OP Nayyar’s transition from Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt to Asha Bhosle

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar launching OP Nayyar’s Centenary Celebrations with a tribute to Shamshad Begum on her 106^th birth anniversary, and also wising a very Happy Baisakhi, Bihu, Vishu and similar festivals across India

(Ravindra Kelkar is another once-an-SOY-regular who has woken up after a deep slumber. This time it came as a bigger surprise. Mr Kelkar had written a series of six articles on OP Nayyar starting from his 10^th death anniversary on 28.1.2017. The old-timers remember him as an OP-expert. Perhaps he had an epiphany when he saw the centenary celebrations of Rafi on SOY. As OP Nayyar’s centenary falls on 16 January 2026, Mr Kelkar approached me to celebrate his centenary likewise, and also offered to write a number of guest articles on him culminating on his Centenary Day.

OP Nayyar’s earliest superhit song was in the voice of Shamshad Begum, ‘Kabhi aar kabhi paar laaga teere-e-nazar’. Her contribution to OP Nayyar was immense – when he was facing boycott, she stood by him and gave one superhit after another. Yet, after giving some great songs with Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum, OP Nayyar gradually shifted wholesale to Asha Bhosle, with Rafi remaining a constant. The story is well-known but Mr Kelkar gives some critical insights. Though an unabashed fan of OP Nayyar, Mr Kelkar does not mince words when discussing his personality flaws. Similarly, in this provocative write-up there is no trace of malice when he concludes that finally it was a complete takeover by Asha Bhosle leading to his sharp downfall as he could not maintain the boundary between the professional and the personal.

Music is a matter of personal choice and you may disagree with Mr Kelkar with many of his observations. But according to me, this is a worthy article to launch OP Nayyar’s centenary celebrations. Shamshad Begum maintained a dignified silence all this while. This article coincides with her birthday (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013), so it is befitting to pay our tributes to her. This day is also a joyous occasion in many parts of the country – Baisakhi (Punjab), Bihu (Assam), Vishu (Kerala), Gudi Parwa (Maharashtra) and so on. Wishing the readers the very best on this happy day.

Mr Kelkar is a post-graduate in Statistics and Computer Science and was an IT professional. He has since retired and is based out of Pune. Thank you Mr Kelkar for returning with an excellent article on OP Nayyar, who despite some personality flaws, gave us joyous music. I am happy to launch his centenary celebrations on a joyous occasion. – AK)

After reading the title, the question that comes to the mind is, was there really a transition to Asha or a takeover by Asha Bhosle? In my view, it was both, transition as well as a takeover. Was it the first time that a composer shifted from singer A to singer B? Of course not! When Lata Mangeshkar, who had debuted a few years earlier, created a storm in 1949-50, within no time there was a complete takeover by her. The reason was obvious. The sheer quality of Lata’s pure, melodious and sweet voice, so completely different from the then prevalent voices, along with her inborn musical intelligence and flawless rendering made it a virtual walk over. All the major composers en masse shifted to Lata. Nothing like this happened in Asha Bhosle’s case. OP Nayyar’s first film was Aasmaan (1952), in which Geeta Dutt sang for the first time; and Asha Bhosle and Shamshad Begum sang for the first time in OP Nayyar’s second film Chham Chhama Chham (1952), So, by the end of first two films itself, OP had used all the three singers.

Now another significant event happened during the songs recording of Aasmaan, which contributed to OP’s ultimate total shift to Asha Bhosle. One song, “Jab se pi sang naina laage tab se…Mori nindiya churaye gayo” was to be recorded. If you listen to this song, rendered by Rajkumari, it is apparent that OP had created the tune for Lata. Lata was contacted to sing the song. But for some reason she didn’t turn up. One version of the story claims that Lata had sinus problem, another version says that when Lata came to know that the song was to be picturised on a side heroine, she refused to sing it. The third version says, a messenger was sent to Lata, asking her to sing this song. At that time, sending a messenger was a standard practice to book singers as well as musicians. Lata told the messenger that, she won’t sing the song for any Nayyar, Vaiyyar. Messenger gave the message to OP verbatim. The third version seems to be more authentic because later on this was sort of confirmed by none other than Rafi himself. A new MD asked Rafi to sing a song and told him that he won’t be able to pay his full fee, still Rafi readily obliged to his request. When asked as to why he accepted to sing in spite of being paid much less, he said ‘You know what happened when Lata refused to sing for OP when he was a nobody”. However, the end result of this was that a permanent rift happened between OP and Lata.

