* In 1993, Majrooh turned the primary — and up to now the one — lyricist to have obtained the Dada Saheb Phalke award
* His old flame, as he all the time mentioned, was Urdu poetry
* The opposite factor which Majrooh excelled in was altering with the occasions and viewers tastes
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Few folks would have heard what can probably be labeled as the primary pseudo-rap tune in Hindi movies. Dekhiye, sahibo, woh koi, aur thi is from the 1966 musical suspense thriller Teesri Manzil. All the opposite songs of this movie are heard on the radio even now. All besides this one. And, but, that is an amazingly inventive composition with phrases and phrases sung in a staccato style, which may simply cross for what later turned the rap type.
The tune, sung brilliantly by Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle and composed by RD Burman, was written by the eminently versatile Majrooh Sultanpuri. Burman was a younger and unknown composer then. Majrooh in fact knew him effectively as SD Burman’s son and assistant. In spite of everything, Majrooh had labored with SD Burman in a lot of Dev Anand’s movies from the Fifties and the duo had given us hit songs resembling Hum hain rahi pyaar ke hum se kuch na boliye and Chal ri sajni ab kya soche.
The story goes that Majrooh really useful Burman Junior to Shammi Kapoor, who was very choosy about his songs. Kapoor agreed to hearken to this younger upstart. The primary composition that Burman performed was the one which finally turned Deewana mujh sa nahin. Kapoor instantly recognised it as primarily based on a Nepali folks tune which he had heard in Darjeeling! And the remainder was historical past — Teesri Manzil was Burman’s first main hit.
Majrooh was not a novice within the Bombay movie business. He had began his profession as a lyricist with the 1946 movie Shahjehan which included the pathos-ridden Jab dil hello toot gaya. Born in 1919, his actual identify was Asrar ul-Hassan Khan and he adopted the pen identify Majrooh (wounded) when he began writing. A educated Unani doctor, he realised pretty early that his calling was poetry. He moved to Bombay and, as with most artists, was drawn in the direction of the Progressive Writers’ motion.
After popping out of jail (he had been arrested within the anti-communist crackdown in 1949), he went on to jot down the lyrics for a lot of movies within the Fifties. After all, his old flame, as he all the time mentioned, was Urdu poetry and never writing to a tune — the way in which movie songs have been largely composed. Quickly, he was being counted among the many main lyricists of his time — proper there together with Sahir Ludhianvi, Shailendra, Shakeel Badayuni and Hasrat Jaipuri.
Nevertheless, what made Majrooh completely different was his versatility — he may compose with equal ease the soulful masterpiece Chal ri sajni in addition to the playful Dekhne mein bhola hai, each from the 1960 movie Bombai ka Babu. Or Primary hun jhum jhum and Koi hamdam na raha, koi sahara na raha, from the 1961 comedy Jhumroo. Apparently, not like his contemporaries from the Progressive Writers’ motion, he not often, if ever, wrote any explicitly political movie songs although his different writings continued to be impressed by a progressive preferrred.
His mastery over the ghazal type of Urdu poetry was broadly acknowledged amongst connoisseurs of Urdu poetry. And every time he acquired an opportunity, he wrote a few of the most interesting ones for movies, too. Kahin bekhayal ho kar for Teen Devian, Hum hai mata-e-koocha for Dastak and Bekhudi mein tum ko pukare chale gaye for Kala Pani are among the many masterpieces of ghazals in Hindi movie music.
The opposite factor which Majrooh excelled in was altering with the occasions and viewers tastes. The ’50s, with their extra critical and socially oriented movies, demanded a special vocabulary than the playful and light-weight musicals of the ’60s. And he tailored splendidly effectively. Teen Devian, Teesri Manzil and Jewel Thief amongst many others testify to this. However, when the scenario demanded, he may come out with gems resembling Chahoonga predominant tujhe saanjh savere in Dosti or the ever so hopeful Kahin to milegi, kabhi to milegi from Aarti.
Because the ’60s gave option to the ’70s and viewers tastes modified once more, Majrooh was there to provide them what they needed in Yaadon ki Baraat and Hum kisise kum nahin, as an example. The tune Aap ke kamre mein koi rahta hai from Yaadon ki Baaraat introduced out one other Majrooh forte — the weaving in of unusual conversational language and idiom. Thus, you might have the traces padaa tha desk par chasma voh kis ka janaab from the tune.
This conversational type was evident in a lot of his later songs. Papa kehte hain bada naam karega from the 1988 cult movie Qayamat se Qayamat tak turned a youth anthem of its time. By the way, this tune was composed by the music director duo Anand-Milind, who have been sons of Chitragupt, one of many most interesting music administrators of his time and a long-time buddy and collaborator of Majrooh. Chitragupt and Majrooh gave us many memorable songs resembling Dil ka diya jala ke gaya and Jaag dil-e-diwana.
Majrooh, who died on the age of 81 in 2000, wrote songs for greater than 250 movies in his over 5 decade-long stint in Bollywood. A few of his songs have been forgettable, however his craftsmanship was evident in all of them. It was in recognition of his contribution to the Hindi movie business that, in 1993, he turned the primary — and up to now the one — lyricist to have obtained the Dada Saheb Phalke award.
Three many years after Teesri Manzil, this grasp craftsman gave us one other uncommon tune the place he broke all conventions. The 1996 movie Khamoshi: A musical had a tune the place Majrooh openly asks: Inform me, O Khuda, ab predominant kya karun. Solely an individual of Majrooh’s confidence and functionality may get away with this type of juxtaposition. They don’t make them like that anymore.
Shobhit Mahajan is a professor of physics at Delhi College