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Sahir Ludhianvi - Poet Of Poets!
Anginat logon ne duniya mein muhabbat ki hai
Kaun kehta hai ke sadiq na the jazbe unke?
Lekin unke liye tasheer ka saamaan hi nahin
Kyoonki woh log bhi apni hi tarah muflis the.
(Countless people have been in love,
Who says their emotions were not sincere?
They didn't have the resources to make a proclamation
Because, like me, they too were poor.)
The story of pain and rejection is the story of Abdul Hayee Sahir Ludhianvi, who many people easily consider India's best ever songwriter. The lines above represent the mind of this genius who gave the world many heart-rending lines such as these.
Abdul Hayee was born in Ludhiana on March 8, 1921. His father was a feudal landlord fond of both wine and women. He had many wives but only one son. He dumped Abdul Hayee's mother when the child was only 8 months old, but later he wanted possession of the child. Nothing doing, said the wife. The matter went to court. At one point, the 'ayyaash' father also threatened to kill the boy. The mother sold her last piece of jewelry and got her son protected.
The boy went to school somehow, but parental discord had hurt his psyche deeply. Deprivation was also making him pensive. He started writing a bit to give vent to his thoughts. Then he went to Government College, Ludhiana, where he wrote much more, and where they began to admire his writing spark. His poems were mostly about the ills that afflicted the society. Soon he gave himself a pseudonym, 'Sahir' (magician). He fell in love, but his feelings were not reciprocated by the lady, perhaps due to his financial condition. He developed unconventional ideas and these soon snowballed with the result that he was asked to leave the college.
He went to Lahore and did small odd jobs to keep both him and his mother going. He wrote and edited Urdu magazines, 'Savera', 'Shaahkaar' and 'Adab-e-lateef'. His first recognition came in 1945 with 'Talkhiyaan' ('Bitterness'), the Lahore publication of his collection of poems. Here he wrote the beautiful Taj Mahal, Chakley (brothels) and other poems. Taj Mahal spoke in favour of not only hapless and resourceless lovers, but also about the thousands of artisans who had actually put the architectural marvel up. The opening stanza above is from TajMahal. And Chakley had the stanza that he modified for the film 'Pyaasa':
Yeh kooche, yeh neelaam ghar dilkashi ke
Yeh lut-te hue kaarwaan zindagi ke
Kahaan hain, kahaan hain muhafiz khudi ke?
Jinhen naaz hai Hind par woh kahaan hain?
(These lanes and these houses of pleasure
These lives, wasted and abused
Oh where are the guardians of honour?
Where are those that are proud of India?)
The film 'Pyaasa' was released in post-partition India in 1957, while the original, slightly different Chakley was written with a different last line (not Jinhen naaz hai...) in 1945, when Sahir was in Lahore.With the partition of India, Sahir grew uncomfortable in Lahore because he missed his Hindu and Sikh friends and also he was denied the liberty to write or speak freely there. So he came to Delhi, stopping briefly there to head for Bombay.
In Bombay, he met Prem Dhawan, his friend from Lahore, who was helpful as ever. For four months, Sahir stayed with Dhawan, who sent a copy of Sahir's published poetry to producers and composers he knew.
Sometime in 1949, Sahir also went to a Progressive Writers' Conference and met many other literary artists like himself: Ali Sardar Jaffrey, Majrooh, Kaifi Azmi, Jaan Nissar Akhtar, Ismat Chugtai, etc. That energised him tremendously. Yes, this was where he belonged!
By now, Prem Dhawan was able to get him a break from composer Anil Biswas in 'Do Raha', where Sahir wrote the Talat immortal, Muhabbat tark ki maine, garebaan see liya maine. But the movie took a long time to make and was released later. Meanwhile, word of Sahir's talent had gotten around, and he got two big films now, both of which had music by S.D. Burman: 'Baazi' (Nav Ketan, director Guru Dutt), became in April 1951 his first release, while 'Naojawan' opened two months later. All the songs of 'Baazi' were good, and some became hits: Yeh kaun aaya ke mere dil ki duniya mein (Geeta), Tadbeer se bigdi hui taqdeer banale (Geeta), Aaj ki raat piya (Geeta), Sharmaye kaahe (Shamshaad), and the Kishore number, Mere labon pe dekho aaj bhi taraane hain.
'Naojawan' was the film for which he wrote the unforgettable Lata hit, Thandi hawaen, lehra ke aayen. He also wrote a popular mischievous duet for Kishore-Shamshaad in that picture: Pee pee piya...hum aur tum donon rahen ek saath.
These hit songs made Sahir a household name in India. And so the song-writing continued beautifully, going on for decades. His high-point came with the movie 'Pyaasa', where he wrote really amazing lyrics. Sahir continued relentlessly with his extraordinary imagery.
Sahir's style was very simple and direct, and his words were often designed to touch your senses and sensibilities. He never wrote words to a given tune or metre. (Unlike some other songwriters, Sahir didn't believe an already made tune or metre conveyed a thought for him to put words into. Thus it became fascinating from composer S.D. Burman's point of view. Burman's knowledge of Hindi/Urdu was little, to say the least, and yet what a marriage it was, S.D. Burman's music and Sahir's soulful lyrics, in movie after movie. 'Munimji', 'Jaal', 'Baazi', 'Funtoosh', 'Taxi Driver', 'Devdas', 'Pyaasa'...). For Sahir, it was, "Tell me the story and the scene details and then wait, don't rush. I'll try and pull rabbits out of my hat in good time."
A copy of a collection of his film songs, 'Gaata Jaaye Banjaara', is available for those who need to go deep into Sahir's output. Even 'Parchhaiyaan', which is an anti-war treatise, is remarkable for its insights and expression.
