Author Akshay Manwani talks to K Bhardwaj about his book on Sahir ludhianvi and says that to understand his works, one has to understand his personal life. His father’s decadent lifestyle, which led to his mother separating from him, the subsequent difficulties she faced in raising Sahir after she divorced her zamindar husband and other events influenced his poetry
Q. What inspired you to take up the bookIJ
Way back in 2008, I was doing some freelance work for a website where I was asked to write some short profiles of film lyricists. It was then that I discovered that there was very little written about the Sahir ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Shakeel Badayuni, Shailendra — all of who were giants of Hindustani songwriting. However, Sahir’s personal life — his dysfunctional childhood, his failed romantic liaisons — stood out in contrast to others and that’s what made his life worth documenting. I didn’t set out to write the book, bothering about any specific expectation. All I wanted to do was present a wholesome perspective on Sahir’s life and work.
Q. Tell us about the research work that you have done for it.
The research for the book basically stems from two places. There is a lot of literature on Sahir in the Urdu language, which details his early years and analyses his non-film poetry. Translating that was a major challenge. For his film work, I interviewed Yash Chopra, Javed Akhtar, Dev Anand, music composers Khayyam and Ravi to get a more detailed understanding of his contribution to Hindi cinema and the film song.
Research always has an element of surprise in it and you never quite know what you will find when you are looking for information. From having several rescheduled appointments with film personalities, to travelling to ludhiana and living in seedy accommodations, the journey was exciting and immensely fulfilling.
As you have written in the book, Sahir never compromised with the lyrical content and also didn’t give in to commercialism. How could he hold that command in industryIJ
If you look at Sahir’s journey in the film industry, you will see that after he fell out with SD Burman, post the success of Pyaasa, which was a 1957 film, he worked with music composers like Khayyam, Roshan, Ravi, Jaidev and N Dutta. These composers were good, but not as commercially successful like Burman, Naushad or Shankar-Jaikishen. To that extent, Sahir was on a more even footing with them. He even recommended Khayyam for Phir Subah Hogi, which was a 1958 film. Working with these composers, Sahir was able to write lyrics without pandering entirely to the commercial demands of Hindi cinema. He was the only lyricist post his fallout with Burman, who enjoyed a greater standing than the music director while working on a film.
Q. What kind of personality Sahir wasIJ
He was a man of contradictions and not entirely without fault. He was known to drink and humiliate his friends. At the same time, there are enough stories of him going out of his way to help people. He regularly cried foul of the merchants of religion and was even scathing in his comments towards God. Yet, he wrote some of the finest devotional songs like Tu Hindu Banega Na Musalman Banega and Allah Tero Naam. He was also known to have several failed romantic episodes because of the overwhelming presence of his mother in his life and his concerns with the problems of humanity. In his several film songs, he often excused himself from a failed romantic relationship by finding solace in the struggles of confronting mankind.
Q. Share your thoughts on some remarkable poetry by Sahir.
Two of Sahir’s non-film poems, which stand out are Taj Mahal and Parchhaaiyaan. Taj Mahal was written some time in the early 1940s and was a comment by Sahir on the ugly oppressive social order. The last few lines of the poem, Ek Shahenshah Ne Daulat Ka Sahara lekar, Hum Gareebon Ki Mohabbat Ka Udaaya Hai Mazaak, epitomised class issues and the divide between the have and have-nots. Parchhaaiyaan, written by Sahir in 1956, is by several accounts the finest anti-war poem in Urdu literature. Through this incredibly long, but moving poem, Sahir warned humanity of the kind of destruction the third World War would bring. The appeal of the poem lay in the fact that Sahir presented his thoughts in Parchhaaiyaan in the form of a story. The language was not esoteric, with a majority of the words finding use in everyday language.
Q. Share some parts of his struggle story.
If you have to understand Sahir the poet or his songwriting, you have to understand his personal life. His father’s decadent lifestyle, which led to his mother separating from him or the subsequent difficulties she faced in raising Sahir after she divorced her zamindar husband are all there in his poetry. For example, if you look at the second song of Trishul, which was a 1978 film, when Waheeda Rehman talks of the troubles she has to go through to raise her child through the words — Tu Mere Saath Rahega Munney, Taaki Tu Jaan Sakey, Tujhko Parwaan Chadhaane Ke liye, Kitni Sangeen Marahil Se Teri Maa Guzri (You shall live with me, my son, so that you know, to raise you what ordeals your mother faced) you realise it was Sahir voicing his own experiences and his mother’s struggles in his songwriting.
Q. Normally, lyricists don’t claim credit for music success of a film. Why did Sahir claim Pyaasa’s success, which also led to differences between him and SD BurmanIJ
Traditionally, in the film industry, the film lyricist has always played second fiddle to the music composer. This did not sit well with Sahir, who believed that a songwriter was as critical to the success of a song as the composer. But as he found more success in films, Sahir also started to believe that it was the lyricist alone who was important. That led to his fallout not only with SD Burman but even the likes of OP Nayyar and Jaidev.
Q. Please shed light on the relevance of Sahir ludhianvi’s poems in the present dayIJ
There is an eternal quality to Sahir’s poems. In March 2011 when Delhi’s chief metropolitan magistrate Vinod Yadav went on to discharge Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi from the two-decade-old Bofors pay-off case, the magistrate quoted Sahir’s song from Gumraah (1963), Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se, using the lines, Woh Afsaana Jisey Anjaam Tak laana Na Ho Mumkin, Usey Ek Khoobsurat Modh Dekar Chhodna Achchha, to explain that the country could not afford to spend hard-earned money on Quattrocchi’s extradition, which had already cost `250 crore.
Besides that, if you look at the decadence or state of corruption in society today, you immediately think of Sahir’s Jinhe Naaz Hai Hinz Par orYeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye Toh Kya Hai from Pyaasa. When you hear of crime against women, you remember his song Aurat Ne Janam Diya Mardon Ko from Sadhana (1958). Similarly, when you read about communal riots, you remember his songs like Tu Hindu Banega, Na Musalman Banega from Dhool Ka Phool (1959). He was the people’s conscience and had a song for every relevant social issue.
Q. Share some lesser-known anecdotes from his life.
One of my favourite anecdotes from this book was given to me by music composer Khayyam, who was recommended by Sahir for Phir Subah Hogi. The hero of the film was Raj Kapoor and so naturally the assumption was that Shankar-Jaikishen would compose the music of the film. However, Sahir told the film’s director, Ramesh Saigal, that the music composer should be a person who has read and understood Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, on which Phir Subah Hogi was based. That is how Sahir was able to bring Khayyam saab on board for the film, which gave Khayyam his first big commercial success in Hindi cinema.