OP Nayyar grooming Asha Bhosle for 7-8 years

By 1952, Geeta and Shamshad were already well established singers, while Asha was still taking baby steps to get a firm foothold. According to OP, when he first worked with Asha in ‘Chham Chhama Chham’, he quickly realized the enormous potential in Asha. He was quite clear in his mind that he needed to groom Asha to make her into a capable playback singer to nullify the effect of Lata not being available to sing his songs. According to OP, Asha had inferiority complex when it came to Lata, Geeta and Shamshad. OP had to do a lot of hard work to remove it. It also needed a good deal of patience and persistence. In my opinion, it was 1959-60, when Asha finally became a very confident and competent singer in her own right to be free from Lata, Geeta and Shamshad hang-up. So it took almost 8 years of transition. It’s quite interesting to study how OP moulded Asha in these 7-8 years of transition. There is a widespread belief that the success of Naya Daur (1957) triggered this transition which is simply untrue. The success of Naya Daur, closely followed by Tumsa Nahi Dekha (1957) just hastened the complete takeover. This can be substantiated by the number of songs sung by Asha (93 songs), Geeta (52 songs), Shamshad (30 songs) for OP Nayyar till the end of 1957. This shows that Asha had already sung more songs than the combined tally of Geeta and Shamshad. This also means that the transition was already taking place. By the end of 1960, the transition was complete and Asha became the sole female voice in OP’s music.

OP Nayyar ultimately completely ignored Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum

The question still remains as to why did OP go to the extent of totally ignoring Geeta and Shamshad? It can’t be denied that this was gross injustice to Geeta and Shamshad and ungratefulness shown by OP. OP’s first super hit song was ‘Kabhi aar kabhi paar laaga teer-e-nazar’ sung by Shamshad. It was Geeta, who recommended Guru Dutt to sign OP for ‘Baaz’ and subsequently for ‘Aar Paar’. Everybody knows, it was the super success of ‘Aar Paar’ on which OP’s musical career was established. It also needs to be remembered that Shamshad fully supported OP by singing songs for the film Mehbooba (1954), when all the singers were asked to boycott him because he had replaced Roshan for the film (Please refer to my earlier post ‘OP-Geeta Dutt: A peerless combination’ for the full story). The only explanation possible is that OP was infatuated with Asha and could no longer deny any demands of Asha. That was the price OP had to pay for the 14 years long relationship with her. Raju Bharatan very correctly explained this as ‘Love has no reason, only a season’. In the long interview given by OP to Vividh Bharati (Daastan-e-Nayyar), he narrated that “Geeta once rang me and asked me why I am not asking her to sing his songs. I told her that from the time Asha has come into my life, she insists that she will sing all the female songs and nobody else”. He also stated in the same interview that he will carry the guilt of the injustice done by him to Geeta and Shamshad till the end of his life. Ironically, OP, who used to believe that the song is more important than the singer, himself went against his belief by giving all his songs to Asha irrespective of the merits of the song, from 1959 onwards till their break-up. It’s worthwhile remembering that OP gave one solo song to Krishna Kalle in the film Taxi Driver (1973). The song was ‘Pyaar karte ho yaar’ and immediately after this Asha decided that she won’t sing for OP any longer.

To support my theory, I have attempted here to present a few songs, sung by Asha which I feel were at least as or more suitable in the voices of Geeta or Shamshad. This list is purely based upon my assessment of the songs sung by Asha, by trying to imagine in my mind how the song would sound if sung by Geeta or Shamshad. It was great fun. In this exercise, I also found a few songs which could very easily have been sung by Lata, not a surprise to me. I know this exercise is purely hypothetical but definitely worth it. Even Lata was tempted to do it with her ‘Shradhanjali’ series. Also, I recall there was a prevalent trend of version songs in 1950s and 1960s, where popular songs were sung by other singers and these records were published.

Analysis

Before we go to the songs, I have a few more observations to make.

1. It’s my contention that, during the transition period, Geeta and Shamshad songs became more popular than those sung by Asha. Take a case of ‘Howrah Bridge’. ‘Mera naam chin chin chu’ became more popular than ‘Aaiye meherbaan’. In the musical hits of ‘Aar Paar’, ‘Mr and Mrs 55’ there was no Asha Bhosle. In CID (1956), ‘Leke pehla pehla pyar’ sung by Shamshad-Rafi was more popular than the sad version sung by Asha Bhosle. In Chhoomantar (1956) it was ‘Garib jaan ke’ that turned out to be number one song. In Musafirkhana (1956), Rafi-Shamshad duet ‘Thoda sa dil laga ke dekh’ turned out to be the chartbuster. Asha sang all the female songs in Baap Re Baap (1955), Hum Sub Chor Hain (1956) and Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957), whether solo or duets. In ‘Baap Re Baap’, it was the duet with Kishore Kumar which was a super hit. In the film Hum Sub Chor Hain, ‘Hum ko hanste dekh zamana jalta hai’ became number one song. In ‘Tumsa Nahin Dekha’, Rafi songs were more popular.

2. Up until 1956, OP had done splendidly in managing the distribution of female songs amongst Geeta, Shamshad and Asha, keeping in mind the intention of grooming Asha. Prime examples of these are the movies ‘Miss Coca Cola’, ‘Chhoomantar’, ‘Musafirkhana’, ‘Shrimati 420’, ‘Johny Walker’ in which Asha had 13 songs, Geeta had 17 songs and Shamshad had 6 songs. Ideally, he should have continued with this throughout his career. It would have resulted in more variety in his songs and avoided his total dependence on Asha to the point of no return.

3. It needs to be noted that, most probably, due to her marital problems, Geeta Dutt’s focus on her singing career was getting adversely affected. Probably due to this, her output of songs gradually decreased from 1960 onwards. So, not only OP but many other MDs were starting to ignore Geeta Dutt as well.