Here is what screenplay and songwriter Gulzar had to say: "Sahir was the only lyricist who never took to the film medium, but the film medium accepted him." That sits well with the fact that Sahir Ludhianvi was always a lonely man. In fact, he never even married. Even when he was surrounded by people, especially in his later years, he was essentially a loner. A Din dhal jaye man, whisky on the rocks for him. A romantic always, and dressed in sartorial elegance. He could never forget the girl that rejected him, and perhaps his poetry may have had a strong inspiration from that failed attempt. For surely, he wrote about her, like this one much before the film 'Sone Ki Chidiya' was planned:
Mere khwabon ke jharokon ko sajane wali
Tere khwabon mein kahin mera guzar hai ke nahin
Poochh kar apni nigahon se batade mujhko
Meri raaton ke muqaddar mein seher hai ke nahin?
Pyaar par bas to nahin hai mera, lekin phir bhi
Tu batade ke tujhe pyaar karoon ya na karoon?
Tune khud apne tabassum se jagaya hai jinhen
Un tamannaon ka izhaar karoon ya na karoon?
And also in his poem Kabhi-Kabhi, could it be her that he was speaking to?
Magar yeh ho na saka, aur ab yeh aalam hai
Ki tu nahin, tera gham, teri justju bhi nahin.
Guzar rahi hai kuchh is tarah zindagi jaise
Ise kisi ke sahare ki aarzoo bhi nahin
During his time, Sahir used his pen to highlight many causes, such as the dignity of women:
Kahoji tum kya kya khareedo ge?
Yahan to har cheez bikti hai ('Sadhna')
Aurat ne janam diya mardon ko
Mardon ne use baazaar diya ('Sadhna')
...Jawaan jism sajte hain baazaar bankar
...Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai? ('Pyaasa')
And also for the helplessness of the human condition, as in:
Jayen to jayen kahan
Samjhega kaun yahan
Dard bhare dil ki zubaan? ('Taxi Driver')
Dukhi man mere, sun mera kehna
Jahaan nahin chaena, wahaan nahin rehna ('Funtoosh')
Tang aa chuke hain kashmakash-e-zindagi se hum ('Light House')
and Jaane woh kaise log the jinke ('Pyaasa')
He wrote for humanity and against organized religion as well: for a new-born abandoned baby:
Tu Hindu banega na Musalmaan banega
Insaan ki aulaad hai insaan banega ('Dhool ka Phool')
and further:
Achha hai abhi tak tera kuchh naam nahin hai
Tujhko kisi mazhab se koi kaam nahin hai
Jis ilm ne insaan ko takseem kiya hai
Us ilm ka tujhpe koi ilzaam nahin hai ('Dhool Ka Phool')
Sahir was a great believer in Sufi thought too, as demonstrated in these lines:
Ishq Majnu ki woh awaaz hai jiske aage
Koi Laila, kisi deewaar se roki na gai.
Ishq aazaad hai, Hindu na Musalman hai ishq
Aap hi dharm hai aur aap hi imaan hai ishq
Allah aur Rasool ka farmaan ishq hai
Yaani hadees ishq hai, Quran ishq hai
Gautam ka aur Maseeh ka armaan ishq hai
Yeh kayenaat jism hai, aur jaan ishq hai.
...inteha yeh hai ki bande ko khuda karta hai ishq! ('Barsaat ki Raat')
He didn't like fundamentalists, it is quite apparent! For him, love was higher than kings and kingdoms, as can be read from 'Taj Mahal':
Takht kya cheez hai aur laal-o-jawaahar kya hai?
Ishq wale to khudai bhi luta dete hain!
If you have been to a Sikh Gurdwara, you may have seen the priest read a few pages from the holy book, and then close the book for the day. There's so much value on each leaf that reading more than one or two is too much to take in one session. It's the same for the work of this unbelievable writer. Take him as often as you like, but in small doses. His poetry will enrich your soul forever, and you may wonder, as others do, if there ever will be another like Sahir Ludhianvi.
Music lover Ali Peter John, the 'institution' at Screen magazine, Mumbai, had this to say, "They don't make men like Sahir Ludhianvi anymore. Do I hear anyone asking Sahir who? I will not be surprised if I do, in these senseless, ruthless, heartless times."
Wrote Ali further about the writer's death. "He went to his best friend Dr R.P. Kapoor in a taxi one night. He asked the driver to wait. He would be back fast. He never came back. He had a massive heart attack and died in Dr. Kapoor's arms."
The date was 25th October, 1980. Sahir was 58 years old.
A Bombay suburban intersection, near where he lived, was named after him. Much later still (in 2001), when his cousin and only legal heir, Ms Sarwar Sultana, died, the four large flats he had left behind in Parchhaeeyaan building, Juhu, Bombay, became vacant.
Some people suggested that the flats be turned into a Sahir museum so that the writer's work could be preserved and remembered. It would be nice to remember that Gandhiji is still remembered even if not many people go to Mani Bhavan or his samadhi in Delhi. Ghalib's home in Delhi is derelict. Saigal too has no mausoleum in Bombay for us to remember him with. But these people and others of such merit live in our hearts.
How can you forget the man who wrote this for 'Chandi Ki Deewar':
Ashkon mein jo paya hai, woh geeton mein deeya hai,
Is par bhi suna hai ke zamaane ko gila hai!
(The pain of my tears is what I have brought to my writing
But perhaps the world doesn't approve of even this!).
We cannot and will not easily forget the man who wrote these lines for 'Kabhi Kabhie':
Main pal do pal ka shayar hoon,
Pal do pal meri kahani hai.
Credit - Swar
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by generations to come!