Monday 8 March 2021

SAHIR LUDHIANVI- . In his songs he consistently raised uncomfortable questions

 


Sahir Ludhianvi, a great lyricist of Bollywood was different from his contemporary lyricists.   He did not praise Khuda (God), Husn (beauty), or Jaam (wine). Instead, he wrote bitter yet sensitive lyrics about the declining values of society; the senselessness of war and politics; and the domination of consumerism over love. His love songs, tinged with sorrow, expressed his realization that there were other, starker concepts more important than love.

In his songs he consistently raised uncomfortable questions and expressed bitter truths. Only he could write the songs "Jinhe naaz hai Hind par vo kahaan hain” against the political leadership of the day or the poem  ‘Avaaz-e-Adam’  in which ‘hum bhi dekhenge’ remains a memorable phrase. This led to his migration from Pakistan.

dabegī kab talak āvāz-e-ādam ham bhī dekheñge

rukeñge kab talak jazbāt-e-barham ham bhī dekheñge

chalo yūñhī sahī ye jaur-e-paiham ham bhī dekheñge

dar-e-zindāñ se dekheñ urūj-e-dār se dekheñ

tumheñ rusvā sar-e-bāzār-e-ālam ham bhī dekheñge

zarā dam lo ma.āl-e-shaukat-e-jam ham bhī dekheñge

ye zo.am-e-quvvat-e-faulād-o-āhan dekh lo tum bhī

ba-faiz-e-jazba-e-īmān-e-mohkam ham bhī dekheñge

jabīn-e-kaj-kulāhī ḳhaak par ḳham ham bhī dekheñge

mukāfāt-e-amal tārīḳh-e-insāñ rivāyat hai

karoge kab talak nāvak farāham ham bhī dekheñge

kahāñ tak hai tumhāre zulm meñ dam ham bhī dekheñge

ye hañgām-e-vidā-e-shab hai ai zulmat ke farzando

sahar ke dosh par gulnār parcham ham bhī dekheñge

tumheñ bhī dekhnā hogā ye aalam ham bhī dekheñge

Close to his heart was the farmer crushed by debt, the soldier has gone to fight someone else's war, the woman forced to sell her body, the youth frustrated by unemployment, and the family living on the street for instance.

Sahir was a communist sympathizer, but he never became a member of the Communist Party of India or an agenda-pushing poet. He always expressed his true feelings. Sahir did something which no film lyricist did before. He transitioned his literary poetry from his book Talkhiyaan (1945) into film songs.

Sahir was hardly 58 and at his creative best when he suffered a massive heart attack. This bard from Ludhiana bid adieu to this world on October 25, 1980


Song of Pyasaa 1957

Song of Sone Ki Chidiya 1958


Song of Phir Subah Hogi 1958






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