Sahir Ludhianvi

Sahir Ludhianvi (March 8, 1921 – October 25, 1980) was a popular Urdu poet and Hindi lyricist and songwriter. Sahir Ludhianvi is his pseudonym. He won the Filmfare Award twice, in 1964 and 1977, and in 1971 was awarded the Padma Shri [ [http://india.gov.in/myindia/advsearch_awards.php Padma Shri] Official listings, Govt. of India ] .

Early life

Sahir Ludhianvi was born into the wealthy family of a Muslim "zamindaar" as Abdul Hayee on March 8, 1921 in Ludhiana, Punjab [http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20041024/spectrum/main5.htm Sahir: The poet lives on] The Tribune, October 24, 2004.] . Sahir's parents had a very loose and estranged relationship. In 1934, when he was thirteen years old, his father married for the second time. At that time, his mother decided to take the bold step of leaving her husband, forfeiting all claims to the financial assets. Sahir's father then sued his mother for child custody but lost. He threatened to make sure Sahir did not live with his mother very long, even if that meant taking the child's life. ["Sahir Ludhianvi: Life Sketch and Poetry", by Prakash Pandit, Rajpal and Sons, 1995., p 12.] Sahir's mother then found friends who kept a close watch on him and didn't let him out of sight. Fear and financial deprivation surrounded the formative years of this young man. His parents' divorce brought him and his mother face to face with poverty and struggle in life. The house in which Sahir was born, a red sand-stone haveli, stands in Karimpura, a muslim neighborhood of Ludhiana, with a small plaque announcing its importance upon the arched mughal darwaaza - the only effort by this teeming industrial city to remember him.

Sahir studied at and graduated from Khalsa High School in Ludhiana. Upon Matriculation, he joined the SCD Government College For Boys, Ludhiana, from which he was famously expelled within the year 'for sitting in the Principal's lawn with a female class-mate'. [Personal Communication from Dr. GS Mann, ex-Principal SCD Govt. College For Boys, Ludhiana: the expulsion letter is preserved in the Disciplinary Records Register of the college] [ [http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050601/ldh3.htm#9 Sahir memorial.. The Tribune, June 1, 2005] ] . Amrita Pritam became his most ardent fan in the college days at government college Ludhiyana. She has openly acknowledged her love for Sahir in interviews and her books. ["Rasidi Tikat" Her autobiography] He was quite popular for his "ghazals" and "nazms" in the college. However, he was soon expelled from the college (some say it was the work of Amrita Pritam's father who did not approve of Sahir as a potential match for his daughter because she was a Sikh and Sahir a Muslim and also because Sahir was poor)Fact|date=February 2007.

In 1943, after being expelled from college, Sahir settled in Lahore. Here, he completed the writing of his first Urdu work, "Talkhiyaan" ("Bitterness"). He then began searching for a publisher who would publish his work and after two years of search he found a publisher in 1945. After his work was published, he began editing four Urdu magazines, "Adab-e-Lateef", "Shahkaar", "Prithlari", and "Savera"; these magazines became very successful Fact|date=February 2007. He then became a member of the Progressive Writer's Association. However, inflammatory writings (communist views and ideology) in "Savera" resulted in the issuing of a warrant for his arrest by the Government of Pakistan. So, somewhere in 1949, Sahir fled from Lahore to Delhi. After a couple of months in Delhi, he moved to and settled in Bombay. A friend of his recalls Sahir telling him "Bombay needs me!"Fact|date=February 2007.

