‘Ye mahlon ye takhton ye taajon ki duniya / Ye insaan ke dushman samaajon ki duniya / Ye daulat ke bhooke rivaajon ki duniya / Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai’ [‘This world of palaces, thrones and crowns / This world of societies that hate humanity / This world that hungers for nothing but wealth / Even if one obtains this world, so what?’]
When we hear this haunting song from Pyaasa, the man that immediately comes to mind is Guru Dutt, the director and tragic legend. But Sahir Ludhianvi, the man who wrote these beautiful lyrics, was an equally big legend.
Sahir, an Urdu poet and lyricist who wrote songs that mesmerised the post-Independence generation, passed away on October 25, 1980. He was born as Abdul Hayee on March 10, 1921 in Karimpura, a Muslim neighbourhood of Ludhiana in Punjab. Because of family problems and his parents' separation, his growing-up days were marked by anxiety and financial problems.
After matriculation, he joined Ludhiana’s Satish Chander Dhawan Government College For Boys. The young Sahir displayed an early taste for ghazals and songs. According to rumours, he was expelled from college for sitting on the principal’s lawn with a female student! In 1943, he moved to Lahore and joined Dayal Singh College. Here, he was elected president of the student body and published his first book of poems, Talkhiyaan (Bitterness). Hinting both at his politics and the creative origins of his poetry, he wrote in the book: ‘Duniya ne tajrubaat o hawaadis ki shakl mein / Jo kuch mujhe diya hai, wo lauta rahaa hoon main’ (‘What the world, in the form of experiences and accidents bestowed upon me, I am returning’).
He later worked as an editor for several Urdu magazines, and became a member of the Left-leaning Progressive Writers’ Association. He fled to Delhi after the Pakistan government issued an arrest warrant against him for so-called inflammatory, pro-communist and anti-Pakistan writings.
About Pakistan he wrote, the words dripping with irony: "Chalo us kufr ke ghar se salaamat aa gaye lekin khuda ki mamlekat mein sokhta khaanon pe kya guzri" (Thank God we arrived safe from the land of infidels; but in God’s own kingdom, what happened to the brokenhearted?)
From Delhi he moved to Bombay. He made his debut as a Hindi film lyricist with the film Azadi Ki Raah Par in 1948, writing four songs in it. It was, however, in 1951, with the release of two films, Naujawan and Baazi, that the legend of Sahir Ludhianvi was born. He worked with most major music directors of the fifties and sixties, such as Roshan, Madan Mohan, Khaiyyam, and S. D. Burman.
Many consider his lyrics in the 1957 film Pyaasa as his finest work as song-writer. ‘Jinhen Naaz Hai Hind Par Woh Kahaan Hain’, 'Jaane Kya Maine Suni’, ‘Sar Jo Tera Chakraaye’, ‘Jaane Woh Kaise Log The Jin Ke Pyaar Ko Pyaar Mila’, ‘Hum Aapki Aankhon Mein Is Dil Ko Basa Dein Toh’, and ‘Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye Toh Kya Hai’ are in the list of all-time favourite numbers even today.
Writing about Sahir, journalist and writer Khushwant Singh said in The Tribune: “Unlike other men of letters who never miss an opportunity to praise themselves, Sahir modestly conceded that he was no more than a writer of songs designed to fit into a film plot. He rebelled against authority and hated the rich. In his celebrated poem on the Taj Mahal, he execrated emperor Shah Jahan, who ordered its construction and praised stone masons who gave it shape and beauty. In another poem Chaklay (brothels), he wrote sympathetically of prostitutes while castigating their rich clients. His forte was sarcasm.”
However, Sahir was much more than a “writer of songs”, and he was himself aware, perhaps painfully at times, of how he was perceived in certain literary circles:
‘Mere sarkash taraane sun ke duniya ye samajhti hai / ke shaayad mere dil ko ishq ke naghmon se nafrat hai / mujhe hangaama e jang o jadal se kaif milta hai / meri fitrat ko khoonrezi ke afsaanon se raghbat hai . . .’ [‘When the world hears my angry songs, it assumes / That perhaps my heart abhors love songs / That I derive pleasure from the turmoil of war and conflict / That by nature, I love stories of bloodshed . . .’]
In the 1970s he mainly worked for director Yash Chopra’s films, and wrote memorable songs for films like Kabhie Kabhie (1976). He died after suffering a heart attack on October 25, 1980.
On his death, the Punjabi poet and writer Amrita Pritam, who was very close to Sahir, wrote poignantly: “The beginning of this story was silent, and the end too, all through the age, has remained silent. Forty years back, when Sahir used to visit me in Lahore, he would come and quietly smoke cigarettes. When the ashtray was filled to the brim with cigarette-stubs, he would go away. After he had gone, I would light and smoke those cigarettes alone. The smoke from me and his cigarettes would mingle in the air, the breaths too mingled in the air, and words from poems as well, in the air . . .”
Sahir Ludhianvi is no more, but his songs remain, and millions of people still find solace in them.
Also on this day:
1945 — Aparna Sen, Bengali filmmaker and actress, was born
1962 — Soni Razdan, film actress, was born
2012 — Jaspal Bhatti, television personality and humorist, died
