Khayyam’s Parichay

Mohammed Zahur “Khayyam” Hashmi,better known as Khayyam,stepped into the industry to become an actor,but being fascinated by the music of Hindi cinema,he soon ran away to his uncle’s house who saw his passion for films and allowed him to learn music.
In Lahore,Khayyam got introduced to G.A. Chishti,one of the foremost music directors from Pakistan who got impressed by his singing talent and instantly asked Khayyam to become his assistant. Khayyam moved to Bombay in 1946. One of his earliest breaks was in the film Biwi in which the song Akele mein woh ghabraate to honge sung by Mohammed Rafi was a hit. After working in a few films under the name of Sharmaji,he became known as Khayyam with Footpath (1953),his breakthrough.

Khayyam is one of the eight composers featured in Saregama’s new MP3 song compilation albums series named Parichay. Khayaam said,“I’m really happy that Saregama came up with this idea of releasing the Parichay series.”
The Khayyam’s MP3 consists of 40 hits songs like Akele mein woh ghabraate,Shaam-e-gham ki kasam,Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein,Dil cheez kya hai and many more.

He also narrated his treasured memory of Begum Akhtar,who expressed the wish to work with him when she was about 60. “We recorded the ghazal Mere humsafar mere humnava and she said that I had made her sound 24.” He also recalled how Lata Mangeshkar would have red cheeks whenever she liked a song.”
The music director has won a National award for Umrao Jaan (1982) and has also composed for a few television serials,including the background score for Jai Hanuman.