Lyrics and Bollywood

Sahir lived on the first floor of the main building of an Andheri outhouse. His famous neighbours included the poet, Gulzar and Urdu litterateur, Krishan Chander. In the 1970s, he constructed Parchaiyaan ("Shadows"), a posh bungalow, and lived there till his death. Journalist, Ali Peter John, who knew the poet personally, says real-estate sharks have been eyeing Sahir's abode after the death of his sister. His belongings and trophies are in a state of ruin, according to the journalist.Fact|date=September 2007

Sahir Ludhianvi made his debut in films writing lyrics for the film "Aazadi Ki Raah Par" (1949). The film had four songs written by him and his first song was "Badal Rahi Hai Zindagi...". Both the film and its songs went unnoticed. However, with "Naujawaan" (1951), he gained recognition. S.D. Burman composed the music for "Naujawaan". Even today, the film's lilting song, "Thandi Hawayen Lehre Ke Aaye...", remains popular. His first major success came the same year with Guru Dutt's directorial debut, "Baazi" (1951), again pairing him with music composer, S.D. Burman. Thus he became, part of the Guru Dutt team, and after the success of "Naujawaan" and "Baazi", the combination of Sahir Ludhianvi and S.D. Burman came out with many more everlasting songs.

Sahir worked with many music composers, including Ravi, S.D. Burman, Roshan and Khayyam, and has left behind many unforgettable songs for fans of the Indian film industry and its music. "Pyaasa" marked an end to his successful partnership with S.D. Burman over what is reported to be S.D. Burman's displeasure at Sahir receiving more admiration (and thus credit for the success) from audiences for the words of the lyrics than S.D. Burman did for his memorable tunes.Fact|date=February 2007 Later, Sahir Ludhianvi teamed up with composer N. Dutta in several films. Dutta, a Goan, was a great admirer of Sahir's revolutionary poetry. They had already worked together to produce the music for "Milaap" (1955). Sahir wrote many unforgettable gems for Dutta.

In 1958, Sahir wrote the lyrics for Ramesh Saigal's film "Phir Subah Hogi", which was based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. The male lead was Raj Kapoor and it was presumed that Shankar-Jaikishan would be the music composers. However, Sahir insisted that only someone who had read the novel could provide the right score. Thus, Khayyam ended up as the music composer for the film and the song "Woh Subah Kabhi Toh Aayegi" with minimal background music remains an all-time hit. Khayyam went on to work with Sahir in many films including "Kabhie Kabhie" and "Trishul".

Admirers and critics rate Sahir's work in Guru Dutt's "Pyaasa" as his finest. "Pyaasa", some say, bears resemblance to Sahir's early years as a poet. The onscreen poet, Vijay played by Guru Dutt, bears a strong likeness to the man whose poetry gave the film its soul.

Sahir Ludhianvi's work in the 1970s was restricted to films mainly directed by Yash Chopra. Though his output in terms of number of films had thinned out, the quality of his writing commanded immense respect. "Kabhie Kabhie" (1976) saw him return to sparkling form. These songs won him his second Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist, the first being for "Taj Mahal" (1963).

On October 25, 1980, at the age of fifty-nine, Sahir Ludhianvi died after suffering a massive heart attack in the midst of a card game. His final works were released for the Hindi film "Lakshmi" (1982). He will always be remembered along with Kaifi Azmi as the poet who brought Urdu literature to Indian motion pictures. Over twenty-five years after Sahir Ludhianvi's death, his poetry and lyrics remain an inspiration for lyricists of the day. Composers and singers of Sahir's time swear by the depth, intensity and purity in his poetry. As singer, Mahendra Kapoor said in a Vividh Bharati interview, "I don't think a writer like Sahir Ludhianvi will be born again". Ever the champion of the underdog, Sahir Ludhianvi and his poetry will have special place in the hearts of sensitive souls.

The person

Personality

It was ironically appropriate; while the poet's heart bled for others, he never paid enough attention to his own life, and had a card-player's nonchalance about life and death. ( Strictly speaking, this is not true : Sahir actually may have suffered from OCD, or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, as his friends & at least one gossip columnist of a Film Weekly report that he used to wash his hands repeatedly, demand a fresh cake of soap every time he wanted to bathe, and that his ailing and aged mother used to choose the clothes he was to wear every morning, and lay them out on his bed - as he was incapable of deciding upon any one set from his well-furbished clothes closet. People with OCD are often querulous, irritable people who have few close friends as they are afraid of their compulsive behaviors being noticed and pointed out; moreover, many descend into compulsive alcohol abuse in order to decrease the extensive symptoms of physical anxiety that are concomitant with the diagnosis. Moreover, even a cursory survey of the extant manuscripts in Sahir's own hand show meticulous corrections, and re-corrections, each dated. In fact, his life-long bachelor-hood might have more to do with his OCD, and a dim realization that he would be a Conjugal Misfit. His friend, Prakash Pandit once recalled how, after the Partition of India, Sahir was unhappy without the company of his Hindu and Sikh friends (they had all fled to India) and a secular India was Sahir's preference to an Islamic Pakistan [ [http://www.downmelodylane.com/sahir.html Biography] ] .

