Last year I attended the event “Aayye Meherbaan” - a musical tribute to the legendary music director O P Nayyar. The annual musical evening, a resounding success, was held in Framingham and was organized by Siraj Khan. Now 11 months later, lo and behold the creative director Siraj Khan was ready to put on the event for 2011, “Baar Baar OP" (BBOP) and met with even greater success. There were some notable enhancements this time; The venue was much bigger as was the sound system. The number of attendees and the participating artists grew exponentially. Siraj was accompanied by a co-emcee, and both were assisted by O.P. Nayyar’s actual audio clips that served as an introduction to several songs.
The set up was similar. The performers were to sing along karaoke style to pre-selected music of O.P. Nayyar's songs - put together by Siraj Khan, sound engineered by Jawed Wahid and delivered seamlessly by 16 local artists.

Motherly support:
O.P. Nayyar was born in Lahore on January 16th,1926. His father was a lawyer and his mother Laxmi Nayyar a/k/a Akki was a music lover. Laxmi had actually started to learn to play the harmonium in the period when she was expecting OP Nayyar - OP felt that this was the reason he got music in his blood which further evolved into a relentless affinity toward music. OP’s siblings were all highly educated, one of his brother was a doctor, another became a lawyer. His family, especially his father wasn’t ready to settle for anything less for OP either and thus he was vemenously against OP taking the path to the music industry. OP had to run away from home early in his life to pursue his music dream. Nevertheless, OP managed to stay in touch with his mother through correspondence and occasional phone calls. He started his music career at Jullunder Radio Station, eventually composing music for movies, and the rest as they say is history. Needless to say, OP became successful because of his mother’s support and prayers - and the family name “Nayyar” did not become a household name in India on account of his father or his highly educated siblings.
 
Mahmooda Khan, 79 years old was among the many elderly mothers - and grandmothers for that matter- sitting with her daughter, Iffat Wahid and completely immersed in the musical evening, enjoying every OP Nayyar melody. Nalini was enjoying the show alongside her husband, Anil Desai 74 years of age, who was selected to represent India in volleyball world cup, in early 60's. Bilqees Begum 78 years old, thoroughly enjoyed the evening sitting in her wheelchair with her daughter Rubina Pirzada and her grand-daughter Nahdia Pirzada on her side. Chandni enjoying her dad sing is sitting next to her mother. The family is very supportive of Salman Dar's musical pursuit. Chandni told me that her expected daughter due in a couple of months may as well get used to her Nana's singing - probably another OPN in the making. Zara Ayubs's mother reportedly in her 80's, appeared well rested and enchanted as the musical events of the evening unfolded.
 
Mahmooda Khan, Siraj Khan's mother, like Akki fully supports and understands her son's passion for music and his endless devotion for O.P. Nayyar. She makes every effort to attend musical shows that Siraj puts together. She explained to me, "he works very hard. I see him constantly talking on the phone to artists, making last minute preparations, conducting singing rehearsals, months before the program." Today wasn't any different, she was enjoying every moment of the program, listening to her favorites songs: Deewana hua badal, Ja ja ja ja bewafa, jata kahan hai deewane etc. She loved the duet Thandi thandi hawa sung by Anusha and Selina and felt that putting the young starlets together was a "cute idea". She remained alert throughout the program and took keen interest of her surroundings and wanted to know why Sudha Rao and Raghu - who had participated in all the last four annual OP Nayyar Nites - were not there.

Siraj pointed out, "My mother was also the first person to offer me her condolences when OPN passed away in January 2007. Imagine receiving something like that from your own mother. I told her that he just cannot die and for me he truly hasn't!"
 
Bilqees Begum, seen sitting in her wheelchair in the photo is from Lahore Pakistan, the birth place of OPN. She is an ardent fan of Salman Dar and had come to see him on stage, in action - Salman Dar apparently brought his own cheering crowd, he got most applause when he sang Yeh chand sa roshan chehra from the film Kashmir Ki Kali starring Shammi Kapoor. Siraj included that song to pay tribute to Shammi Kapoor who recently passed away. Salman told the audience the song comes from his heart, "I was born in Srinagar, Kashmir"
 
The hall was filled with music emitting from OPN composed songs - the magic was still there, the performers were lively and entertaining. Siraj and his co-emcee, Kumkum Malik were at their best keeping the momentum going. There were 46 songs rendered that evening, I shall highlight only a few.

