Gulzar

Gulzar (born Sampooran Singh Kalra; 18 August 1934) is an Indian Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this era. He started his career with music director S.D. Burman as a lyricist in the 1963 film '' Bandini'' and worked with many music directors including R. D. Burman, Salil Chowdhury, Vishal Bhardwaj and A. R. Rahman. Gulzar also writes poetry, dialogues and scripts. He directed films such as ''Aandhi'' and '' Mausam'' during the 1970s and the TV series '' Mirza Ghalib'' in the 1980s. He also directed '' Kirdaar'' in 1993.

He has won 5 Indian National Film Awards; including 2 Best Lyrics, one Best Screenplay, one Second Best Feature Film (director), and one Best Popular Film (director); 22 Filmfare Awards; one Academy Award; and one Grammy Award. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award - Hindi in 2002, the Padma Bhushan in 2004, the third-highest civilian award in India, and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2013, the highest award in Indian cinema. In April 2013, Gulzar was appointed as the Chancellor of the Assam University. In 2024, Gulzar was awarded the Jnanpith, India's highest literary award.

Early life

Gulzar was born in a Sikh family as Sampooran Singh Kalra, to Makhan Singh Kalra and Sujan Kaur, in Dina, Jhelum District, British India (present-day Pakistan). In school, he had read translations of the works of Tagore which he recounted as one of his life's many turning points. Due to the partition, his family split and he had to stop his studies and come to Mumbai (then called Bombay) to support his family. Sampooran took up many small jobs in Mumbai to eke out a living, including one at a garage at ''Vichare motors'' on Bellasis road (Mumbai). There he used to touch up accident-damaged cars by mixing shades of paint. He'd say, "I had a knack for colours". His father rebuked him for being a writer initially. He took the pen name Gulzar Deenvi and later simply Gulzar. In an interview with Rajyasabha TV, he recounted enjoying his work as a painter as it allowed him a lot of time to simultaneously read, write, attend college and be involved with the PWA (Progressive Writers Association).

Career

Lyricist

It was during his interactions in the PWA Sunday meetings that Shailendra and Bimal Roy encouraged him to join films. Gulzar began his career under film directors Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. His book ''Ravi Paar'' has a narrative of Bimal Roy and the agony of creation. He started his career as a songwriter with the music director for the movie '' Bandini'' (1963). In films, he found an environment associated with literature in the group he worked with, including Bimal Roy, most of whose films were based on literary works. Shailendra, who has penned the rest of the songs in the movie requested Gulzar to write the song "Mora Gora Ang Layle", sung by Lata Mangeshkar.

Directed and produced by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the 1968 film '' Aashirwad'' had dialogues and lyrics written by Gulzar. Song lyrics and poems written by Gulzar gave the poetic attribute and the "much-needed additional dimension" to Ashok Kumar's role in the film. Ashok Kumar received the Best Actor at the Filmfare and at the National Film Awards for this role. Gulzar's lyrics, however, did not gain much attention until 1969's '' Khamoshi'', where his song "Humne Dekhi Hai Un Aankhon Ki Mehekti Khushboo" () became popular. In his book ''Bollywood Melodies, Ganesh Anantharaman'' describes Gulzar's lyrics, with the purposeful mixing of the senses, to be "daringly defiant". For the 1971 film '' Guddi'', he penned two songs, of which "Humko Man Ki Shakti Dena" was a prayer which is still sung in many schools in India.

