Gulzar
What is Gulzarâs real name?
What languages does Gulzar use in his poetry?
Where was Gulzar born, and what early experiences influenced his work?
What was Gulzarâs first song in Bollywood, and who introduced him to the Indian film industry?
What are some common themes in Gulzarâs films?
What awards has Gulzar won for his contributions to film, music, and literature?
A poet, writer, lyricist, scriptwriter, film producer, and director, Gulzar has been one of the most influential contributors to Indian cinema since the 1960s. He is widely known for his blank-verse poetry, and his writing and translations are influenced by multiple Indian languages. His poems and books have been published in Urdu and Devanagari scripts, and the language he primarily uses is Hindustaniâa blend of colloquial Hindi and Urdu, rather than rarefied forms of the individual languages. His works, also peppered with words from Punjabi (his mother tongue), dialects such as Braj and Haryanvi, and English, reflect his belief that language is alive and evolving, and that creative works should reflect the time in which they are created.
âIf I belong to Punjab, know Bengali, read English, where do I stand? All languages that I have within me become mine.â âGulzar, speaking with Saba Bashir about why he âborrowsâ from different languages
Gulzarâs vast body of work has earned him numerous honors, including the Padma Bhushan (2004) for his contribution to the arts, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (2014) for his contribution to Indian cinema, the Sahitya Akademi Award (2002) and the Jnanpith Award (2023) for his literary output, and both an Academy Award (2009), alongside A.R. Rahman, and a Grammy Award (2010), with A.R. Rahman and Tanvi Shah, for the song âJai Hoâ (âLet There Be Victoryâ) from Slumdog Millionaire (2008). He has also received many National Film Awards, including for best lyricist (Ijaazat and LekinâŠ) and best screenplay (Koshish), and more than 20 Filmfare Awards.
Early life and influences
- Original name: Sampooran Singh Kalra
- Pen name: Gulzar Deenvi (popularly Gulzar)
- Birth date: Likely August 18, 1934 (It wasnât a common practice to record birth dates at that time, and accounts vary on whether he was born on August 18 or September 5, in 1934 or 1936.)
- Family: Gulzar married Bollywood actress Rakhee Gulzar (née Majumdar), though they later separated; their daughter, Meghna Gulzar, is a noted Hindi film producer and director.
Sampooran Singh Kalraâs family moved from his birth village of Dina, which later became a part of Pakistan, to Amritsar, India, and then to Delhi before the partition of India (1947). He witnessed the horrific consequences of partition in Delhi, where communal violence left a trail of death and destruction and where nearly half a million displaced people migrated after the partition. The devastating effects would be a recurrent theme in many of his works.
About the early 1950s Kalra moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) with his brother. While enrolled in college, he worked at his brotherâs petrol pump and helped manage the business. His growing interest in literature, however, often conflicted with his familyâs expectation that he would pursue a stable livelihood in business. Kalra soon moved out of his brotherâs house and started to earn a living by working in an automobile workshop. Using any time he got between tasks at the garage to read and write, Kalra cultivated a love for writing and literature. He learned more about the world of literature and the performing arts at meetings of the Progressive Writersâ Association (PWA) and the Indian Peopleâs Theatre Association (IPTA), respectively. In fact, it was in PWA meetings that he met Bollywood lyricist Shailendra, who introduced him to filmmaker Bimal Roy. About this time, Kalra also adopted the pen name Gulzar Deenvi (Gulzar meaning âa garden in bloomâ; Deenvi for his birthplace, Dina), later continuing with just Gulzar. His entry into Bollywood was with the song âMora Gora Ang Laileâ (âTake Away My Fair [Skin] Colorâ), which he wrote for Royâs Bandini (1963; âImprisonedâ). Roy encouraged Gulzar to quit his job as a mechanic and hone his artistic talents, and Gulzar soon started assisting Roy in filmmaking alongside writing scripts and dialogues for other filmmakers.
- The Progressive Writersâ Association (PWA) was a leftist literary and social organization that was formed in 1936 as an anti-imperialist and anti-fascist movement aimed at ârescuing literature and other arts from the conservative classes.â The association rallied against colonialism in India and argued for radical social change, urging writers to actively portray the social problems of the country in their works. The PWAâs early members included founders Syed Sajjad Zahir and Ahmed Ali and literary stalwarts such as Premchand, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ismat Chughtai, and Mulk Raj Anand.
