Lyrics in the Bygone Hindi Cinema… Philosophy, Love and Magic!!

Vinny Khinda

May 29, 2020

“Chatt pe soya thaa behnoyi, main tanne samajh ke so gayee…!!” Well, before you go into shock, allow me to explain that I chose to start with Chatt pe soya, because this was the very bottom of abyss that Hindi cinema lyrics could have fallen to. But then we must thank Javed Akhtar for saving us from mass suicide when around the same time, he wrote, “Ek ladki ko dekha to aisa laga… Jaise Khilta Gulab, Jaise Shayar ka Khwab, Jaise Ujali Kiran, Jaise Bann Mein Hiran, Jaise Chandani Raat, Jaise Narmi Ki Baat, Jaise Mandir Mein Ho Ek Jalta Diya…” Its for nothing that Allama Iqbal wrote, “Kuchh baat hai ki hastī miTtī nahīñ hamārī, sadiyoñ rahā hai dushman daur-e-zamāñ hamārā.” Thank you Javed Sahab for redeeming us, our self-respect and our confidence in our culture.

The lyricists of the golden era of Hindi film music were no ordinary pen-pushers. They were poets of very high calibre. Moreover, they were thinkers, philosophers, psychologists, healers and what not, all rolled into one. They had grassroots background, the proverbial sons-of-the-soil. They had seen life in its entirety, from inside out, the reason that whatever they wrote, had a philosophical ring to it. This was the kind of wisdom that probably pushed the great Sahir Ludhianvi to write, “Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya, har fikr ko dhooeyein mein urata chala gaya.” Sahir’s actual name was Abdul Hayee and in 1947 he had to flee Lahore, ultimately finding success in Bombay, but not before his share of immense, back breaking struggle.

Born in a Shia muslim family  in the village of Mizwaan in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, Kaifi Azmi is remembered as the one who brought Urdu literature to Indian motion pictures. What he wrote is the stuff of legends. Sample some of these; Waqt ne kiya, kya haseen sitam, tum rahe ne tum, hum rahe na hum; Yeh nayan dare dare, yeh jaam bhare bhare; Chalte Chalte.. yoon hi koi, mil gaya thaa; Dheere dheere machal, ae dile bekarar, koi aata hai; and last but no way the least, Tum jo itna muskura rahe ho, kya gam hai jis ko chupa rahe ho.

Sampooran Singh Kalra was born in a Sikh household in Jhelum, British India, (present-day Pakistan). He could not continue with his studies due to Partition of India and came to Bombay where he took up many small jobs to eke out a living, including one in a garage where his  job was to touch up accident-damaged cars by mixing shades of paint. Sampooran enjoyed his work as a painter as it allowed him a lot of time to simultaneously read, write, attend college and be involved with the PWA (Progressive Writers Association). His hard work paid off and in his long innings he has ended up as one of the most illustrious of the Indian lyricists, poet, author, screenwriter, and film director. “Dil dhoondta, hai fir wahi, fursat ke raat din…” is one, but a minuscule example from his vast ocean of work. Honored with a plethora of awards that include Padma Bhushan, the Sahitya Akademi Award, several Indian National Film Awards, 21 Filmfare Awards, a Grammy, and also the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award in Indian cinema, today the world knows Sampooran Singh by his pen name, Gulzar.

One of the best-known of the verses of Urdu poetry was given by Majrooh Sultanpuri. It goes like this, “Main akela hee chala tha janibe manzil magar, log saath aate gaye aur carvan banta gaya!” Majrooh sahab received the traditional ‘Madrasa education’ and later studied Unani medicine to become a Hakim, a career he struggled with as it was not his calling. He ultimately dropped his practice of medicine in pursuit of writing poetry, full time. The world is glad he did that.

There are some exhilarating stories behind many of the songs that became a rage. One is that of the legendary Hasrat Jaipuri. When he was around twenty years old, he fell in love with a neighborhood girl by the name of Radha. Later on, during one of the interviews, Hasrat is quoted to have said, “Love knows no religion. My love for her was silent, I never confessed, but I wrote a poem for her; Yeh mera prem patra padh kar, tum naaraaz na hona, ke tum meri zindagi ho, ke tum meri bandagi ho…” Whether his love letter actually got delivered to Radha is not known, but later on in 1964, another giant of Hindi cinema, Raj Kapoor fell in love with his ‘love letter’ and filmed a song on it in his super-hit film Sangam. The song was a chartbuster and still is, some half a century later.

Among the lyricists, if there was a prince of romance in 70s and 80s, it was Anand Bakshi, the man behind those innumerable starry-eyed compositions, lip syncing to which, Rajesh Khannna hit such a pinnacle of super-stardom that no male actor of Hindi film industry has since then or will ever be able to measure up to it. Yeh shaam mastani, Hum dono do premi duniya chorr challe, Yeh jo mohabbat hai, Kuch to log kaheinge… If Khanna was the voice of romance on-screen, Bakshi‘s were the words.

Perhaps the most under-rated and forgotten of the great pack of poet-lyricists is a genius known by the name of Shailendra, who in his short life-span of 43 years, has left behind a treasure trove of beautiful memories for the music lovers. Born in Rawalpindi and brought up in Mathura, Shailendra started composing poems, sitting on a rock located on the banks of a pond, in-between railway quarters and railway line near Mathura station. Today, the man might be forgotten, but who can ever erase from our minds his iconic penning of the compositions for hundreds of films in 50s and 60s. Shailendra had just finished writing the antara of the prophetic and immortal composition, “Jeena yahan, marna yahan, iss ke siwa jaana kahan” for the classic Mera Naam Joker and had begun working on rest of it, when he tragically passed away. Raj Kapoor asked his son Shaily Shailendra, only seventeen years of age at that time, to complete his father’s song. Shaily wrote the mukhra, doing full justice to the memory of his illustrious father.

Shakeel Badayuni, Indeevar, Nida Fazli, Sameer, and among the newer crop are, Swanand Kirkire, Prasoon Joshi, Irshad Kamil and lots of other names who have contributed immensely to the world of Hindi cinema. The list is pretty long. This being a preamble, someday I hope to write a full dissertation on the wonderful work these guys have done and the happiness they have brought into our lives.

What these poets have left behind is not just simple film lyrics. These are a take on life. They talk about the despair, the pain of separation, yearning to be reunited with the ones we love, the hope in the face of adversity, the joys of life, the beauty of being in love, or just plain ecstasy of being alive. They have left us with a philosophy so insightful, that we need not look anywhere else when we are seeking solace, wanting to love, be loved or just aiming for self-improvement.

Keep listening to good music, but at the same time, be aware of what the lyricist has to say. Who knows, you may end up discovering what you had always been yearning for!