Gopal Das Neeraj was a poet first then a lyricist. He started writing poetry and sharing stage, at times with stalwarts who were mesmerized with the poems of this young man. There are incidents where he used to write poems with another pseudonym, ‘Bhavuk Etahvi’. But once he reached the stage of Kavi Sammelan, there was no looking back for this greatest Hindi poet of all genres.
This Ghazal was aired. on the radio in 1955, it was included in the film Nayi Umar ki Nayi Fasal in 1966 in fact this film was inspired by this Ghazal. He wrote a few songs for two films Cha Cha Cha and Chanda Aur Bijli before Dev Anand introduced him to S D Burman to write songs for his film Prem Pujari.
He was born in the village of Puravali, near Mahewa in Etawah district in Uttar Pradesh, India on 4 January 1925. He wrote under the pen name "Neeraj"
When Neeraj entered the scene of poetry, Harivansh Rai Bachchan was already an established name on the stage. However, Neeraj carved his way and touched people’s hearts. “His poems gave new life to romanticism which was coupled with spiritualism. He had an influence of Sri Aurbindo and it flows in his poetry.
Besides writing, he earned his living teaching in a college and was a Professor of Hindi Literature in Dharma Samaj College, Aligarh. He knew Urdu well and cultivated his own style. He used words even from Sanskrit and touched the softness of the Hindi Khadi Boli. The poems were rendered with such eloquence that they were immediately on everyone’s lips. Neeraj’s simplicity was evident in his lifestyle. “He lived a simple life, he understood common people, their sufferings and he lived as if he was one of them, playing cards with them, smoking beedi and wearing simple clothes. Anybody was welcome in his home.
Despite the tremendous recognition he got from film songs, Neeraj considered himself unlucky. This was the reason why he stopped writing songs for films. He started writing only poems and literature. Disclosing this in an interview, he had said that two-three famous Bollywood musicians for whom he had written film songs had passed away. He had said that Jaikishan and SD Burman of the Shankar-Jaikishan duo should also die and he wrote very famous songs for both of them.
Neeraj had penned several immortal songs for Bollywood movies. There were incidents where Neeraj himself recited his songs so that musicians may easily develop the tune. Just sample this — Phoolo ke rang se/dil ki qalam se/tujhko likh roz paati/kaise bataun/kis kis tarah se/pal pal mujhe tu satati — for the film Prem Pujari, anyone can easily identify and attribute it to Neeraj due to its rhythm class.
He mentioned the death of Jaikishan of the Music Duo Shankar-Jaikishan as well as of Sachin Dev Burman, for both of whom he had penned highly popular film songs. The deaths of these Music Directors when they, along with Gopaldas Neeraj were at the peak of their fame left him very dejected and he made a decision to quit the film industry.
His friendship with Dev Anand continued he wrote songs for the last film of Dev Anand "Charge sheet"
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1991 and Padma Bhushan in 2007. He died on July 19, 2018
Neeraj used to say" People talk of my five years in film industry. They tend to forget my 65 years of contribution to literature".
The first released song of Neeraj
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