- The Indian Peopleâs Theatre Association (IPTA), founded in 1943 and attracting iconic Indian artists and filmmakers such as Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Prithviraj Kapoor, Kaifi Azmi, Zohra Sehgal, Balraj Sahni, Chittoprasad, Salil Chaudhary, and Ravi Shankar, emerged as a powerful response to the British rule of India through music, plays, and art.
In addition to creative minds such as Ali Sardar Jafri, Zoe Ansari, and Krishan Chander at PWA, Gulzar was inspired by the works of Rabindranath Tagore, whose writing inspired him to learn Bengali; MÄ«rzÄ GhÄlib, about whom he has written and produced a Doordarshan TV series; and Punjabi Sufi poets Farid and Bulle Shah. Gulzar considers the late Pakistani poet and writer Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi his mentor.
Body of work
On the directorâs chair
Gulzarâs directorial debut was Mere Apne (1971; âMy Ownâ), a remake of Apanjan, a National Film Awardâwinning Bengali film that highlights societal issues such as unemployment, politics and corruption, and loneliness among older people. His subsequent films spanned a variety of genres: Parichay (1972; âIntroductionâ), much like The Sound of Music, from which it was loosely inspired, is a musical family drama that centers on an unemployed young man (played by Jeetendra) who agrees to tutor five unruly children; Achanak (1973; âSuddenlyâ), partially based on a real-life murder case in the late 1950s, and Lekin⊠(1990; âButâ), featuring a supernatural element, are mystery dramas; and Angoor (1982; âThe Grapeâ), with Sanjeev Kumar as the lead, is a comic tale of mistaken identity involving two sets of identical twins separated at birth, based on William Shakespeareâs The Comedy of Errors. In Ijaazat (1987; âPermissionâ), a movie considered ahead of its time by film experts, Gulzar explores a love triangle in retrospect through the chance meeting of a divorced couple at a railway station; the film won two National Film Awards, including one by Gulzar in the best lyrics category.
Several of Gulzarâs films engaged with political themes. In Aandhi (1975; âStormâ) the protagonist, Aarti (Suchitra Sen), was perceived to have such strong similarities with then-prime minister Indira Gandhi that the film was banned during the Emergency (a period in India when civil liberties were curtailed and the press was censored). The last two movies he directedâMaachis (1996; âMatchsticksâ), on terrorism in Punjab in the 1980s, and Hu Tu Tu (1999), on corruptionâare also political dramas.
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Common themes that run through these films are the exploration of society, human relationships, and a more nuanced and complex portrayal of women than was typically found in Indian cinema at that time.
Lyrical style
The lyrics of Gulzarâs popular song âDil Dhoondta Haiâ (1975; from Mausam), like some of his other works, were inspired by a couplet written by GhÄlib.
Jee dhoondta hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
Baithe rahein tasavvur-e-jaana kiye hue
Gulzar used this couplet, in which Ghalib describes âthe heart longing [those] leisurely days, sitting around, thinking about the face of my beloved,â as the first stanza of the song, replacing âjeeâ with âdilâ and expanding Ghalibâs couplet with his own imagination of âthe state of mind that seeks days gone byâ: âjaadon ki narm dhoop aur aangan mein let karâŠâ (âIn the soft sunlight of the winters, lying about idly in the courtyardâŠâ).
With metaphors, colloquial expressions, and vivid imagery, Gulzar writes deeply sensitive songs that evoke memories and emotions. Blending sensory experiences in âHumne Dekhi Hai Un Aankho Ki Mehekti Khushbooâ (1969; from Khamoshi [âSilenceâ]), Gulzar writes about âseeing the aroma of those eloquent eyes.â This early work earned him praise as well as criticsâ ire for its unusual imagery. âEk Akela Is Shahar Meinâ (1977; âA Lone Person in the Cityâ from Gharonda [âThe Nestâ]) captures the heartache of urban isolation, using the metaphors of empty vessels and bottomless wells to describe the desperate search for an emotional refuge. âMera Kuch Samaanâ (âSome of My Thingsâ) is a song written in free verse for Ijaazat, about the intangibility of romantic loss as perceived by a lover asking her ex to return her belongings, among them âsome drenched monsoon days and a night wrapped in one of my lettersâ (âsaawan ke kuch bheege bheege din rakkhe hain, aur mere ek khat me lipti raat padi haiâ); the song earned two National Film Awards (Gulzar, best lyrics; Asha Bhosle, best female playback singer).
