Legendary music composer Khayyam, who has given music to some of the most memorable Hindi films like Kabhie Kabhie and Umrao Jaan, has been admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Sujay Hospital. He was admitted to the hospital on 4 August, due to a lung infection.
"He is right now in ICU, serious but stable. Doctors are attending to him. At this point, we don't know when he will get discharged from the hospital but we are all praying for his speedy recovery," Ghazal singer Talat Aziz, a close family friend of Khayyam, told PTI.
The musician is a recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Padma Bhushan. The veteran composer, lyricist and writer Khayyam, 92, started his music career in Ludhiana in 1943 at the age of 17. In 1981, he composed music for the sensitive blockbuster film Umrao Jaan, ranked among the all time best Bollywood films and considered the jewel in the crown of Khayyam's compositions, for which he bagged the National Award, and also a Filmfare Award, besides a string of other honours.
Explaining this, Khayyam once said: "My biggest challenge was that Umrao Jaan should not only look different, but asound different' to make it stand apart from Pakeezah in which most songs were sung by Lata Mangeshkar for the heroine Meena Kumari. So, nearly a decade later in Umrao Jaan, I only used Asha Bhosale's voice for the heroine Rekha."
In 2016, Khayyam and his singer-wife Jagjit Kaur endeared themselves to the masses when they set up the 'Khayyam-Jagjit Kaur KPG Charitable Trust', and donated their entire wealth to be utilized to fund upcoming artistes and technicians in Bollywood.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)