Sahir Ludhianvi was known to be very egotistic Fact|date=February 2007, perhaps as a result of his "zamindaar" background; he fought for, and became the first lyricist or songwriter, to get royalties from music companies. Sahir often insisted on writing the songs before the song was composed, against the Bollywood norm. However, some of his songs were written after the tunes were ready. For example, "Maang ke saath tumhaara" ("Naya Daur" 1957 - music by O.P. Nayyar). Also at the height of his popularity, Sahir is known to have demanded excess payment of one rupee for writing the song over what was paid to Lata Mangeshkar for singing it.Fact|date=February 2007 However, in exchange for this, he was deeply involved in the setting of musical tunes as well as writing lyrics to go with them - and so produced melodious musical tunes. It was on Sahir's insistence that the All India Radio started naming the lyricists along with the singers and the music composers for the songs being aired.Fact|date=February 2007 Before Sahir, the music composer, followed by the play-back singers usually took credit for the popularity and success of the songs in films.

Poetry

A colossus amongst film lyricists, Sahir Ludhianvi was slightly different from his contemporaries. A poet unable to praise "Khuda" (God), "Husn" (Beauty) or "Jaam" (Wine), his pen was, at its best, pouring out bitter but sensitive lyrics over the declining values of society, the senselessness of war and politics, and the domination of materialism over love. Whenever he wrote any love songs, they were tinged with sorrow, due to realisation that there were other, starker concepts more important than love. He could be called the underdog's bard; close to his heart were the farmer crushed by debt, the soldier gone to fight someone else's war, the woman forced to sell her body, the youth frustrated by unemployment, the family living on the street and other victims of society.

Sahir Ludhianvi's poetry had a "Faizian" quality. Like Faiz Ahmed Faiz, he too gave Urdu poetry an intellectual element that caught the imagination of the youth of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He helped them discover their spine. Sahir asked questions, and was not afraid of calling a spade, a bloody spade, and he roused people from an independence-induced smugness. He would pick on the self-appointed custodian of religion, the self-serving politician, the exploitative capitalist, and the war-mongering super-powers.

Sahir's poetry reflected the mood of the age. Whether it was the arrest of progressive writers in Pakistan, the launch of the satellite "Sputnik" or the discovery of Ghalib by a government lusting after minority votes, Sahir reacted with a verve not seen in many writers' work. "Kahat-e-Bangal" ("The Famine of Bengal"), written by a 25-year-old Sahir, bespeaks maturity that came early. His "Subah-e-Navroz" ("Dawn of a New Day"), mocks the concept of celebration when the poor exist in squalor.

Relationships

Although Sahir Ludhianvi remained a bachelor all his life, he had two failed love affairs with journalist Amrita Pritam and singer/actress Sudha Malhotra, respectively. [http://www.downmelodylane.com/sahir.html Sahir] ] .These relationships could not be cemented in marriage because these women's fathers refused to let them marry a Muslim. Fact|date=February 2007 In fact, Sahir Ludhianvi was an atheist. These relationships had left Sahir Ludhianvi an embittered man and he also had taken to drinking heavliy and drank himself deep into alcoholism. The tragedies and pathos of his personal life most truly reflected in his poignant poetry. He remained single all his life.

His relationship with Amrita Pritam was so passionate, that at one time while attending a press conference, Amrita wrote his name hundreds of times on a sheet of paper. The two of them would meet without saying a word and Sahir would puff away with his cigarettes, and after he left, Amrita would smoke the cigarette butts left by him. After his death, she hoped the smoke from her cigarettes would meet him in the other world. .

