Top lyricist sued for tell-all saga

For those of you not in the know, Kamal Amrohi was one of Bollywood's master directors with films like Mahal and Pakeezah. Nida Fazli is one of our finest lyricists. Both men had also been collaborators.

But now, Nida Fazli's no-holds-barred account of Amrohi has opened a can of worms with the director's family suing him for defamation.

In an article written for a leading Urdu paper a month ago and which Fazli defends as "accurate," Kamal Amrohi is portrayed as a prurient, eccentric and vengeful man. Here are some samples:

Rukhsar Amrohi

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Dharmendra was made to don black grease-paint in Razia Sultan because Amrohi could never stomach that Dharmendra had had an affair with his wife, actress Meena Kumari.

• Amrohi was fond of women and pretty faces and insisted on seeing a pretty face every time he woke up after taking a nap in his office.

• Amrohi called for a mirror when he was on his death bed and seeing himself, said, "Yeh kaun hain? Yeh kaun kehta hain Kamal Amrohi hain? (Who is this? Who says this is Kamal Amrohi?) He then called for a barber and after getting himself a shave and a haircut, said, "Haan ab nazar aatein hain Kamal Amrohi" (Yes, now you can see Kamal Amrohi).

While Fazli insists all this is "common Bollywood folklore," Amrohi's daughter Rukhsar thinks it is blatantly false and defamatory. She has now filed a defamation case against Fazli in a metropolitan magistrate court in Andheri and has demanded a public apology from the man who wrote the lyrics for Amrohi's last film Razia Sultan, Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, Sur, Yatra, Sarfarosh and many other films.

Rukhsar, currently director at Kamalistan Studios founded by her father, told this paper: "Who has given Mr Fazli the right to use his pen to tarnish the image of my father, that too by saying things that are just a figment of his imagination? I am shocked that a man who owes everything to my Baba is doing this to him. It was Baba who gave him his first break in a big film."

Though Fazli says in the piece that he worked in close association with the director, according to Rukhsar, his interaction with her father was only on the sets of Razia Sultan. "Baba gave him a chance to script some songs that were left to be scripted after the unfortunate demise of Janisaar Akhtar Sahab," she said.

She also objects to what the article has said about Meena Kumari. "He refers to Chhoti Ammi (Meena Kumari) as someone who had become promiscuous after Baba's death. He talks about her relationship with other actors. I want to know how he takes this liberty to write such things about people who are no longer around to defend themselves or to even correct him," she said.

Rukhsar added, "I take pride when people talk of my father as one of the legends of Indian cinema. My father was human, not God. He never claimed to be one. Sure, he had a personal life, but no one has a right to malign his image on the pretext of writing about his personal life. And it is a greater responsibility when you write about people who are no more." Rukhsar's counsel Rizwan Siddiqui said all the information in the article is false and the author has taken too many liberties.

'I've written the truth'

Nida Fazli however said he had only written all that he had known and seen about Amrohi. He said, "I don't understand how my article constitutes defamation. I was very close to Amrohi saab and he was very fond of me. Whatever I have written about him is on the basis of first-hand knowledge about him. He married Meena Kumari, who was much younger than him. Meena Kumari's relationships with other film personalities too are common knowledge."

I have only written all that I've known and seen about Amrohi. It is common knowledge. I had written about Amrohi saab even when he was around. He read all that and never complained. - Nida Fazli

Fazli added that he had, in the article, simply tried to "deconstruct" Amrohi's highly individualistic character. "He lived life on his terms and that is what I presented to readers. Volumes have been written about Mirza Ghalib's colourful life and his visits to a courtesan. Does that amount to defamation?" the lyricist asked, adding that as a daughter, Rukhsar may be seeing his comments in a different light because of an emotional association.

Asked if he would contest the case, Fazli said, "I am a writer. I do not wish to indulge in litigation. I had written about Amrohi saab even when he was around. He read all that and never complained. In fact, he promoted me. I have been writing about other personalities too, and nobody has complained. In fact, it's Ruksar's ignorance that she has not read what I had written about her father earlier."

Who was Kamal Amrohi?

Kamal Amrohi (1918-1993) directed only four films in his lifetime, but two of them, Mahal (1949) and Pakeezah (1972) are considered classics. The other films he directed were Daera (1953) and Razia Sultan (1983).

Amrohi derived his surname from his birthplace Amroha in Uttar Pradesh. After working with various film studios in Mumbai, he set up his own production company and studio, Kamalistan in 1958. He wrote the dialogues for Mughal-E-Azam (1960) and the lyrics for Pakeezah and Pukar (1939), another hit.

Production of Pakeezah started in 1964 but the film was left incomplete for years when Amrohi separated from his wife Meena Kumari, who played the main role in the film.

https://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&am p;sectid=15&contentid=200805072008050702211186972fab7a3