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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 4:20 pm 
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Gulzar…. The Creative Genius

By Goher Iqbal Punn, June 25th, 2004 - 0930 hrs IST


The finest and famous Urdu poet, lyricist, writer and Bollywood director - Gulzar was born in 1938 in a beautiful city of Pakistan named “Deena”, district Jehlam. Gulzar is such an artist who has vast knowledge of the incidents, experiences, situations and has grip over his surroundings. He is such a genius that sometimes he even does not know how much information he has in the box of his mind and heart. He is one of those sensitive people whose work is laced with nature, philosophy and human psychology. His artistic films give soothing relief to the audiences who would like to escape from the violence-packed movies. Being a poet-lyricist-writer, Gulzar loves music a lot. Exceptionally high quality of music has always been the central ingredient of his films. Defining the importance of music in our lives, he says:

“Our lives are naturally filled with music. The music shows its manifestation in the sholka one recites in the morning puja. Similarly it gives its appearance when a milkman comes whistling on his cycle and also when a fakir (beggar) begs for alms. Music is also wrapped in your mother's humming around the kitchen …and naturally it fills our lives. It is always dear to us.”

This creative genius sometime generates a masterpiece automatically, which makes its mark and becomes popular quickly. He often unzips the box of his experiences and writes a script that helps the audience think over it carefully and attentively. His visual and published works…all have similarity and reveal Gulzar's creativity to the fullest. He is a nature lover. Nature happens to be the symbol and is the central element of his entire works. Apart from being a litterateur, he is a psychologist and a philosopher as well. His poetic sense also led him to write short stories in Urdu. While going through his short stories, the reader comes to a conclusion that Gulzar is not only a storyteller but also a potter.

Unfolding his past, the facts make appearance describing how did the genius make him stand in the film industry? After partition, he came to Delhi. He made his beginning as a poet and then joined the Progressive Writers Association (PWA). Gulzar's film career started with Bimol Roy Productions as an assistant in 1961. He still remembers the creative Bimol Roy with sweet words since he used to be his mentor in filmmaking aspects. Gulzar's debut as a lyricist happened with the song, “Mora Gora Ang Lai Lae” for Bimol's movie, “Bandini” in 1963. Gulzar then picked up his pen to write scripts for films for the directors like Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Asit Sen. Some of the film scripts that Gulzar wrote for director Harishikesh include “Anand (1970), Guddi (1971), Bawarchi (1972) and Namak Haram (1973)”. And he penned the scripts of the movies, “Do Dooni Char (1968), Khamoshi (1969) and Safar (1970)” for director Asit Sen. He turned filmmaker with “Mere Apne” in 1971, which starred Meena Kumari and Vinod Khanna in pivotal roles. The film carried a subject of unemployed-frustrated youth and an old woman who was caught between the two streets gangs of unemployed boys whose killing finally helped them realize the uselessness of violence.

After that Gulzar went ahead and made Parichey (1972) based on naughty children and their simple teacher (played by Jateendra). Then Gulzar's classic “Koshish” (1972) came (A film with a sensitive theme of a deaf-dumb couple along with their travails. Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhaduri played these creatively knitted-sensitive characters superbly). Koshish brought a mutually lucrative partnership between Gulzar and Sanjeev Kumar. This duo (Gulzar and Sanjeev) then presented some of the finest films of Hindi cinema namely Aandhi(1975), Mausam (1975), Angoor (1981) and Namkeen (1982). These films showcased the deluxe and finest work of Sanjeev's career and it was those flicks, which made Sanjeev popular around the globe.

Renowned Pakistani poet-writer, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi and his daughter, Mansoora Ahmed explored Gulzar's hidden talents of writing Urdu stories and poetry. Qasmi Sahib is like a father figure for Gulzar and Mansoora Ahmed is like a friend. Qasmi Sahib and his daughter together they run a publishing house, Assatir. This house published two Gulzar's books one is of Urdu poetry, “Chand Pukhraj Ka” (a compilation of poems, poetic portraits, trailays and tarvenies) and the other is of Urdu stories, “Dastkhat”. Gulzar utterly admits his lack of knowledge in poetic metre during the early days of his film career and also admits that it was Qasmi Sahib who happened to be his mentor in this genre of poetry. Both of his books were liked much amongst the literary circles and common readers alike. Reaching at Gulzar's mental horizon is no doubt a gorgeous thing and he is such a generous figure that he does not send back the person without awarding him the gift of sweet and beautiful feelings. His lyrical beauty touches the heart and the atmosphere of his films takes the viewer away from the existing world and makes him land where romance is all around.