It is also said that when Sahir was courting Amrita Pritam, he built a taller house in front of Amrita Pritam's residence in Ludhiana to show her father that he could afford a house.(This statement is an obvious fallacy - a pitiful and misguided attempt at the creation of an Urban Legend - derived from the hindi film "Tere Ghar Ke Samne"for which Sahir wrote the lyrics, including the masterful "Khoya khoya chaand & Dil ka bhanvar kare pukaar, pyaar ka raag suno". Firstly, Sahir's economic position at the time was pitiful, so 'building a house' would be out of the question; and secondly, Amrita Pritam does not belong to Ludhiana but to Amritsar; and the "love of her life" was another urdu "shayar"Imroz, as detailed extensively in her autobiography, written in Punjabi for which she got a Sahitya Academy Award.

Famous works

* English translations of Sahir's poetry: LUDHIANVI, Sahir (1921–1980)

* SHADOWS SPEAK tr. with intro. Khwaja Ahmad Abbas {Abbas, Khwaja Ahmad} pref. Sajjad Zaheer {Zaheer, Sajjad} English text only. P.P.H. Bookstall (Bombay) 129pp (intro. 7-12) 1958 paper only.

* THE BITTER HARVEST tr. Rifat Hassan {Hassan, Rifat} Urdu & English texts. Aziz Publishers (Lahore) 169pp (pref. i-iii) 1977 cloth only.

* SORCERY/ (Sahir) tr. with pref. Sain Sucha {Sucha, Sain} Urdu & English texts. Vudya Kitaban Forlag (Sollentuna, Sweden) 114pp (pref. 1-6, essay in Urdu 106-114) 1989 paper only.

* "Gaata jaye Banjara" - A Collection of film lyrics

Bollywood songs

Sahir Ludhianvi penned some of the finest Bollywood songs.
* "Aana Hai To Aa" ("Naya Daur" 1957), composed by O.P. Nayyar
* "Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye To Kya Hai" ("Pyaasa" 1957), composed by S.D. Burman
* "Allah Tero Naam, Ishwar Tero Naam" ("Hum Dono" 1961), composed by Jaidev
* "Chalo ek baar phir se ajnabi ban jaaye" ("Gumrah"), composed by Ravi
* "Man re tu kaahe na dheer dhare?" ("Chitralekha" 1964), composed by Roshan
* "Main pal do pal ka Shaayar hoon" ("Kabhie Kabhie" 1976), composed by Khayyam
* Kabhi Kabhie (Kabhi Kabhie 1976), music by Khayyam
* "Ishwar Allah Tere Naam" ("Naya Raasta" 1970), composed by N. Dutta
* "Tu Hindu Banega na musalman banega" ("Dhool ka Phool") composed by N. Dutta
* "Ye ishq ishq hai" ("Barsat Ki Raat" 1960), music by Roshan
* Na To Caarvaan Ki Talaash Hai ("Barsat Ki Raat" 1960), music by Roshan [ [http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Twenty_Best_Lyrics_of_Sahir_Ludhianvi-43961-1.html 20 Best Lyrics of Sahir] ]
* "Sansar se bhaage phirte ho, Bagwaan ko tum kya paaoge" ("Chitralekha" 1964), composed by Roshan

Published Collections of Urdu poetry

* "Talkhiyan" ("Bitterness")

Awards

* 1964: Filmfare Best Lyricist Award: Jo Wada Kiya (" Taj Mahal")
* 1977: Filmfare Best Lyricist Award: Kabhi Kabhie (" Kabhi Kabhie ") [ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0524880/awards Awards] imdb.com. ]

See also

* Bollywood songs.

References

External links

* [http://www.sahirludhianvi.com/ Sahir ki qalam se - Site dedicated to Sahir Ludhianvi]
*
* [http://hi.literature.wikia.com/wiki/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%80 Sahir Ludhianvi at Kavita Kosh]
* [http://www.urdupoetry.com/sahir.html Sahir Ludhianvi at Urdu Poetry]