Khayyam-Saab’s ‘Dil Cheez Kya Hai’ Is Among Sachin Tendulkar’s Top Favourites

Chaitanya  Padukone

Legendary Bollywood composer Khayyam-saab is no more, but his evergreen songs from milestone movies like ‘Kabhie Kabhie’, ‘Noorie’ ‘Umrao Jaan’ , Razia Sultan and Trishul will always keep him alive in the hearts of millions of retro-music lovers. In the past, when I asked iconic cricketer Sachin Tendulkar at Asha Bhosle’s ‘Maai’ movie music release event, as to which are his favorite haunting tracks, he instantly said, “Dil Cheez Kya Hai, Aap Meri, Jaan Lee Jiye sung by Asha-tai for Khayyam-saab”. And music-savvy Sachin was so right, because ‘Umrao Jaan’ had won both the National Award and the Filmfare Award for Khayyam-saab.

Not one to jump on the commercial thumping disco-beat bandwagon, Khayyam-saab always stuck to his unique soothing signature style or the dulcet ghazal flavor in almost all his memorable songs. Be it the title-song of ‘Noorie’ sung by Nitin Mukesh-Lata Mangeshkar or the senior Mukesh title track of ‘Kabhie Kabhie’   or even the Kishore Kumar number ‘Hazaar Raahein’. By nature, Khayyam-saab was gentle, soft-spoken, courteous and incredibly unassuming. When I went to wish him on his 90th birthday,  he was well-aware of my music and rhythm background and also that I used to share a close bonding with composer R D Burman (Pancham-da)  . When I warmly greeted  Khayyam-saab , with emotional vibes he said that he was “very touched and kept bowing his head and also doing aadaab” . This was so humbling for me that I had tears in my eyes.  Unforgettable sentiments !

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Khayyam, Sachin Tendulkar, RIP