Gulzar - The poet
Just a request - whoever can read urdu on the forum, can we please have the lines read out in Hindi if possible... Thanks for the same
Gulzar wears many intellectual hats. He is a film director, known for making sensitive movies, a short story writer, and a lyricist who has penned many a soul-stirring song for Indian films. But the title that Gulzar, as those who know him believe, wishes to be associated with is that of a poet. For poetry is his first love.
Born on August 18, 1936 in Dina (now in Pakistan), Sampooran Singh (his real name) migrated to Delhi after partition in 1947. He began his professional career in the film industry as assistant to the renowned auteur, Bimal Roy. Initially, he also wrote some songs for Bimal Roy's "Bandini". It is said that the first ever song that he wrote was Mora gora ang laee le. Later on, in the early 70s, he himself took to filmmaking and carved a niche for himself by producing films ("Aandhi", "Merey Apney", "Maachis", etc) that were markedly different from what the others were offering. To date, films remain his bread and butter.
But poetry is food for his soul. So far Gulzar has published quite a few collections of Hindi and Urdu poems and their English translations all of which have attracted a huge readership. From his first collection Ek Boond Chaand (Hindi) published in 1962 to Raat Pashminey ki (Urdu), which hit the newsstands in 2002, Gulzar's poetic offerings have been received with tremendous clat. In between Mera Kuch Samaan (Hindi song collection), Chhaya Chhaya (Hindi song collection), Janam (Hindi), Chauras Raat (Urdu) and Chaand Pukhraj Ka (Urdu) also made many critics and poetry buffs acknowledge his literary worth.
A famous publishing house a few years ago published yet another book by Gulzar, Triveni. The astonishing feature of this collection was the genre Triveni that the poet seems to have invented. It's a three-line composition in which the first two lines converge like the rivers Ganges and Jamuna, whereas the third startles the reader like a strong, invisible stream of Saraswati, taking the meaning of the above two lines at a tangent.
Although his short stories' collections are not as prolific as his poetry, but a few tales from two of his books Dhuuan and Raavi Paar have often been grouped with some of the all time great short literary pieces. For Dhuuan, the master writer has been awarded the prestigious Sahitya Academy award. Not only that, the government of India has conferred on him the national honour of Padmabhushan as well. But since Gulzar's preferred form in literature is poetry, one should throw light on some of its salient features.
One doesn't know where critics of Urdu and Hindi literature at a later date will place Gulzar's poetry. However, there is no doubt about the fact that what Gulzar has been able to create through his verse over the last four decades or so is something that's peculiar, unique and quite unlike the conventional patterns and norms of Urdu poetry produced in the 20th century.
Gulzar's poetry is replete with images - images that utter words, which inexplicably don't seem to convey any meaning, yet re-transform into images and splash colours onto the canvas of imagination. This might not make sense, though one could call it surrealistic poetry, which communicates before it is understood. Take for example a minimalist nazm from Chaand Pukhraj Ka
The nazm is a confluence of a number of images. They don't seem to gel; yet once they conflate into a whole, there is something intrinsic in them that titillates the brain and make the reader feel it with a certain psycho-emotional appeal. It's a dream-like scene: a chair here, a semi-ajar door there and you wake up trying to construct the sequence, with a strange sense of literariness.
It's not that this is the only hallmark of Gulzar's poetry. His nazms and ghazals often convey the issue quite lucidly that the poet tries to touch upon in a rather oblique way. Especially his ghazals are not as convoluted as his free verse. Consider these couplets:
Simplicity is the keynote of the overall auditory value of Gulzar's ghazal. It falls easy on the ears. But notice the last couplet where Gulzar once again resorts to imagism - something that he doesn't seem to have control over. His poetic technique doesn't allow the reader to try and make sense of the words that he is employing; rather, it's the entire scene that he creates which speaks for itself. It is often said about writers that a person has thoughts and he writes them down as words. Later, others read them and the poet's thoughts become theirs. With Gulzar this is not the case. He doesn't let, perhaps unwittingly, the reader own his thoughts, though he easily communicates his message. Not a mean feat.
This does not imply at all that the poet is an introvert. It's just that, like any other verse-wielding genius, all his creative endeavours begin on a personal note and subsequently broaden their scope.
For example, it is a known fact that Gulzar hasn't come to grips with the partition. He has composed a few very heart-rending poems on the subject. And it's not just partition, but also the terrible class strife and communal tensions that have plagued India for half a century, that appear to nibble at his soul. In Raat Pashminey Ki, there is a six-part nazm "Fasadat". It is a poignant piece on the Hindu-Muslim riots that often break out and immensely disturb a sensitive writer. Part six of the nazm reads:
One may call it gory poetry. But at the heart of it lies the sensitivity of an artist to whom human life is not a dispensable commodity. Here again notice the vivid imagery, albeit a tad unsavoury.
Known for his socialist bent of mind, Gulzar has of late taken a liking to sufism. Some of his recent film songs and ghazals are an ample testimony to that. Recently, this caused some debate in the literary circles of the subcontinent. One guesses, age and spirituality go hand in hand. Besides, who would argue the fact that one looks for more than just flesh and blood identity. This holds true at least for creative people. That's why they constantly engage themselves in the process of creating.
In the foreword to Raat Pashminey Ki, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, who Gulzar fondly calls Baba, writes: "It pleasantly surprises me to know that born in Jhelum and brought up in the environs of Mumbai and Delhi, Gulzar has been so original that this feature of his poetry (originality) has become synonymous with his personality. Who else but Gulzar could see the moon in the shape of a dry leaf and wonder if it would be carried on the breeze onto his lawn?" Even if you're not a fan of Qasmi Sahib, it's hard to dispute his comment on Gulzar.
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