Not surprisingly, the first film that comes to mind when you talk Khayyam is Umrao Jaan, Muzaffar Ali's lavish costume drama of 1981, which won the composer a National Award for Best Music Direction. Ever the puritan, and never inclined to filch a note from western influences, Khayyam's oeuvre had to be restricted to films that offered the scope for Indian notes. Through the sixties, seventies and eighties - his busy years - Bollywood was discovering the sound of music coming from the West. 8d1iAM2BPd- Lata Mangeshkar August 19, 2019Ĭome to think of it, even in the era when he created music in Bollywood, his adherence to classicism made Khayyam an exception. Ye sunkar mujhe itna dukh hua hai jo main bayaa'n nahi kar sakti.Khayyam sahab ke saath sangeet ke ek yug ka anth hua hai.Main unko vinamra shraddhanjali arpan karti hun. Mahan sangeetkar Aur bahut nek dil insan Khayyam sahab aaj humare bich nahi rahe. He was one of the last bastions of an era of Hindi film music that has all but ended - one that was defined by inherently Indian melody that celebrated the sounds and culture of the soil. Khayyam's music, soaked in the spirit of rich classical allure, represents the sort of melody unthinkable in Bollywood mainstream now-a-days. When legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar tweeted to describe music maestro Khayyams death as the "end of an era", she said it all. Meena Kumari approached Khayyam to score music for her album.Hindustani classical music was Khayyam's forte.Khayyam began music direction at the age of 17.