Sahir Ludhianvi-Poet Of Poets - Page 5

I thought of brininging this thread in front after talk about sudha malhotra and sahir Ludhianvi ji......

My rebellious notes make the world think
that my heart abhors the lyrics of love,
that I find solace in strife and war,
that my very nature relishes blood-letting,
that my world cares not for life's finer things,
that the noise of revolt is music to me.

These lines, translated from Urdu, were written more than 50 years ago, under the title Mere Geet. They remain largely obscure because they are not among the work their author became more famous for: film lyrics. The above lines -- and the reason the poet gives for that state of mind -- reflect, however, an important facet of his personality. The author of these lines, Sahir Ludhianvi, was different. Unable to sing hymns to Khuda (God), Husn (beauty) and Jaam (wine), his pen would rather pour out his anguish and bitterness over social inequities, political cynicism, the artificial barriers that divide mankind, the senselessness of war, the domination of materialism over love.

His loves, and love poems, were tinged with sorrow, with the realisation that there are stark realities more important than romantic love. This facet was seen in his lines for the film Didi:

Zindagi Sirf Mohabbat Nahin Kuch Aur Bhi Hai
Zulf-o-Rukhsaar ki Jannat Nahi Kuch Aur Bhi Hai
Bhookh Aur Pyaas ki Maari Hui Is Duniya Mein
Ishq Hi Ek Haqeeqat Nahin Kuch Aur Bhi Hai.

Sahir's real name was Abdul Hayi. He was the only son of a rich landlord. His mother separated with her husband and Sahir chose to stay with his mother leaving luxurious life under his father.
His mother and his uncle ( mother's brother) cared for him.

Education...

His early education was in Khalsa High School, Ludhiana. Then Government College Ludhiana. In the college also he was quite famous because of his revolutionary nazms.



LIfe...

His life was full of tragedy; seeing his mother suffer while his father lived a comfortable life. He failed in love many times. Since he did not had any one to share his sorrows , he shared that with all of us through his poetry

halaat se laRhna mushkil tha
halaat se rishta jorh liya
jis raat ki koi subah na thi
uss raat se rishta jorh liya

Poetry...

His style is simple and direct. He was one of the big names of the Progressive Writers Movement. Even though he was never a member of the Communist Party, his poetry clearly suggests his socialist leaning. But in his poetry you don't find the propaganda of the revolution, but he presents in such a way that you had to agree with him.
His takhallus sahir means magician, and he was a magician with words.

He was the editor for Adab Lateef and Savera published from Lahore. After that he came to Delhi and worked for the magazine Shahraah. After Partition he moved to Bombay and started writing songs for Movies. His style brought a revolution in song writing for movies and his style is still being copied by the younger generation of poets.

Books...

He was made famous by his collection of poems Talkhiaan published in 1943. His long nazm parchhaiyaan was published as a booklet in 1955. Another collection Tanhaiaan was published. The collected work has been published as Aao koi khwaab bune, and movie songs as gaata jaaye banjara

A few months before his death , he penned these lines for a song.

maiN pal do pal ka shayar hooN
pal do pal meri kahaani hai

kal aur aayenge nagHmoN ki khilti kaliyaaN chun ne waale
mujh se behtar kahne waale tum se behtar sun ne waale

A bachelor to the end, Sahir fell in love with writer Amrita Pritam and singer Sudha Malhotra, relationships that never fructified in the conventional sense and left him sad. Ironically, the two ladies' fathers wouldn't accept Sahir, an atheist, because of his perceived religion. Had they seen the iconoclast in him, that would have been worse; being an atheist was worse than belonging to the 'other' religion. Sahir, perhaps, had an answer to such artificial barriers in these lines written for Naya Raasta (1970):

Nafraton ke jahan mein humko pyaar ki bastiyaan basaani hain
Door rehna koi kamaal nahin, paas aao to koi baat bane

A young Amrita Pritam, madly in love with Sahir, wrote his name hundreds of times on a sheet of paper while addressing a press conference. They would meet without exchanging a word, Sahir would puff away; after Sahir's departure, Amrita would smoke the cigarette butts left behind by him. After his death, Amrita said she hoped the air mixed with the smoke of the butts would travel to the other world and meet Sahir! Such was their obsession and intensity.

source : http://www.upperstall.com

Sahir died after a heart attack he suffered while playing cards. One suspects the poet, whose heart bled for others, never paid enough attention to his own life. There was a card-player nonchalance about himself, as seen in this Hum Dono song:

Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya
Har fikr ko dhuwein me udata chala gaya

Had Sahir (whose 22nd death anniversary falls on October 25) not allowed drink and cigarette smoke to consume himself, had he lived a fuller life like contemporaries Majrooh Sultanpuri and Kaifi Azmi did, it would have been interesting to watch him react to changing social values, to politics touching its nadir, to 'secular' becoming a dirty word, to the abuse of religion to spread hatred and get votes, to the supposed failure of communism, to the never-ending dowry deaths, to the intellectual inertia of the intelligentsia.... Perhaps he would have influenced thought as he did in the past. Maybe his message to the masses would have been the same as it was decades ago:

Tumse Quwwat Lekar, Main Tumko Raah Dikhaoonga
Tum Parcham Lehrana Saathi, Main Barbat par Gaoonga.
Aaj se Mere Phan ka Maksad Zanjeere Pighlana Hai
Aaj se Main Shabnam ke Badle Angaare Barsaoonga.

(Drawing from your strength, I shall show you the way
You wave the flag, comrades, I shall sing for you
My art will now melt your chains
From now on my poetry will rain embers)

Originally posted by: *dolly*

A few months before his death , he penned these lines for a song.

maiN pal do pal ka shayar hooN
pal do pal meri kahaani hai

kal aur aayenge nagHmoN ki khilti kaliyaaN chun ne waale
mujh se behtar kahne waale tum se behtar sun ne waale

neither has one who could say it better than him arrived

and looking at the taste of music in current Hindi cinema(and if you beleive industry is giving what the people want), there have not been people who could hear better than that generation

Originally posted by: *dolly*

A few months before his death , he penned these lines for a song.

maiN pal do pal ka shayar hooN
pal do pal meri kahaani hai

kal aur aayenge nagHmoN ki khilti kaliyaaN chun ne waale
mujh se behtar kahne waale tum se behtar sun ne waale

I do not know which source you took this information from but this information is incorrect. This song was in Khabhie Khabhie which came in 1976 and Sahir left this world in Oct.,1980