’s favorite song writers in his earlier part of career and this pair produced many hit songs. The fact is, Jaan Nisar Akhtar is the third most prolific song writer for OP after SH Bihari and Majrooh Sultanpuri.

12. Kiya ye kya tune ishara from Duniya Rang Rangili (1957), lyrics Jaan Nisar Akhtar

This was again M Sadiq productions film. This film had Johny Walker and Shyama, along with Rajendra Kumar and Chand Usmani as main actors. This is the only Rajendra Kumar film having OP’s music. This too was a light comedy film as were Chhomantar and Musafirkhana. This song is one more example of the magic of OP-Geeta combo. A catchy tune, very effective orchestration (it’s a wonder how OP achieved such astonishing results with so few instruments), mukhda in western beats, antara in Indian beats, with seamless changeover from western beats to Indian beats and back. Electric guitar is played by Hazara Sing. A very rhythmic song. OP scored music for one more M Sadiq film, Mai Baap. A few months before this, due to OP’s wayward ways, his wife along with kids went back to her parents. This hit OP hard. However, M Sadiq went to Amritsar on his own initiative and brought his wife and kids back. So OP didn’t bargain about money while agreeing to score music for Mai Baap. However, when M Sadiq offered very less money for his next film Khota Paisa, OP refused by saying “OK, you helped me when I was in trouble, so I didn’t ask for my full fee for Mai Baap. But, should I do this for rest of my life, when you make so much money due to my music?”  As a result, Khota Paisa went to Madan Mohan, who tried his best to copy OP style, but the film flopped. M Sadiq held this against OP for the rest of his life. As a matter of fact, Guru Dutt wanted OP to score music for Chaudhavi Ka Chaand, he had sent feelers to OP through his writer Abrar Alvi, but M Sadiq, who was to direct the film did not allow it to materialize.

13. Chor lutere daaku from Ustad (1957), lyrics Jaan Nisar Akhtar

The star cast for this film included Ashok Kumar in double role, Anjali Devi, Bhagwan, Anita Guha and Kumkum. It had some wonderful songs. This particular song was extremely popular. Here Geeta Dutt is at her best, with all successful OP ingredients in proper place. Lyrics are by Jaan Nisar Akhtar. The film is not available on DVD, so we don’t know if any of the male songs were sung by Ashok Kumar in the movie. It’s a curious fact that, Ashok Kumar was hero in 6 OP films, but he lisped just two lines in a duet in the film Farishta (1958), that’s all! Quite astonishing indeed!! One must presume that he was very reluctant or uncomfortable to lisp a song in a film.

14. Kaisa jadoo balam tune dara from 12 O’Clock (1958), lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri

The emphasis here is on melody, not rhythm. One of Geeta’s best OP songs, which is picturized on Waheeda. In this film Geeta had two more solos, one going on Shashikala and the other one going on Helen. Geeta had the calibre to sing for the heroine as well as vamp in the same film with equal felicity. Of course, in due course of time, Asha Bhosle did the same under OP’s baton for many more films.

15. Mera naam chin chin choo from Howrah Bridge (1958), lyrics Qamar Jalalabadi

This is the last Geeta solo for OP. How and why this happened we have no way of knowing, beyond the obvious fact that OP got musically as well as emotionally involved with Asha Bhosle over a course of time after the success of Naya Daur’s music. The end result was that both OP and Geeta were the losers. This is the most popular Geeta Dutt song composed by OP, still extremely popular and very well known to the current generation also. OP had planned that Aaiye meherban should be the best song of this film, which he recorded in Asha Bhosle’s voice, and since it was to be picturized on Madhubala, OP genuinely expected that this song would be highlight of the movie. It’s actually a much better tune, no doubt about it. Mera naam chin chin choo was to go on Helen, so OP didn’t expect that it would overshadow Aaiye meherban. But this is what happened and this once again proves how difficult it is to gauge the pulse of public. The intro music is fabulous, and Geeta has sung it with such a gusto that it’s beyond compare. The face-off with Aaiyen meherban again underlines the fact that all the classical grooming of Asha Bhosle was no match when it came to be pitted against the natural talent and vocal abilities of Geeta Dutt. This film had two Asha solos, two Asha-Rafi duets, a Geeta solo, a Shamshad-Rafi duet and a Rafi solo. Still this song over shadowed all other excellent songs from the film. Possibly, due to this, Asha started insisting that without exception, she would sing all the female songs henceforth in OP’s films.

The above list has some less heard songs; I hope you like them. One can rest assured that, without exception, all of them were quite popular in that period.