As a lyricist, Gulzar had a close association with the music director Rahul Dev Burman. He has also worked with Sachin Dev Burman, Shankar Jaikishan, Hemant Kumar, Laxmikant–Pyarelal, Madan Mohan, Rajesh Roshan, and Anu Malik. Gulzar worked with Salil Chowdhury in '' Anand'' (1971) and '' Mere Apne'' (1971); Madan Mohan in '' Mausam'' (1975), and more recently with Vishal Bhardwaj in ''Maachis'' (1996), '' Omkara'' (2006) and ''Kaminey'' (2009); A. R. Rahman in '' Dil Se..'' (1998), ''Guru'' (2007), ''Slumdog Millionaire'' (2008) and '' Raavan'' (2010) and Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy in '' Bunty Aur Babli'' (2005). Gulzar took inspiration from Amir Khusrow's "Ay Sarbathe Aashiqui" to pen "Ay Hairathe Aashiqui" for Mani Ratnam's 2007 Hindi film ''Guru'', which had music composed by A. R. Rahman. Another Ratnam-Rahman hit, " Chaiyya Chaiyya" from ''Dil Se..'' also had lyrics written by Gulzar, based on the Sufi folk song "Thaiyya Thaiyya", with lyrics by poet Bulleh Shah. For another collaboration with Rahman for Danny Boyle's 2007 Hollywood film ''Slumdog Millionaire'', Rahman and Gulzar won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for " Jai Ho" at the 81st Academy Awards. The song received international acclaim and won him a Grammy Award (shared with Rahman) in the category of Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. He also wrote a song for the Pakistani Drama '' Shehryar Shehzadi'', and this song ''Teri Raza'', has been sung by Rekha Bhardwaj and was composed by Vishal Bhardwaj.

Direction

After writing dialogues and screenplay for films such as ''Aashirwad'', ''Anand'' and ''Khamoshi'', Gulzar directed his first film '' Mere Apne'' (1971). The film was a remake of Tapan Sinha's Bengali film '' Apanjan'' (1969). Meena Kumari played the lead role of Anandi Devi, an old widow caught in between the local fights of unemployed and tormented youngsters. Anandi Devi's death in one of the fights makes them realise the futility of violence. The film was rated "Above Average" at the box office. He then directed '' Parichay'' and '' Koshish''. ''Parichay'' was based on a Bengali novel, ''Rangeen Uttarain'' by Raj Kumar Maitra and inspired from the Hollywood film ''The Sound of Music''. He wrote the story of ''Koshish'' based on the struggle faced by a deaf-dumb couple wherein Sanjeev Kumar won National Film Award for Best Actor. In 1973, he directed '' Achanak'', inspired by the 1958 murder case KM Nanavati v State of Maharashtra, and the story writer Khwaja Ahmad Abbas earned a Filmfare nomination for Best Story. Later he directed ''Aandhi'', based on the Hindi novel "Kaali Aandhi" by Kamleshwar. Along with various wins and nominations, the film also won Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie. Although the film was believed to be based on the life of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the film was based on life of Tarkeshwari Sinha. In the 1975's emergency, the film was banned from theatres. His next film '' Khushboo'' was based on Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay's ''Pandit Mashay''. His '' Mausam'', which won the National Award for 2nd Best Feature Film, Filmfare Best Movie and Filmfare Best Director awards, along with other six Filmfare nominations, was loosely based on the story ''"Weather"'', from the novel, '' The Judas Tree'', by A.J. Cronin. His 1982 film ''Angoor (1982 film), Angoor'' was based on Shakespeare's play ''The Comedy of Errors''.

His films told stories of human relationships entangled in social issues. ''Libaas'' was a story of an extra-marital affair of an urban couple. Due to its objectionable subject, the film never got released in India. ''Mausam'' pictured a story of a father who tries to improve the life of his prostitute-daughter. In ''Maachis'', a young Punjabi boy engages in terrorism to fight a bad situation only to realise its temporary nature. ''Hu Tu Tu'' dealt with corruption in India and how a man decides to fight it.

Gulzar uses "flashback" in the narration of his stories very effectively (''Aandhi, Mausam, Ijaazat, Machis, Hu Tu Tu''). He also has mutual partnerships with various actors and other crew. The Gulzar – Sanjeev Kumar partnership resulted in some fine films (''Koshish, Aandhi, Mausam, Angoor, Namkeen'') which represent Sanjeev Kumar's finest work as an actor. Actors like Jeetendra (''Parichay, Khushboo, Kinara''), Vinod Khanna (''Achanak, Meera, Lekin'') and Hema Malini (''Khushboo, Kinara, Meera'') worked with Gulzar to gain respectability as artists and delivered some of their best and most introspective works in film. R D Burman composed songs for almost all the movies directed by him in the 1970s and the 1980s (''Parichay, Khushboo, Aandhi, Angoor, Ijaazat, Libaas''). Many of their popular songs were sung by Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. These include "Musafir Hoon Yaron" (''Parichay''), "Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi" (''Aandhi''), and "Mera Kuch Samaan" (''Ijaazat'').