Some years back Gulzar released a Ghazal album “Marasam” with popular Ghazal singer Jagjit Singh. The album got much popularity amongst the music lovers. And this popularity helped the Sony Entertainment Channel hire these ghazals for its serial titled, “Sparsh”. Till today, Gulzar has released a number of albums with renowned singers. One of them is “Visaal” with Ghulam Ali (a famous Pakistani ghazal singer). Way back in the era of R D Burman, he released an album with R D and Ashaji titled “Dil Padosi Hai”. The album bagged huge sales and was appreciated much amongst the critics and listeners alike. This was a classic album altogether. Gulzar's lyrics, RD's composition and Ashaji's singing all showcased the brilliancy and creativity of these three legends in this one piece of classic enterprise. He also released an album, “Ishqa Ishqa Allah Hu” with popular musician, Vishal Bhardwaj.

Gulzar has been a boisterous lover of Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali and English literature. He has magnificent command over them. The reflections of these literatures are crystal clear in his works. His philosophy towards life seems very simple but is complicated to understand for a common person. He says, “The present is incomplete without the shades of the past”.

To date, he has made a number of films. Some memorable are: Mere Apne (1971), Koshish (1972), Parichay (1972), Achanak (1973), Aandhi (1975), Khushboo (1975), Mausam (1975), Kinara (1977), Kitaab (1977), Meera (1979), Angoor (1981), Namkeen (1982), Ijaazat (1987), Mirza Ghalib-TV Serial (1988), Lekin (1990) and Maachis (1996).Gulzar's movies are very much known for carrying sensitive subjects and focusing vastly on nature. He once expressed about his films “I make sensitive films for sensitive people and the audience can enjoy the romance laced with nature I capture in my camera.”

Gulzar and R D Burman's team gave numerous hits and Pancham scored the music for most of Gulzar's films. He knew R D from the moment they both were hopefuls and assistants - he to Bimal Roy and R D to his father (S D Burman). Theirs association led them to become friends.

As Gulzar's films hold sensitive subjects and display romanticism in all forms (such as in nature and relationships), his characters look simple yet sensitive. Sometime he picks up the ordinary themes from us and makes them interesting and catchy with his creativity. And when he chooses to make films on the evils of society, simply reflects those evils from their roots and makes us learn from them.

He has written screenplays, lyrics and dialogues for other films apart from his own films. Some notable works are: Masoom (1982), Rudaali (1992). Gulzar has also rendered his services for lyrics for other films. Some prominent are “Thodi Se Bewafai (1980), Basera (1981), Sadma (1983), Ghulami (1985), Maya Memsaab (1992), Dil Se (1998), Satya (1998) and Filhaal (2002).” Till today, he has won number of awards such as National Awards, Filmfare Awards, Screen Awards and many others also. He is that genius who must be respected and whose work preserved. This softhearted person gave innovations to semi art movies and is safely called a true asset of Hindi Cinema.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 6:38 pm 
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Joined: Mon Dec 03, 2001 4:17 pm
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Location: Canada
Thodi si zameen,
Thoda aasman
Tinke ka bas, ek aashiyaan :)

& Dil Padosi Hai.... (its Magic ! if you are a RDB fan )
"Jhoote tere nain,
Souten ki Chabhi chhoke aaye.."


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 9:07 pm 
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Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2003 3:24 pm
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Great read

Thanx arsh :)


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 10:47 pm 
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Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2004 10:21 pm
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Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
I love Gulzar for his excellent lyrics and the few films I've seen of him: AANDHI, IJAAZAT & MAACHIS. 8)


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:29 pm 
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Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2002 1:46 am
Posts: 364
Location: NEW ALBANY, OH, U.S.A
sweetfriend wrote:
How about his private life-Wasd he married and if so to whom..

film actress Rakhee


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:39 pm 
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sknath wrote:
(its Magic ! if you are a RDB fan )

Rhythm Dol & Bass? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :twisted:


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