Legendary Music Composer Khayyam's Last Rites Performed With State Honours. Javed Akhtar, Gulzar And Others Attend Funeral

Khayyam died in Mumbai. He was 92. (Courtesy: minbollywood)

National Award-winning music director Mohammed Zahir Hashmi, renowned as 'Khayyam,' was cremated with full state honours at a Muslim cemetery in Mumbai after prominent Bollywood personalities bid him a tearful adieu here on Tuesday evening. Khayyam's mortal remains were kept at his home in Daskshina Park Society, Juhu, to enable people to pay their last respects to the legendary music composer, who passed away at the age of 92 following a brief illness on Monday. At around 3.30 p.m. on Tuesday, his funeral procession with a Mumbai Police escort team of pallbearers started for the cemetery as a large number of friends, Bollywood personalities and his admirers joined, said his spokesperson Pritam Sharma, reported news agency IANS.

After the procession reached the Four Bungalow Kabrastan, his body was laid to rest amid a 21-gun salute as Muslim priests performed the last rites. Khayyam's ailing wife and well-known playback singer Jagjit Kaur also attended the last rites on a wheelchair and broke down several times as the funeral rituals were performed.

Many Bollywood personalities including Raza Murad, Javed Akhtar, Gulzar, Ashok Pandit, Tabassum, Sanjay Khan, Poonam Dhillon, Vishal Bharadwaj, Sonu Nigam, Suresh Wadkar, Talat Aziz, Shabbir Kumar, Nitin Mukesh, Jatin Pandit and Lalit Pandit, Uttam Singh, Alka Yagnik, and others visited his home and the burial grounds to pay their last respects.

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in paying tributes to Khayyam while Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachchan and other personalities also condoled his demise.

India will remain grateful to Khayyam Sahab for giving us some of the most memorable compositions, which will be remembered forever. He will also be remembered for his humanitarian gestures to support upcoming artists. His demise is extremely saddening.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 19, 2019

Mahan sangeetkar Aur bahut nek dil insan Khayyam sahab aaj humare bich nahi rahe. Ye sunkar mujhe itna dukh hua hai jo main bayaa'n nahi kar sakti.Khayyam sahab ke saath sangeet ke ek yug ka anth hua hai.Main unko vinamra shraddhanjali arpan karti hun. pic.twitter.com/8d1iAM2BPd

— Lata Mangeshkar (@mangeshkarlata) August 19, 2019

T 3262 - .. a legend in music .. a soft spoken amiable soul .. one that contributed to several films and some of the more important ones of mine .. passes away .. KHAYAM sahib .. for all the memorable music he conducted and produced .. prayers condolences

— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) August 19, 2019

Saddened to learn of the passing of Khayyam Sahab. A legendary music composer, his music brought joy to millions. Khayyam Sahab will always be remembered for his compositions. My condolences to his family and well-wishers #PresidentKovind

— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) August 20, 2019

The master of the musical baton, Khayyam leaves behind a rich legacy of some of the most memorable songs, classical and modern, in films and private albums across various genres of music during his career spanning over six decades. He was conferred several awards including the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and the National Award for his soulful tunes in the 1981 film Umrao Jaan.