It was with great sadness and a heavy heart that I took in the news of Arthur Nayyar, popularly known as A Nayyar having passed away on Friday at the age of 66 in Lahore.
My mind switched back to the young Christian lad with curly hair and rather tallish but healthy looks when he appeared in PTV producer Hasnat Ahmad’s ‘Naghma’ with lyrics “Ji rahe hain hum tanha, aur tera ghum tanha, kaise hum uthaenge tera har situm tanha”. It used to be a tradition to record songs as fillers in between main programmes, a beautiful tradition now dispensed by PTV. He was seated on a chair in the middle with empty chairs encircling him. His voice resembled the voice of Indian singer Kishore Kumar. It was a song of loneliness sung with pathos. This song was later lifted for Pakistani film ‘Sharmeeli’ starring Mumtaz. Set to music by Karim Shahabuddin, its lyrics were penned by Younis Hamdam. Nayyar was an educated lad and I remember him having sung in chorus with me leading a song in the 1970s.
Nayyar played a very successful innings as a playback singer, a stage performer and singer at radio and Pakistan Television. For the last decade or so, he was forgotten by the producers of music on these forums and his appearances were scarce. The reasons offered were forwarded by A Nayyar himself to a local daily, “I was offered a few songs by new filmmakers, but either the songs had vulgar verses or copied tunes. So I refused them straight away. Singing and good singing has some mannerisms and moralities. Director Altaf Hussain asked me to sing a song to the tune of popular Hindi song “Chandni, o meri Chandni” that would be changed to “Nadira, o meri Nadira”. Iqbal Kashmiri asked me to sing a song which has been sung by Kumar Sanu, “Barsat Ke Mausam May Ghar Say Nikal Aya”. I asked Kashmiri Sahib to invite Sanu and ask him to sing the song because it had the same lyrics and tune. By the way, Kumar Sanu considers me his guru and has even recorded an album of my songs he has sung.”
It was on my return from the UK in the 1970s after completing my higher studies that I noted two new singers singing in Lahore. Nayyar belonged to Lahore and Rubina Badar had come to Lahore for film and TV singing. Her song from PTV Karachi centre, “Tum Sung Naina Lage Mane Na hi Jiya Ra” with lyrics penned by Asad Muhammad Khan had already become popular. Both got opening by music composer A Hameed when they were selected for playback voices of Nadeem and Nisho in the song “Kahin Din Kut Jaen Kahin Shaam Dhal Jae” for the 1974 film ‘Bahisht’. Before this song, he had already appeared in PTV’s programme ‘Naye Fankaar’ (new singers). In one of his statements to the media, Nayyar claimed famous singer Ahmed Rushdi as an important contributor to his career as he learned playback singing from Rushdi. Incidentally Nayyar and Akhlaq Ahmed remained dominant playback singers of Pakistani film industry in the 1980s.
Site Urduwire states that the 1970s was an era of literature and art; the whole world experienced a classy richness in creativity in that era. Pakistan was no exception. Celluloid business in Pakistan bolstered. A major chunk of this roaring success of movies at the box office was due to pleasing music and some magnificent playback singers and A Nayyar was a part of it. Nayyar used to live in Arifwala until grade five, where he used to watch films in Rachna Cinema and enjoy songs by Muhammad Rafi, Talat Mahmood and Salim Raza. He got his initial inspiration for singing from these singers who hailed from India and Pakistan. He confided that the cinema was so close to his house that he could clearly listen to what point the film was at or which song was playing. He disclosed that he also used to approach music director Wajahat Atre and Mehdi Hassan for guidance.
In Lahore, he got into St Francis and completed his matriculation after which he got admission in Forman Christian College. He graduated with a BEd degree from Government Central Training College in 1975. According to Nayyar, his date of birth is April 14, 1955 born in Ransonabad Village, Sahiwal district.
Nayyar lent his voice to nearly all the leading heroes of Pakistani film industry but he was particularly happy to lend his voice to his favourite actor Munnawar Zarif for the film ‘Ayaash’.