Nayyar on the Dance Floor

Who would have thought that Omkar Prasad Nayyar would be the next target in the remix circuit after Panchamda? His melodious tracks from the ’50s have been dragged onto the dance floor. Canadian-bred and UK-based Raghav is another new artiste who’s recently moved samples from Nayyar’s Leke Pehla Pehla Pyaar from the Dev Anand retro C.I.D. and Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar from the Guru Dutt blockbuster Aar Paar in his debut album, Storyteller. ‘‘The whole OP Nayyar sound and the film era is about nostalgia for me. I grew up hearing those songs all the time and I knew them inside out. They are such great pieces that I knew they would be relevant today, even in hip hop and R&B,’’ says Raghav in an e-mail interview. Raghav’s debut single Can’t Get Enough has incorporated a sample of Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar. His second single, Let’s Work It Out, which uses Leke Pehla Pehla Pyaar picturised on Preeya Kalidas of Bombay Dreams, is scheduled to premiere on October 1.

Composer Harry Anand of Kaanta Laga fame is riding the Nayyar wave too. In fact, he’s tried so hard to live up to the original that he made Hyderabad-based singer Smita hold her nose and sing, so that she sounded like Shamshad Begum in Leke Pehla Pehla Pyaar. He’s also remixed Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar, sung by Sneha Pant and picturised on Shefali Zariwala. ‘‘I’m a big fan. I actually released a Nayyar tribute album way back in 1997. And even though there were no videos at that time, it was a big hit.’’ Anand plans to release his own remix album this October with Nayyar’s hit Sar Pe Topi Laal Haath Mein Resham Ka Rumaal.

Ask Leslie Lewis, the man who started it all in 1996 with Rahul & I, and he says, ‘‘I’m pretty much a dinosaur myself and was there when OP Nayyar was around. I think his music works really well because its melodies are simple and really light on the ears.’’ Though he plans to release his third remix album with more Panchamda and Madan Mohan numbers, he’s yet to decide whether Nayyar is in or not.

And who can forget Babuji Dheere Chalna—the ultimate bar room number sung by Geeta Dutt in Aar Paar? When composer Sandeep Chowta took on the Yana Gupta Babuji number for Dum, he knew he had to wipe the Nayyar slate clean and re-establish a new Babuji track. But he took solace in the fact that Nayyar himself had borrowed from the Doris Day golden oldie Perhaps. ‘‘Everything’s such a vicious cycle,’’ he says.