In 1988, Gulzar directed an eponymous television serial '' Mirza Ghalib'', starring Naseeruddin Shah and broadcast on Doordarshan. Later he also directed ''Tahreer Munshi Premchand Ki'' about the novels of Premchand.

Poetry

Gulzar primarily writes in Urdu and Punjabi language, Punjabi; besides several other languages such as Braj Bhasha, Kauravi dialect, Khariboli, Haryanvi language, Haryanvi and Marwari language, Marwari. His poetry is in the Triveni (poetry), Triveni type of stanza. His poems are published in three compilations; ''Chand Pukhraaj Ka'', ''Raat Pashminey Ki'' and ''Pandrah Paanch Pachattar''. His short stories are published in ''Raavi-paar'' (also known as ''Dustkhat'' in Pakistan) and ''Dhuan'' (smoke).

For the peace campaign ''Aman ki Asha'', jointly started by India's and Pakistan's leading media houses, Gulzar wrote the anthem "Nazar Main Rehte Ho", which was recorded by Shankar Mahadevan and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Gulzar has written ghazals for Ghazal Maestro Jagjit Singh's albums "Marasim" (1999) and "Koi Baat Chale" (2006).

Other contributions

Gulzar has written lyrics and dialogues for several Doordarshan TV series including ''Jungle Book Shōnen Mowgli, Jungle Book'', ''Fushigi no Kuni no Alice, Alice in Wonderland'', ''Hello Zindagi'', ''Guchche'' and ''Potli Baba Ki'' with Vishal Bhardwaj. He has more recently written and narrated for the children's audiobook series ''Karadi Tales''.
Gulzar is also associated with Aarushi, Eklavya foundation, an NGO based in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh working in the field of education. He has written stories and poetry for the magazine Chakmak. Gulzar has also worked in Bollywood movies like Anand, Mere Apne, Omkara and many more.

Academic

In April 2013, Gulzar was appointed as the Chancellor of the Assam University.

Personal life

Gulzar is married to actress Raakhee. The couple has a daughter, Meghna Gulzar. Meghna Gulzar grew up with her mother and father and, after completing her graduation in filmmaking from New York University, went on to become a director of films such as ''Filhaal'', ''Just Married (2007 film), Just Married'', ''Dus Kahaniyaan'', Talvar (film), Talvar, ''Raazi'', ''Sam Bahadur (film), Sam Bahadur'' and Chhapaak (for which Gulzar wrote the lyrics) and authored the biography of her father Gulzar, in 2004.

Awards and nominations

As on 2019, Gulzar has won a total of 36 awards and honours, including 5 National Film Awards, 22 Filmfare Awards, Rashtriya Kishore Kumar Samman from the Government of Madhya Pradesh for 1999-2000, 1 Academy Award for Best Original Song (2008), 1 Grammy Award (2010), List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for Urdu, 2002 Sahitya Akademi Award for Urdu, Padma Bhushan (2004), and 2013 Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

He received the Jnanpith Award in 2024.

Works

; Bibliography
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; Audiobooks
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; English novel
''Two'' is Gulzar's debut novel released in English. It examines the status of refugees after partition. ''Two'' was originally written in Urdu.

; Comics
Gulzar served as the Script Consultant for the ''Supremo (comics), Supremo'' comic book series by Pammi Bakshi.

; Theatre
''Chakkar Chalaaye Ghanchakkar''

Biographies

Books

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Notes

See also

*List of Indian winners and nominees of the Academy Awards
*List of Indian poets
*List of Indian writers

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gulzar
Gulzar,
1934 births
20th-century Indian poets
20th-century pseudonymous writers
Best Lyrics National Film Award winners
Best Original Screenplay National Film Award winners
Best Original Song Academy Award–winning songwriters
Dadasaheb Phalke Award recipients
Directors who won the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment National Film Award
Recipients of the Gangadhar National Award
Film directors from Punjab, India
Filmfare Awards winners
Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Film producers from Punjab, India
Grammy Award winners
Hindi-language film directors
Hindi-language lyricists
Hindi-language poets
Indian Academy Award winners
Indian male screenwriters
Punjabi Sikhs
Living people
People from Jhelum District
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts
Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu
Urdu-language poets
Urdu-language short story writers
Urdu-language writers from India
People from Punjab Province (British India)