The Program:
Selina Banerjee, 9 years old, opened the evening with Chota sa balma from the film Raagini. Nidhi provided the singing welcome to everyone with Ayye Mehrbaan from the movie Howrah Bridge. The next number Babuji dheere chalna from Aar Paar was actually introduced by the recorded voice of OPN himself. This novelty was the brainchild of Siraj. Anuradha delivered the song with a lot of feel behind it. Another such audio clip of OPN' voice was played prior to the song KaheeN pe nigaheN from the film CID, beautifully sung by Meena. Siraj introduced the next song by saying "cannot have OPN without a horse beat" and so sang Salman and Shua Maang ke sath tumhara; from Dilip Kumar and Vajayantimala's blockbuster movie Naya Daur. The music composed in Naya Daur has to be one of OPN's biggest gems, with each and every song is a masterpiece. Imagine all this would have been lost to the world if OPN's father had won the case against his son. Young starlet Anusha delivered with great confidence the song Yahi wo jagah hai from the movie Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi. Nayanika led other singers to get the chorus affect in Thandi hawa kali ghata from the film Mr & Mrs 55. Siraj quickly added after the song completed and the applause thinned out that Poonam, 86 years old was one of the chorus singers in the original of Thandi hawa, and she was one of the recipients of benefits from the OPN Memorial Trust. One of the goals of the Trust is to help the “aged and forgotten gems of Bollyood” – Siraj, the only Trustee of Pakistani origin has personally taken care of the needs of artists falling into that category. The musical hit from Kashmir Ki Kali, diwana hua badal was beautifully sung by Vasant and Shraddh. In the intro to the above song OPN mentions in the recorded audio clip that he used “sarangi” often in his compositions. OPN is heard in the audio clip saying: “Kothay sey nikal kar hum romance main le aye – I took the sarangi out from the brothel into romance.”

Sankar, a prolific singer in local Tamil musical shows, was completely at ease with Hindi songs as well.. He had his debut in Hindi shows in Atlanta. His rendition of Jawanian ye mast mast from Shammi Kapoor’s Tumsa Nahin Dekha was breathtaking. The next song on the list Yeh hai reshmi zulfon ka from the movie Mere Sanam was delivered by Sanchi. The song from the film Mohabbat Zindagi Hai was sung by Mohan: Na Jane kyon hamare dilko. Mohan with his strong voice made this relatively less heard song alive again. Preetesh Shrivastava, President of New England Hindi Manch who was enjoying the show was making reference to this song when he was saying, “we get to hear some songs that we never knew about, and discover to our delight that OP Nayyar had composed such great songs." Abrar Syed in the audience admitted that he had just come to hear his friends Mohan and Meena. He got more than he bargained for, “a good treat” he observed, “great talent here, under the same roof.” Another song from Kashmir Ki Kali was Balma khuli hawa mein, flawlessly offered by Suzana. Other singers included Fauzia singing Ye lo mein hari pyaand Rageshree rendering zara haule haule chalo. After Suzana and Nayanika were done with the duet reshmi shalwar kurta jali ka, Suzana turned to Siraj and made a comment about his being the only person in a white kurta and shalwar. Siraj almost blushing on that unexpected remark revealed that whenever he comes on stage for a OPN Nite, he always wears something from OPN's wardrobe and that day was no exception.
 
The enchanted evening that continued on till late night eventually came to an exciting end with OP's immortal debut hit, Preetam Aan Milo originally sung by C.H. Atma. The song was sung not only by the entire team (they call themselves OPiums) led by Siraj Khan, but were also joined passionately by the audience, with the lights dimmed and the diya alight in front of a picture of OP Nayyar on stage. 

Some Notable Comments:
Ranjani Saigal of Lokvani magazine - summed it in just two words: Brilliant talent. This is OPN greatness and an inspiration to so many artists, all coming together in one place.

Bipin Parekh - whom I mentioned in the first OPN article, 11 months ago had attended the show when their daughter was expecting any minute - "Ariana is now 11 months old", the grandfather said proudly.

Ghafoor Sheikh who hails from Pakistan, also attended the last OPN show: Siraj and Javed have worked very hard to bring the concert to the community and invoke old childhood memories. Compared to the last program, "Bigger venue, many artists, well groomed"

Anu Warrier of India told the mother (Shridar Kulkarni) regarding Anusha - "she is absolutely amazing."

Mohammad Moinuddin of Quincy enjoyed the show very much and praised the local talent.

Javaid Aziz of Pakistan - "Took me back to the University days in the 60's - Students used to play the song, "jawanian ye mast mast bin piye.." each time girls went by - girls seemed to be flattered, not offended."

Kanna Vembu: I spent many hours listening to OPN songs. Hearing this today is just unbelievable, takes us back to our times. His union with Rafi and Shammi Kapoor is a match made in heaven.

An appropriate tribute to OPN:
It is quite amazing to see people in their upper 70 and 80's enjoying the show, and despite their age and fragility they were able to sit throughout the show for 5 hours - without a single complaint - Old is really Gold.

|