âWhen I gave him [composer R.D. Burman] âMera Kuch SamaanââŠhe threw away the sheet saying, âNext youâll give me the headline of Times of India and tell me to tune it.ââ âGulzar, reminiscing about Burmanâs initial reaction to his unconventional lyrics
Gulzar has also written many boisterous and lively songs. The Academy Award-winning âJai Hoâ (2008; âLet There Be Victoryâ from Slumdog Millionaire), the high-energy âChaiyya Chaiyyaâ (1998; âIn the Shade,â from Dil Se [âFrom the Heartâ]) and âKajra Reâ (2005; from Bunty Aur Babli), the layered and raunchy âBeediâ (2006; âCigaretteâ from Omkara), and the entertaining childhood anthem âJungle Jungle Baat Chali Haiâ (the title song for the Hindi series Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli, which aired on Doordarshan in 1989â90) demonstrate the versatility of Gulzarâs songwriting.
Poetry and books
Gulzarâs poems can often be identified from their evocative use of imagery:
Rooh dekhi hai, kabhi rooh ko mehsoos kiya hai?
Jaagte jeete hue doodhiya kohre se lipatkar
Saans lete hue kohre ko mehsoos kiya hai?
[Have you ever seen the soul, felt it?
Have you wrapped yourself around this alive, milky mist?
Have you ever felt this mist breathing?]
The triveni, a three-line poem whose name is derived from the confluence of the three riversâthe Ganges, the Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswatiâis a form of poetry unique to Gulzar. The introductory couplet in a triveni paints an image and the third line reveals a twist, much like the âhiddenâ Saraswati River, which is popularly believed to flow underground.
He has written more than two dozen books, which include collections of poems. Some of his notable poetry volumes are:
- Jaanam (1962; in Urdu)
- Kuch Aur Nazme (1980; in Hindi)
- Chand Pukhraj Ka (1995; in Urdu)
- Triveni (2001; in Urdu and Hindi)
- Raat Pasmine Ki (2002; in Urdu and Hindi )
- Kuchh Aur Nazmein (2008; in Hindi)
- Pluto (2014; in Urdu)
- Pandrah Paanch Pachhattar (2019; in Hindi)
His novel Do Log (2017; Two), the collection of poems and short stories Footprints on Zero Line (2017), and his short story collections Dhuan (1997; in Urdu) and Ravi Paar (1997; in Hindi and English) draw on Gulzarâs memories of the partition of India and experiences with religious conflict.
Some collections of his poems and lyrics translated in English include:
- Selected Poems (2008), Neglected Poems (2012), and Suspected Poems (2017), translated by Pavan Varma
- 100 Lyrics (2009), translated by Sunjoy Shekhar
- Baal-O-Par (2024), translated by Rakhshanda Jalil
Among works Gulzar has translated are two selections of Bengali poems by Rabindranath Tagore into Hindustani language, titled Nindiya Chor (âThe Crescent Moonâ) and Baghban (âThe Gardenerâ), in 2016. Gulzar has also compiled and translated, into English and Hindustani, a collection of 365 poems by key poets from different parts of the Indian subcontinent in A Poem a Day (2020).
ActuallyâŠI Met Them (2021), Caged (2024; translated by Sathya Saran), and Dhoop Aane Do (2024; âLet Light In,â translated by Ambarish Mishra) are Gulzarâs autobiographical accounts. In Actually⊠Gulzar traces anecdotal accounts of his interactions with influential people in Indian cinema and art, such as filmmakers Bimal Roy and Satyajit Ray and musicians Kishore Kumar, Pandit Ravi Shankar, and Bhimsen Joshi.