Golden Era of Bollywood: Remembering QAMAR JALABADI on his 100th Birth Anniversary

Thursday 9 March 2017

Remembering QAMAR JALABADI on his 100th Birth Anniversary

When you remember Qamar Jalalabadi the first thing comes in our mind is the Immortal song he wrote for the film Pyar Ki Jeet in 1948 "Is Dil Ke Tukde Hazaar Huye, Koi Yahan Gira Koi Wahan Gira" and "Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu" from Howrah Bridge 1954 film.He was one of the best lyricists of the Golden Age of Hindi music
He was born in a Punjabi family on 9th March 1917 in Amritsar, in a small town called Jalalabad, and was named Om Prakash.He is known as Qamar Jalalabadi which was a Takhallus given by the person Amar who inspired him to write.
After completing his matriculation from Amritsar, Qamarji embarked on his journalistic career journey by writing for Lahore based newspapers like Daily Milap, DailyPratap, Nirala, Star Sahakar. The lure of the Film industry brought him to Pune in the the early Forties.
In 1942, he wrote lyrics for his first film Zamindar which was a Pancholi Pictures production and the songs of this film were very well received, especially the song sung by Shamshad Begum "Duniya me garibonko aaraam nahi milta", which also had a line or two written by writer and poet Behzad Lucknawi.
Some of his memorable songs from his early include "sunti nahi duniya kabhi fariyaad kissi ki" (Renuka, 1947) and the ghazal "Dil kis liye rota hai...pyar ki duniya me, aisa hi hota hai" (sung by Naseem Banu for the film Mulaquat in 1947). The noted dancer Sitara Devi performed some of his songs in Chand (1944). Chand was one of the earliest of Qamarji's successful and memorable films.
He was very versatile. On one hand he wrote mesmeric duets like "sun meri saanwari mujhko kahin tum bhool na jana…" sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Mohd. Rafi (film: Aansoo 1953) and on the other hand he penned comic relief songs like “khush hai zamana aaj pehli tarikh hai” endured with full throttle gusto by Kishore Kumar (film: Pehli Tarikh-1954). This song turned into veritable anthem and was played on Radio Ceylon on the first of every month for decades,
He had a long writing career nearly for 4 decades.In his long career he wrote for almost great Music directors of that time.Starting from Ghulam Haider to G. Damle, Pt. Amarnath, Khemchand Prakash, Husnlal Bhagatram, S.D. Burman, Anil Biswas, Shyam Sunder, Sajjad Hussain, C. Ramchandra, Madan Mohan, Sudhir Phadke, Shiv Dayal Batish, Sardar Malik, Ravi, Avinash Vyas and in the latter phase of his career with O.P Nayyar, Kalyanji Anandji, Sonik Omi, Uttam Singh and Laxmikant Pyarelal as well.
In his personal life, Jalalabadi was a highly religious person and he chanted excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran as well as Bible.He died on 3rd Feb 2003 in Mumbai.Though he is no more with us but his words will always be there with us.