|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The release of a five-rupee stamp on Sahir Ludhianvi by the Department of Posts & Telegraph is a tribute to a lyricist who never conformed to the norms of the film industry yet found acceptance in Hindi cinema. He wrote lyrics for as many as 115 films in more than three decades.
He fell in love but his feelings were never reciprocated by his lady love. He developed unconventional ideas and these soon snowballed. The result was he was told to leave college. He arrived in Bombay in 1949. His tryst with lyric writing began with Mahesh Kaul’s Naujawan "Thandi hawayen lehra ke aayen". But fame came to him with "Tadbeer se bigadi huyee taqdeer bana ley" for Baazi. This was followed by the chartbuster "Yeh rat yeh chandni phir kahan" for Jaal. Sahir took film lyrics to the heights of poetry. Sahir’s style was simple and direct and his words were designed to touch senses and sensibilities. Sahir made his songs vehicles for the dissemination of his social commitments and iconoclastic ideas. He castigated the crass materialism in society with "Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kiya hai". However, he never lost faith in the collective power of people as is evident in "Saathi haath badhana" (Naya Daur). For a new-born abandoned baby in Dhool Ka Phool, he wrote "Tu Hindu banega na musalmaan banega." To a dejected and disappointed person, he gave a word of encouragement in "Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya" Sahir’s mastery over Urdu language, immaculate diction, intensity of feelings and emotions and enchanting style of expression made him a lyricist of a different kind. Sahir was a great believer in Sufi thought as is apparent in "Hindu na musalmaan hai ishq." When Sahir spotted his estranged lady love after her marriage, emotion drove him to spontaneously vent his feelings into words, "Chalo ek bar phir se ajnabi ban jayein hum dono". This was plaint was immortalised by B. R. Chopra in film Gumrah. His poetry was capable of arousing emotions. Be it patriotic numbers like "Yeh desh hai veer jawano ka" or a captivating qawwali like "Na to karvaan ki talash hai" or a scintillating ghazal "Ashqon mein jo paya who geeto mein diya hai" or touching bhajan "Allah tero naam ishwar tero naam" seldom has the confluence of words and music been so divinely inspired. More than five decades have gone by but his songs remain as fresh as ever. Sahir’s lyrics are vibrantly alive. When for Yash Chopra’s magnum opus Kabhi Kabhie, Sahir wrote "Main pal do pal ka shayar hoon", Sahir did not foresee that his lyrics would win for him a place in the immortals of Indian cinema. The stamp salutes his poetic prowess.
|
|||
|
|
|||
Abdul Hayee, alias Sahir
Ludhianvi, was born at Ludhiana on March 8, 1921. His father was a
feudal landlord, who was fond of both wine and women. Sahir’s mother
Sardar Begum was the fourth wife of his father Fazal Mohammed, who
ill-treated her. Sahir was hardly eight months old when his mother
left her husband and took Sahir with her. The matter went into the
court. Sahir went to school but parental discord hurt his psyche
deeply. Scarred by these events, he found solace in poetry. He joined
Government College, Ludhiana. He was barely 19 when a satirical verse
on emperor Shah Jahan, "Ek shenshah ne daulat ka sahara lekar
hum garibon ki mohabbat ka uradaya hai mazaq" that he recited
at a college function created a stir in literary circles. He gave
himself a pseudonym ‘Sahir’ a magician.