REMEMBERING SAHIR LUDHIANVI after 33 years of his Death:: A GREAT SON OF THE SOIL: TRUE INDIAN MESSIAH OF HUMANITY :: Remembering Sahir Ludhianvi By Mahendra Ved “Rishwat sey moonh bandh they sabkey ab phootenge bhandey…. Duniya bhar ke mulkon men hoga Bharat badnam jitni izzat bani thi, ab sab hogi nilam.” (Bribery had sealed their mouths, but they will be exposed now Bharat will get a bad name through the world Reputation it has built will be destroyed ....) Poet and lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi penned this warning years ago. Will they prove right today? Sahir will always be remembered along with Kaifi Azmi as the poet who brought Urdu literature to Indian motion pictures. Composers and singers of Sahirs time swear by the depth, intensity and purity in his poetry. His poetry and lyrics have remained an inspiration for lyricists of the day. A colossus amongst film lyricists, Sahir Ludhianvi was different from his contemporaries, a poet unable to praise Khuda (God), Husn (Beauty) or Jaam (Wine). His pen was at its best spewing bitter but sensitive lyrics over the declining values of society, the senselessness of war and politics, and the domination of materialism over love. When he did write love songs, and he wrote lots of them, they were tinged with sorrow, of rejection and dejection. Up to a point that was autobiographical, the way he described in Pyasa, “Jaaney who kaise long they jinke pyar jo pyar mila.” It was also due to the realisation that there were other, starker concepts more important than love. He could be called the underdogs bard; close to his heart were the farmers crushed by debt, the soldier gone to fight someone elses war, the woman forced to sell her body, the youth frustrated by unemployment, the family living on the street and other victims of society. His lyric from Pyasa’s lead actor Guru Dutt passing through a red light area singing “Jinhey naaz hai Hind par who kahan hain?” moved even Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime minister of India that time. Pyaasa, some say, bears resemblance to Sahirs early years as a poet. The onscreen poet, Vijay played by Guru Dutt, bears a strong likeness to the man whose poetry gave the film its soul. Who can forget “Yeh Duniya agar mil bhi jaye toh kya hai?” Who can forget his parody on allama Iqbal’s “Saare jahan sey achha Hindustan Hamara” that took the form of Chin-o-Arab Hamara, Hindustan hamara, rehney ko ghar nahin hai, saara jahan jahan hamara”? Some say it was equally a parody on Nehruvian ideas of internationalism. Sahir Ludhianvis poetry had a Faizian quality. Like Faiz Ahmed Faiz, he too gave Urdu poetry an intellectual element that caught the imagination of the youth of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He helped them discover their spine. Sahirs poetry reflected the mood of the age. The arrest of progressive writers in Pakistan, the launch of the satellite Sputnik or the sudden discovery of Ghalib by a government lusting after minority votes --- Sahir reacted with a verve not seen in many other writers work. Kahat-e-Bangal (The Famine of Bengal), written by a 25-year-old Sahir, bespeaks maturity that came early. His Subah-e-Navroz (Dawn of a New Day), mocks the concept of celebration when the poor exist in squalor. His friend, Prakash Pandit once recalled how, after the Partition of India, Sahir was unhappy without the company of his Hindu and Sikh friends (they had all fled to India). A secular India was Sahirs preference to an Islamic Pakistan. When he preached freedom and independent thinking, he practised it too. He fought for, and became the first lyricist or songwriter, to get royalties from music companies. Sahir insisted on writing the songs before the song was composed, against the Bollywood norm, and by and large, succeeded. At the height of his popularity, Sahir is known to have demanded a rupee more than what was paid to Lata Mangeshkar for singing it. It was on Sahirs insistence that All India Radio started crediting lyricists along with singers and music composers for songs it aired. That his poetry remains popular four decades after he passed away was more than evident at the “Sahir ki Kalam Se” evening organized by the International Melody Foundation (IMF) in New Delhi recently. This was one of the single poet evenings the IMF organises and Sahir, indeed, was a repeat performance by public demand in New Delhi. Even then, the one at the India Habitat Centre on June 3 had several enthusiastic people standing in the isles. Chief Guest of the evening was Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi, whose views on public health and management issues are known, but not so much his love for Urdu and Hindi poetry. Scintillating performances came from Mumbaibased group led by Supriya Joshi, who has done a doctorate in classical based Hindi film songs. Among the star performers were Sagar Savarkar, Sarvesh Mishra, Anand Bahal and Pooja Gopalan. That Sahir has fans in Pakistan goes without saying. Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India, Shahid Malik, could not find a chair during the earlier performance and had to be seated on the stage, in the wings. This time, he came early enough to find a chair. Called on the stage, he touched upon how he looks at the current turbulent times back home, briefly and diplomatically, quoting none else but Sahir: “har fiqr ko dhuen men udata chala gaya…” Along with him was Pakistan’s lady lawmaker Kashmala Tariq, who repeatedly talked of “joining the strings” among the people of India and Pakistan. Secretary General and principal organizer, Dr Harish Bhalla said the Sahir Ludhianvi Foundation will work to promote poetry and music, keeping aloft the high standards set by Sahir. Sahir will always be remembered as a poet who made his creation a lesson for all ages of Urdu poetry to come. In this way he contradicts his own creation: kal aur ayenge naghmo ki khilti kalian chunnewale, koi mujhse behtar kehnewale, koi tumse behtar sunne wale; kal koi mujhe keun yaad kare, keun koi mujhe yaad kare, masroof zamana mere lie keun waqt apna barbad kare? Translation: There will be others to recite love poems tomorrow. Perhaps, a better narrator than me, to a better listener than you. Why should anyone remember me? Why would the busy age waste it’s time for me?
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 15:49:26 +0000
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