4. Also note that SD Burman didn’t work with Lata in the period of 1957-1961 (approx.). During this period if you look at the distribution of songs between Asha and Geeta, the ratio is similar to that of OP. So it seems, SD also believed that Asha was the better option. If there was one composer who was truly professional in his choice of singers, with no room for sentimentality, it was SD Burman. For SD also, Asha sounded like Geeta in quite a few songs, for example, ‘Aaja panchhi akela hai’ in Nau Do Gyarah (1957), ‘Chaand sa mukhada kyun sharmaya’ in Insan Jaag Utha (1959)’ and ‘Haal kaisa hai janab ka’ in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958).

Let us now listen to the songs that I have short listed.

Part 1: Songs from period of transition – 1954 to 1960 (I describe this period as a period of transition when OP Nayyar seems to be giving songs to Asha Bhosle to boost her confidence. My hypothesis is these songs would have sounded perhaps as good or better in the voices of Shamshad Begum and Geeta Dutt.)

In this period, in addition to the songs listed below, there are quite a few songs sung by Asha where you feel that OP gave those songs to Asha to boost her confidence.

1. Man more ga jhoom ke – Mangu (1954) – Though Asha has done a very good job, still I feel this song was very well suited to Geeta. In all the songs where I mention Geeta as the more natural choice, it is mainly due to her natural ability of throw of words in sync with the beats. Here she remained unmatched throughout.

2. Oh Mr. Banjo – Hum Sub Chor Hain (1956) – Geeta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKtAXLoS_bQ

3. Antam phantam chhod de Babu – Hum Sub Chor Hain (1956) – Well suited to Shamshad for the ‘khanak’ in her voice.

4. Aaye hain door se – Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957) – Geeta. Rafi-Geeta duets always had a corroborating feel to them. With her inherent complex, Asha always tried to put competitive element in her duets with Rafi.

5. Do nigahen teri – Mujrim (1958) – Geeta

6. Shokh shokh aankhen – Phagun (1958) – Geeta

7. Main Bangali chhokara – Ragini (1958) – Though Asha has sung this very well, Shamshad would have done equally well, adding her own flavour

8. O Assalam Alekum – Kalpana (1960) – This should have been Asha-Shamshad duet instead of Asha-Sudha Malhotra

Part 2: Songs after transition – Post 1960 (Asha Bhosle’s take-over of OP Nayyar)

1. Hong Kong China Mina – Hong Kong (1962) – A song almost tailor made for Geeta. Hong Kong movie was quite clearly inspired by the success of Howrah Bridge. It had the same hero – Ashok Kumar, the same supporting actor – Om Prakash and music by OP. This song was created with the intention of replicating the success of ‘Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu’. Listen to the end of the song where Asha is made to sing in a soprano voice. There is another song in this movie, ‘Dekhati hoon jidhar’ composed, by keeping ‘Aiye Meherban’ in mind.

2. Tumhari adaaon se – Hong Kong (1962) – Shamshad

3. Kahiye janaab-e-Ali – Do Dilon Ki Daastan (1966) – In this song, Asha is clearly imitating Geeta Dutt, trying too hard and as a result sounding artificial. This movie got delayed for some reason. The songs were probably recorded prior to 1960.

4. Woh hans ke mile hum se – Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi (1966) – The demand of the tune for particular throw of words makes it suitable to the natural ability of Geeta Dutt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXdzHNX79Ds

5. Dil to pahle hi se – Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi (1966) – For the same reason as mentioned above, Geeta would have done an equally good or better job.

6. Aaja mere pyar ke sahare – Humsaya (1968) – Ideally suitable for Geeta

7. Balam harjayee – Taxi Driver (1973) – Geeta

PS: This write-up is not meant to demean the enormous contribution of Asha Bhosle in OP Nayyar’s music. It was the quality of OP’s tunes and Asha’s singing from Ek Musafir Ek Hasina (1962) onwards that resulted in OP receiving critical acclaim from all and sundry. The fact also remains that Geeta (possibly due to her marital problems) and Shamshad were ignored by all music directors from 1960 onwards. So the choice mostly was either Lata or Asha.

My take on Shamshad is that, she was capable of singing any type of song and put her unique stamp on it. Take the case of the songs ‘Boojh mera kya naav re’, ‘ Kahin pe nigahen kahin pe nishana’ from CID (1956) or ‘Raat rangili gaaye re’ from ‘Naya Andaz (1956)’. She retained this quality throughout. You just need to listen to ‘Kajra mohabbatwala’ from Kismet (1968), where she matches Asha with ease. It’s well known that she was short charged by C Ramachandra, Naushad and SD Burman, after the emergence of Lata, in spite of giving many hit songs in their earlier part of musical journey.

So to put the thing in nutshell, the total takeover by Asha resulted in OP losing the plot once the split with Asha happened.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer 

Song links have been embedded only for the listening pleasure of music lovers. Neither this blog nor the author has any commercial interest, nor do they suggest or claim any copyright over these songs which vests in the concerned copyright holders.