Poets songs A recent book celebrates the poetic credentials of Tanveer Naqvi who raised the level of film lyrics By Sarwat Ali In the equation of the vocalist, composer and the lyricist, the latter is probably the most neglected in film music Time and again, books and articles have been published to establish the poetic credentials of a lyricist in the face of either low priority or neglect. One such book on Tanveer Naqvi titled Dil Ka Diya Jalaya by Sikkedar too was an attempt to raise his stature as a poet. Despite the great popularity of his songs, the vocalist and the composers had hogged most of the attention. Khurshed Ali whom the world knew as Tanveer Naqvi was born in Lahore in 1919. His family lived in Iran for some time till it came back and settled in Koocha Fakir inside Bhati Gate. When Tanveer Naqvis poems titled Sunehri Sapne were published, he left Lahore for Bombay on the invitation of A.R. Kardar who had read the poems and got associated with Sarco Productions. According to some, the first song he wrote was for Swami in 1940, composed by Rafiq Ghaznavi while others believe he wrote for Nai Duniya composed by Naushad. In those days, the trend of songs was to present mostly geets and other compositions which were traditional or popular with slight alterations, either done by the composers themselves or at best lesser-known lyricists familiar with the idiom of the geet. It was rare that a poet was requested or engaged to rearrange the lyrics according to the situation or the popular requirements of the times. The established poets avoided writings for the films and if they were forced to or lured into like Josh Malihabadi or Arzoo Lakhnavi their effort was subject to much criticism by the followers of serious poetry. and It was actually Tanveer Naqvi who raised the level of film lyrics. He did not remain a part-timer poached from the world of literature but got involved fully to be recognised as a lyricist who could maintain a certain standard while keeping the musical requirements of the melody in mind. Another person who had attained legendry status as a lyricist of the films was Din Nath Madhok. He was, in the first two decades of the talkies, the leading songwriter and it is said that he also knew music very well. It is also said that many compositions attributed to the composer were actually given finishing touches by Madhok. So powerful were his aesthetics that could bring together the word and the note into an artistic union. One of the limitations of writings songs for films was the two stock scenes or situations; one was called Love Call and the other Love Spot. The former was always in the shape of a song in which the desperate lover yearned for the beloved. The beloved could hear this song whether he or she was within hearing distance or thousands of miles away. It was like a call and addressed to the beloved. Love Spot was the point where the lovers met and the physical reality of the space had to be evoked through a song. The limitations imposed by censorship were immense and most of the romance had to be demonstrated in words. These restrictions in both the situations did not always augur well for good lyrics, rather in rehashing of the old and traditional stuff. In the early phase of sub-continental cinema, the classical forms were abridged so that its compositional part could be highlighted to fit in the time slot allocated to a single film song. Since these songs were also marketed separately, the technological limitation of the 78-rpm record too happened to be the determining factor in the song duration. It settled down to one aasthai and two antaras with a couple of interval pieces all adding up to about three minutes of music. The founding fathers like Jhande Khan, R.C Boral, Panna Lal Ghosh, Ghulam Haider and Punkaj Malik and the second generation including Anil Biswas, Khem Chand Prakash, Khurshid Anwar, Firoz Nizami and Naushad served film music to the best of their creative abilities. This was the new platform that had endless possibilities. It catered to popular music and popular taste, avoided pure abstraction, heightened the dramatic conflict of the film and did not really have to conform to the many limitations that classical music imposed on itself. It was also extremely well paying. It attracted talented composers and singers as the options of creating and performing were on the decrease. In the second quarter of the twentieth century the princely states were beset with their own problems of scarce resources. Tanveer Naqvi became a sought-after lyricist and when the songs of Anmol Garhi were released, he became the leading songwriter in the industry as most of the songs written by him and composed by Naushad became very popular. It set new standard for lyrics, which could be seen as a separate form or category-different from conventional poetry. Tanveer Naqvi also was asked to write songs for K. Asifs Mughal-e-Azam and he did a couple but due to some misunderstanding an impatient K. Asif asked others to write songs for the same film. When Tanveer Naqvi got to know of it, annoyed he withdrew his geets. He had the same geet recorded in Pakistan for Anarkali. And for the Indian film Shirin Farhad. At about partition, the songs of Parwana were very popular and this probably was the last K.L Saigal film to be released. Most of his geets were composed by the likes of Khursheed Anwar and Rasheed Attre. In the later days some of the compositions of A. Hameed for film Dosti, Nisar Bazmi for Lakhon Mein Aik with his lyrics became hugely popular.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 01:37:21 +0000
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