It's the peak of a political season. We are dealing with an essential question .... practically every hour; -- Who is a Good Politician. But even for vultures like us -- making livelihood and profit from politics -- getting a straight answer to this question is quite tough.
On a different plane one can argue -- a good politician can be like a good poet. I am not talking about the self-styled poetess-neta (netri). That's beside the point. But a true political leader or a true poet (lyricist) is someone whose work touches the right chords with the people.
Taking about lyricists in the Hindi film industry, one cannot miss Gulzar. He is Sampooran Singh -- also a perfect gentleman. Many years later it appears it could have been only Gulzar -- the irreplaceable gem - who could have penned ----
“Mora gora ang laee ley, mohey shyam rang dei de / Chhoop jaungi raat hi mein, mohey pee ka sang dei de”
(‘Take my fair body, colour/convert me as dark as Shyam / I will hide myself in the night, ........). This is from illustrious Bimal Roy's 'Bandini' made in the year 1963. Gulzar's admirers and those who followed his work minutely would say in more ways than one -- Gulzar was fortunate enough to start his career with a maestro like Bimal Roy.
Gulzar's works either in the form of film songs or some powerful dialogues in films have one thing common. It is very very deep and yet simplistic and inherent.
In the year 2002 - the year of communal mayhem in Gujarat - I met him in Mumbai at a news briefing where he and other co-stars of his spoke about a stage play they were still working on 'a middle class life when the town is burning'. I fail to remember the one-liners but a few from a female protagonist of the play would leave the audience spellbound and perhaps with moist eyes.
As we were interacting and asking him questions -- one could also realise that each one of will have our own parameter for defining a good writer or a lyricist.
Gulzar gave another memorable piece in 1969-made film 'Khamoshi'.
And the graceful line was --- ‘Humne Dekhi Hai Un Aankhon Ki Mehakti Khusboo’ --- Just appreciate the fact that the poet is able to
see the "fragrance of the eyes". (Aankhon Ki Mehakti Khusboo).
The song and the film had unorthodox opening.
'Khamoshi' was shot in Calcutta and was based on the Bengali short story titled
"Nurse Mitra" by noted writer, Ashutosh Mukherjee and is a remake of director Asit Sen's own Bengali film, 'Deep Jwele Jae' (1959), starring Suchitra Sen.
Discover the other side of Gulzar - the political side ... It came out best in film 'Machis' and the dialogue is by Om Puri (Sanatan - a terrorist)
"Aadhe 47 le gaya tha, aadhe chourasi (1984) kha gaya" (Half were taken by '47, and remaining half of my family were consumed by 1984 riots)". -
Another poignant statement of the terrorist is --
मैं किसी धर्म या देश की लड़ाई नहीं लड़ रहा हूँ , मेरी लड़ी इस सिस्टम के ख़िलाफ़ है | (I am not fighting any battle for any religion or country; my battle is against the system".
About his songs, one can say they are serious and they could make statements about you or about things around you; but Gulzar does not throw them at you. It appears -- every line he writes comes gradually and they are open for interpretation. Otherwise how would you describe numbers like -- "Is Mod pe (Aandhi) -- and it does so much justice to the film and also the stars SuchitraSen and Sanjeev Kumar.
Another "Biti na bitaen Raina (from Parichay)' is also a magical. Gulzar is also the person credited for depicting Ghalib's true life story in the serial of Doordarshan era. In the process, Ghalib's poetry was popularized when put to excellent music by Jagjit Singh.
Ends
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