From: Satish Subramanian [NOTE: Some comments and lyrics of Majrooh's songs added by Sats have been deleted from the following post to avoid the risk of running out of memory on my server -- Sami] In RMIM, a place which is infested with Sahir-bhakts and Gulzar fans, here is something to popularize one of my favorite lyricist, Majrooh! Majrooh, the man who has seen them all from Saigal to Shah Rukh, has been awarded, earlier this year, the Dada Saheb Phalke Award for his lifetime achievements in Indian Cinema. Here is an article on Majrooh (and also some of his songs), in three parts. The article appeared in The Hindu just after the award was given to Majrooh. Hope you will like it! -- bye satish ===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===-- He is much more than an Ordinary Poet! by Girija Rajendran for The Hindu ===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===-- For the first time in the 15 year span of the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, a poet has been recognised as deserving of the honour. And Majrooh Sultanpuri has been bestowed with the honour because he is no ordinary poet. Even while working extraordinarily successfully in films from the time of K.L.Saigal's "Shahjehan" (1946), Majrooh has maintained his standing as a man of letters in the Urdu literary world. He is at once a poetaster and a poet. As a poetaster, he can come up even today with something so simplistic as "paapa kehte hai bada naam karega" for QSQT. As a poet, his value becomes evident when Lata Mangeshkar sings some- thing written by him outside the orbit of films like "hum hain mataai-kooch-o-bazaar ki tarah". The way a poetry-oriented com- poser like Madan Mohan has tuned this one for Lata in "Dastak" gives one an insight into Majrooh's depth and dimension as a poet. In the same "Dastak", Majrooh could produce something so simple, yet heart-touching, by Lata, as "Baiyyaan na dharo bal- maa," on the one hand and "Maayi ti main ka se kahoon," on the other hand. Which one of Majrooh's thousand and one song lyrics does one choose to illuminate the point that nobody else has contributed more significantly that he towards preserving the dignity of poe- try in today's tilt towards thinly disguised vulgarity in film music? Majrooh's strength lies in the fact that he can give film songs the stamp of authenticity even in today's setting of rank mediocrity. (To continue..) ===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---=== Here is part 2 of the article on Majrooh. -- bye satish ===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===-- He is much more than an Ordinary Poet! by Girija Rajendran for The Hindu ===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===-- (Contd.) [Part II] The Dada Saheb Phalke Award is for a lifetime of achievement in films. But, traditionally, the award has gone to a man who, even while being in show business, is something more than a film per- son. And it has all along been recognised that Majrooh retained his integrity as a poet even while working in a sphere in which he had no go but to stoop to conquer. Majrooh always found it repugnant that a poet had to bring down his literary level for the business of living. "But take the history of poetry in India," he once told me, " Even in royal times you will find that the poet had always to bow in front of the royalty in court." For all that, Majrooh in 1994 is something of a legend in the film world. His lyricising has always been informed by a facile simplicity for the song to climb instantly to the lips of the listener and find a niche in the heart. Like, for instance, in the case of "hum bekhudi mein tum ko pukaare chale gaye" from "Kala Paani". If there was a poetry-conscious composer like S.D.Burman to tune such a weighty lyric, he felt happy. With R.D.Burman he did many number of jubilee hits. From S.D.Burman to R.D.Burman, Roshan to Rajesh Roshan, from Chitragupta to Anand- Milind, Majrooh has kept pace with the changing tone and tenor of film music. For him it never mattered if the song was to be written after the tune had been composed. In fact, Majrooh is considered a wizard in "to-tune". Yet the poetry part is rarely lost out, as one saw in the case of "ek din bik jaayegaa maati ke mol" as scored by R.D.Burman for RK's "Dharam Karam". Majrooh's deeply philosophic reflections on life, combined with his easy dalliance with romance ("aankhon mein kya ji"), make him the composer's delight. Majrooh's appeal has lain in the fact that he never did need to wear his Urdu literary credentials as a badge. At no point could one say Majrooh lagged behind any song writer in films. (To continue..) ===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---=== One of the important points that is made in the above article is the fact that Majrooh could write lyrics to tune. In fact, it comes as a jolt, pleasant one though, to hear that one of Talat's masterpieces "jalte hain jiske liye" was written by Majrooh after the tune and the situation had been decided by Bimal Roy, the director of "Sujata". His ability to come up with something so poetic despite all the restrictions and constraints is so amazing. In an interview he explained his secret as "I break words into its syllables and try to fit them to the notes of the tune. And also each word has its own unique sound which one has to recognize and use." But obviously there is more than that to writing lyrics - there is a situation for the song, and then the sentences should be meaningful and coherent and should rhyme with one another - and Majrooh ofcourse had the gifted ability to be the master of all that, and he made a very complicated task of writing lyrics to tune look so simple. ===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---=== Here is the third and final part of the article on Majrooh. Also some more songs of his. -- bye satish ===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===-- He is much more than an Ordinary Poet! by Girija Rajendran for The Hindu ===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===-- (Contd..) [Part III] Just when one was beginning to wonder whether Majrooh was doing true justice to himself writing something like "dil deke dekho dil deke dekho ji" for a debutante-composer Usha Khanna, he came up in the same breath, with something so compelling as "jalte hain jiske liye" for Talat under S.D.Burman. While his contemporaries needed a composer who could comprehend their Urdu 'shairi' to be effective, Majrooh could gracefully descend to the required lucidity without losing anything by way of lyrical beauty or utility. Thus, under the late Roshan's ba- ton, he could, in Lata's voice, come up with something tantalis- ingly featherweight like "Rahen na rahe hum" and something pro- found like "rehte the kabhi jin ke dil mein hum jaan se pyaaron ki tarah" in one and the same film - Asit Sen's "Mamta". That Majrooh could write for Naushad, SDBurman, Roshan, Madan Mohan, O.P.Nayyar, Lakshmikant-Pyarelal, R.D.Burman and Anand- Milind is a measure of his versatility and longevity in a field of fickle fame like films. Majrooh's abiding identity as a suc- cessful poet derives from the fact that he needs no particular composer to devlier. He moved from one composer to another as a job of work. In this sense, he has been a true professional. But one needs to be some- thing more than a remarkable professional to win something so en- vied as the Dada Saheb Phalke Award. Majrooh could have built a permanent link with Naushad after the phenomenal success of their songs of Mehboob Khan's "Andaaz" (1949). But that was not to be. When Naushad needed Majrooh back for Sridhar's "Saathi" (1968), he quietly came back to write such hits songs for that composer as "mere jeevan saathi" and "main to pyaarse". And gently moved again yet again. It is a movie man's total persona that counts and Majrooh's per- sona is that of an achiever in any milieu. [Done!] ===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---=== bye satish