Reported By:
| Edited By: Param Arunachalam |Source: DNA webdesk |Updated: May 21, 2016, 08:00 AM IST
With around 2000 Hindi film songs in his discography, Majrooh Sulatnpuri was one of the most prolific of Hindi film lyricists. Anand Bakshi was the only other Hindi film lyricist who was more prolific than him. What Majrooh did not match in quantity but he more than made up in quality. Majrooh wrote lyrics for more than 350 films and while he worked with almost every music director active between 1946 and 2000, most of his work was with just a handful of composers. In this post, I pick five songs of Majrooh Sultanpuri with five of his most significant composer collaborators.
Majrooh found early success in his career with Naushad in films like Shahjehan (1946) and Andaz (1949), before his political ideology almost derailed his career. In 1950, Majrooh was jailed by Morarji Desai’s Bombay government for writing these lines criticizing Nehru’s decision to have India join the Commonwealth –
Commonweath ka daas yeh Nehru
Aur tabaahi laane na paaye
Maar lo saathi, jaane na paaye
To make matters worse, Naushad, a religious and political conservative, refused to work with the Communist Majrooh after Andaz. Their next film together came 19 years later.
Over time Majrooh, perhaps disillusioned by Communism, came to be known more for his romantic lyrics than political. Majrooh’s journey in this direction started with OP Nayyar in Aar Paar (1954). The success of Aar Paar not only saved OP Nayyar’s career, it also helped Majrooh shed his idealism and embrace the Hindi film industry. Without this, he probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the kind of mainstream success he did in the years to come. My pick from Aar Paar, ‘Sun Sun Sun Sun Zalima’, contained an example of the kind of compromises Mahrooh was willing to make for the medium, albeit reluctantly. Majrooh had originally written ‘Sun Sun Sun Sun Zalima, Pyar Mujhko Tujhse Ho Gaya’ for the open lines of the song. When Guru Dutt told him that “mujhko tujhse” sounded “khushk” (dry), Majrooh changed it to the grammatically improper but easier on the ears “humko tumse”.
With Aar Paar, OP Nayyar created the recipe for the perfect, light-hearted romantic musical that resulted in memorable film albums like Mr. & Mrs. ‘55 (1955), C.I.D. (1956), Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957), 12 O’ Clock (1958), Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (1963) and Mere Sanam (1965).
Majrooh Sultanpuri worked with SD Burman in 20 films— the most number of films the legendary music director did with any lyricist. If Majrooh’s lyrics for OP Nayyar were youthful and frivolous, they took on a charming and wholesome character for SD Burman’s melodies. One can find a song to match every mood in SD Burman and Majrooh Sultanpuri’s combined repertoire— the playful ‘Haal Kaisa Hai Janab Ka’, the dramatic ‘Hothon Mein Aisi Baat’, the sensuous ‘Raat Akeli Hai Bujh Gaye Diye’, the melancholic ‘Jalte Hain Jiske Liye’ and more. The masters even managed to seamlessly blend multiple moods in some songs. In ‘Akela Hoon Main Is Duniya Mein’ (Baat Ek Raat Ki, 1962) they tantalisingly balanced loneliness and melancholy with hope and spirit.
Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote for Laxmikant–Pyarelal in over forty films but considering the volume of their work together, one could contend that their hit-rate was below the mark. The young Laxmikant–Pyarelal got more out of the veteran Mahrooh than Majrooh did from the composers. In fact, a key factor in Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s first hit score, Dosti (1964) was Majrooh’s award-winning lyrics. Ironically, while Laxmikant–Pyarelal went on to win six more Filmare Awards after Dosti, Majrooh never won the award again. The L-P and Majrooh team produced a few other noteworthy albums like Pathar Ke Sanam (1967), Shagird (1967) and Mere Hamdam Mere Dost (1968) but for most music lovers, Dosti towered above them because of its freshness and simplicity. My pick from the film is the ‘Raahi Manwa Dukh Ki Chinta’ in which Majrooh’s words were meaningful enough to pack a punch while being simple enough to pass off as a street singer’s song.
RD Burman dominates Majrooh Sultanpuri’s discography with an astounding 76 films. Even the formidable Laxmikant–Pyarelal did fewer films with Majrooh. For RD Burman, Majrooh was the second biggest contributor after Anand Bakshi. Even though RD Burman was many years junior to Majrooh, their partnership was one of equals. Majrooh Sultanpuri may have been a middle-aged man but his evolution as a lyricist continued with RD Burman. The sheer quantum of their output, the evolving themes of films and songs and Pancham’s experimentation with music powered Majrooh to his zenith with a mind-boggling range of songs. Of course, all this may not have been possible if RD Burman had not produced a hit score for Teesri Manzil (1966) in the first place. After OP Nayyar’s Aar Paar and Laxmikant–Pyarelal’s Dosti, Majrooh Sultanpuri had helped yet another struggling composer get a breakthrough. If there was one song in Teesri Manzil that gave any indication of Pancham’s and Majrooh’s glorious future, it was the exuberant and uninhibited ‘O Haseena Zulfon Wali Jaane Jahan’. Baharon Ke Sapne (1967), Pyar Ka Mausam (1969), Buddha Mil Gaya (1971), Caravan (1971), Mere Jeevan Sathi (1972), Anamika (1973), Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), Hum Kisise Kum Naheen (1977) and Kudrat (1981) are just a handful of hits that their collaboration produced in the years to follow.
Jatin–Lalit are outliers in this list with the fewest films with Majrooh Sultanpuri—just eight—and the largest gap in age. Jatin–Lalit made their film debut Yaara Dildara (1991) almost half a century after Mahrooh Sultanpuri’s debut. When Majrooh wrote lyrics for Yaar Dildara, he was 69 years old! These anomalies notwithstanding, Jatin–Lalit deserve a place in this list with the other exalted names for two reasons. First, Majrooh’s songs for them were majestically beautiful. Even in the twilight of his career and life, Majrooh kept going strong, his creative fire unabated. Second, Jatin–Lalit deserve a pat on the back for bringing Majrooh’s words to a whole new generation of filmgoers and music lovers. It helped that Jatin-Lalit were probably the best music directors of the 1990s (leaving aside the phenomenon called AR Rahman). Their assistant Babloo Chakraborty used to be a part of RD Burman’s team and this gave their music a sound that drew from the past but was refreshingly original. Musically inclined kids who grew up in the 1990s (and many adults) thrived on four Jatin–Lalit albums that had lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri— Yaara Dildara (1991), Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992), Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1994) and Khamoshi (1996). There are many songs in these films that would fill up any “Best of 90s” list but one in particular, ‘Ae Kaash Ke Hum’, that’s extra special because one can’t help but think of the extraordinary lyricist that was Majrooh Sultanpuri and nod and smile when one hears the line ‘Bas Naghme Tere Pyar Ke Gaate Hi Jaayen”.
A more exhaustive list of Majrooh Sultanpuri’s most popular songs can be found here.
