An ode to Sampooran Singh Kalra a.k.a GULZAAR by my alll time favorite blogger - Senty..
Source -
http://senty-musique.blogspot.com/2008/ ... lauta.html
Ek puraana mausam lauta..Sehera ki taraf jaakar, ik raah bagolon mein
kho jaati hai chakraa kar
Ik raah udhadti si, chhilti huyi kaanton se,
jangal se guzarti hai
Ik daud ke jaati hai, aur kood ke girti hai,
anjaani khalaaon mein..
Iss mod se jaate hain...
Uss mod pe baitha hoon, jiss mod se jaati hain,
har ek taraf raahein..
Ik roz to yun hoga, iss mod pe aakar tum
ruk jaaogi, keh dogi, wo kaun sa rasta hai,
jis raah pe jaana hai ...Says the quintessential “out-of-the-box” shayar ..
What wonderful ways Gulzar saab finds to complicate a simple verse ! Undoubtedly, he is a maestro in creating new and abstract emotions for every shape of the heart .. You can mold your senses in many different forms to what he is trying to say.. and in each form, you’ll find something different, and each time, it appears to be right!
What I feel is that if I block out the visuals, the movie, the scene, the song sequence from my mind, I can draw some unusual meanings out of these select Gulzar poems.
Aandhi ki tarah udkar ik raah guzarti hai, sharmaati huyi koi kadmon se utarti hai..Is he talking about the times in the journey of life, about the experiences, the challenges … or is it just about relationships? Be it
pathhar ki haveli, as what a strong bond can be called as, or a fragile
sheeshe ka gharonda, or a weak
tinke ka nasheman, which is ready to be blown away by a harsh breeze .. Or maybe it is not even about a human relationship.. maybe he is talking about hosla, the power of perseverance, the inner strength .. no matter how strong or weak one is, one has to make the turns, each mod in life.
Ik door se aati hai, paas aake palatti hai .. is he talking about wasted efforts in a long drawn struggle? Or a mirage .. of something that is simply not meant to be? Or realizing too late into the journey that this is the wrong way to go ?? As it so often happens in our lives..
Ik raah akeli si rukti hai na chalti hai .. loneliness? Life that is at a standstill.. Stagnation?
And then there is the simple “I will be right here waiting for you.." or in Gulzar's words
Jahan se tum mod mud gaye the, yeh mod ab bhi wahin pade hain .. a different song, a different mahaul, again the reference to life and it’s unique journey.. the raasta, the safar, the mod..
Flowing through Gulzar’s pen, the casual
zindagi ka safar takes on amazingly imaginative windy roads, with twists and turns on the way, braving the breezy, stormy, colors of the wind.. potraying various moods and mods of life ..
Other times it was
jab ek raah ruk gayi to aur jud gayi.. and jab main muda, to saath saath raah mud gayiAn optimistic, positive, upbeat feel to how the will can pave the way in life.
It so happened that
din ne haath thaamkar idhar bithaa liya, aur raat ne ishaare se udhar bula liya, says a universalmusaafir whose aashiyana is on the wings of the wind.. this musafir whose dostana is with subah and shaam .. both. Is he talking about opportunities?
Hawaaon pe likh do, hawaaon ke naam .. hum anjaan pardesiyon ka salaam.. Gulzar could create a story around a simple meadow, a stream and a breezy path alongside. A story of a musafir, the birds and the stream
chulbula yeh paani apni raah behana bhool kar, lete lete aayina chamka raha hai phool par..What about the overhyped emotion called love
haath se choo ke isse rishton ka ilzaam na do. A masterful stoke, downplaying the hype called love, by accentuating the feelings behind it ...
Muskurahat si khili rehti hai aankhon mein kahin.. aur palkon pe ujaale se jhuke rehte hain..
Honth kuch kehte nahin kaampte honton pe magar itne khamosh se afsaane ruke rehte hain..
Sirf ehsaas hai yeh rooh se mehsoos karo.. pyar ko pyaar hi rehne do koi naam na do..
But its not just zindagi, raah, mod, pyar that he personified, it not always about how
ek baar waqt se lamha gira kahin, wahan daastan mili, lamha kahin nahin .. but he could also talk about a funny ghoda ji going to the chowk but then,
chowk mein tha naai.. ghodeji ki naai ne hajaamat jo banaayior the chhai chhappa chhai .. chhappa ke chhai where he sees aati huyi leheron pe jaati huyi ladki..which I cant for the love of poetry figure out ! This one's not just "out of the box" but nowhere even close to the box :-)
During some long dry patches in the 80s, when Bollywood music industry was in the pits, in terms of lyrics, it was when biggies like Bappida and Indeevar were churning sensational superhits, with silly music ill-fittingly tailored to some super silly lyrics, there were some Gulzar moments, that drizzled down katra katra without ijaazat, on the dried and parched land-o-lyrics..
Khaali haath shaam aayi but managed to fill some musically starved hearts to the brim.
Gulzar stood out in in the 80s with few, but superbly refreshing songs.
One of the most popular but least understood lyrics of Gulzar is the complicated
chaiyyan chaiyyan that simply blends all the ingredients for a tasty morsel, piping hot and yummy. This one has extrodinarily exceptional music, powerful voices of Sukhwinder and Awasthi, sensational song picturization .. Mallaika, Khan and the tempo, all in sync with the desi-tango on top of the running train ..
And then there is
maiyya maiyya.. mother of all lyrics.. another complicated crowd puller.
Today, in the present scheme of things, in the new and improved bolly-world music scene, Gulzar saab is going with the flow, and is boldly taking on the market-driven music world in great style.. while the
kajrare kaale nainon waaliyaan offer to
jalaaofy beedis from their jigars.
Silly ho ya sentimental, seductive ho ya sensational … Gulzar has embossed his unique style in each of his songs.
Bewajaah jab qaraar mil jaaye through some sensible, sensitive, sensational lyrics,
dil bada beqaraar rehta hai... for more !
