Weekend

On this weekend my topic is about a versatile  person from Bollywood. He is a  poet,story writer, lyricist, movie director, TV serial Director , and for than 5 decades he is associated  film/TV industry , and now he is  more than 84  years but still active, and he is known by his pen name

GULZAR

His real name is Sampooran Singh Kalra, he was born in Sikh family in 1934  Jhelum dist (which is now in Pakistan), after partition his family moved to India. He had to stop his studies, and landed in Bombay to support  his family. He took odd jobs to earn the living including one at garage. There he used to touch up accident cars by mixing shades of paints. He was very much found of literature and in spare time used to write poetry under the pen name of Gulzar Deenvi  and which was later simplified as Gulzar. In the meantime he also got involved with Progressive Writers Association (PWA), where he met Shailendra and Bimal Roy, who encouraged him to join film industry.

He started his career as Lyricist in Bimal Roy’s film Bandini (1963). His next major work was with Hrishikesh Mukherjee for film Aashirwad (1968-69), he wrote the dialogues and lyrics for the said film.  His next popular films as lyricist were Khamoshi (1969) and Guddi (1971). In between he also wrote dialogues for Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand (1970) and also wrote few songs.

In between he got the offer for directing  a Hindi film and the film was Mere Apne (1971). This film was remake of Bengali film Apanjan. His next two film as director were Parichay (1972) and Koshish (1973). Parichay was partly inspired by ‘Sound of Music’ and he presented Jeetendra in different role, which was contrary to his popular image of dancing star. From this film , his long association with Music Director RD Burman started, and their combination was responsible for giving some memorable songs.  Koshish was  a movie about Deaf and Mute couple.He next directed Aandhi (1975), which was based on Hindi  novel written by Kamleshwar starring Suchitra Sen & Sanjeev Kumar. The film was released during Emergency  and after few months of release it was banned, because Congressmen felt the character of heroine of the film was having  a resemblance with political life of Indira Gandhi. His next film Khushboo(1975) was based on Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s  Pandit Mashay starring Jeetendra  and Hema Malini. His next was the film for which he received National & Filmfare awards for best director and the film was Mausam (1976) starring Sanjeev Kumar & Sharmila Tagore, and she also won the  National award for best actress. In between he also directed Kinara. Although he worked with Hrishikesh Mukherjee in so many films, who was master in directing light films. Gulzar’s first light comedy film was Angoor (1982) which was based on Shakespeare’s play ‘The Comedy of Errors’.

For TV he directed serial Mirza Ghalib starring Naseeruddin Shah in lead role. Later he also directed serial based on Premchand stories.

Barring few , most of the films directed by him were not block busters. When released, but till today when ever some satellite channel shows his movies, people still enjoy them. His other directed movies were Libaas, Maachis and Hu Tu Tu. Libaas was movie on extra marital affair of an urban couple. In Maachis a young Punjabi boy engages in terrorism to fight bad situation only to realise its temporary nature. Hu Tu Tu dealt with political corruption and how  a young couple decides to fight it.

As a lyricist Gulzar has worked with most of Music Directors of bygone era and with many of current generation. He has worked with SD Burman, Shankar Jaikishan, Hemant Kumar, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Madan Mohan, Rajesh Roshan Salil Chowdhary, Anu Malik, Vishal Bhardwaj, AR Rahman, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, but his best work was always with RD Burman. RD always did justice to Gulzar’s poetry.  It has been reported in media when Gulzar wrote the lyrics of the 1988 film Ijjazat, RD Burman told him you want me compose this prose writing “ Mera Kuch Saaman Tumhare Paas Pada Hai”, but when he did the composition and the way Asha Bhosle sang , it never looked as a prose, it looked a poetry of different kind, and surprisingly Gulzar won best lyricist National & Filmfare awards for this song. Who can forget their song “ Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi Shikwa To Nahin” from Aandhi or even children song from Masoom “ Lakdi Ki Kaathi, Kaathi Pe Ghoda”, and other song from same film “ Mujh Se naaraz Nahin Zindagi, Hairaan Hoon  “. There are many more in the long list.

Hu Tu Tu was Gulzar’s last film as director, Because he said then that he can not handle direction now physically, as it becomes too tiring for me. After that he only writes for lyrics of few selective films and Music Directors. In 2008 he won the Oscar wih AR Rahman for song “ Jai HO “ from Slumdog Millionaire.  Even at the age of 84 he is still active as lyricist.

He has also written lyrics and dialogues for several DD serials like jungle Book, Alice In Wonderland, Hello Zindagi. Guchche, Potli Baba ki.

Gulzar has won 5 national Awards , 18 Filmfare Awards, 1 Oscar Award, 1 Grammy Award and Dada sahib Phalke Award. In 2004 he was also awarded with Padma Bhushan.

A Rare Gem Of Bollywood.

I hope you enjoyed this blog on most versatile man of Bollywood.

Awaiting your views/comments/ fed backs.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

15^th Dec 2018.