A river runs for hundreds of years and but belies the thought of permanence. It flows away because it flows in, can each flood and run dry, absorb tributaries, change course and annex newer territories. A protracted inventive profession carries an identical paradox. Whereas retaining an important recognisable voice it should regularly purchase new vocabularies. For over seventy years, Picasso didn’t merely survive shifting creative actions however truly spearheaded most of them with out as soon as falling out of rivalry.
And there isn’t a extra compelling Indian parallel to this than Gulzar. Not often has somebody spent decade after decade on the very summit of a number of demanding public crafts, with out a outstanding part of decline and with out the grandiosity that usually accompanies greatness. An influential Urdu poet, a lyricist, a movie and tv director, creator, screenwriter, youngsters’s author, translator, Gulzar has regarded into this world by way of each attainable lens and the world too has regarded again gratefully, bestowing on him each identified nationwide and worldwide award, from the Dadasaheb Phalke Award to the Jnanpith Award, from the Oscar to the Grammy. To tweak one among his personal traces he wrote for the movie ‘Anand’, his profession has not simply been intensive however expansive too (Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahi).
Gulzar got here to movie songwriting at a time when the lyricists’ fraternity was a formidable roll-call of masters resembling Shailendra, Sahir Ludhianvi, Shakeel Badayuni, Rajendra Krishan amongst others. Gulzar wrote his first movie track for Bimal Roy’s ‘Bandini’ – Mora Gora Ang Laile set in Vaishnava verse. And straight away, he had discovered his area of interest as a lyricist in a roomful of titans.
Although sure by the strict movie track conventions of metre, rhyming, musicality, conditions and the necessity to match lyrics right into a pre-composed tune, Gulzar has all the time commanded a singular, unmistakable idiom. Whereas this signature is immediately perceptible, it defies straightforward definition. The fashion is a curious mix of abstraction (Is mod se jaate hain from ‘Aandhi’), symbolism (Wo Yaar hai Jo Khushboo Ki Tarah, Jiski Zubaan Urdu Ki Tarah from ‘Dil Se’), poetic flourish (Do Nainon Mein Aansoo Bhare Hain, Nindiya Kaise Samaye from ‘Khushboo’), paronomasia (Sare ke Sare gama Ko Lekar Gaate Chale from ‘Parichay’), political messaging (Haal Chaal Thik Thaak Hain from ‘Mere Apne’), allusion to nature (Hawaaon Pe Likh Do from ‘Do Dooni Chaar’), vivid imagery (Chhote Chhote sheheron from ‘Bunty Aur Babli’), darkish humour (Goli Maar Bheje Mein from ‘Satya’), arcane vocabulary (Aab-o-dana dhoondhte hain ek aashiyaana dhoondte hain from ‘Gharonda’), a wealthy worldview (Aane Wala Pal from ‘Golmaal’), and above all, an emotional heft (Humne Dekhi haiIn Aankhon Ki Mehekti Khushboo from ‘Khamoshi’) that may completely ambush a listener mid-song.
Critics could argue that such sophistication is at odds with a “movie” track, a type anticipated to resonate with the lots with out demanding a lot of interpretive labour. And but Gulzar has repeatedly confirmed in any other case. A lot of his songs have captured widespread creativeness like none different resembling Humko Mann Ki Shakti Dena from ‘Guddi’, a regulation prayer track in faculties even at present or Beedi Jalaile from ‘Omkara’ oozing a country exuberance or the infectiously playful Kajra Re from ‘Bunty Aur Babli’. Regardless of his unusual idiom, his songs have discovered common acceptance aided by composers resembling R.D. Burman, A.R. Rahman and Vishal Bharadwaj who’ve matched their crafts effortlessly to his calibre.
The identical mental braveness defines Gulzar’s trajectory as a filmmaker and a screenwriter. A lot of Gulzar’s movies have been tailored from works of literature. As a author himself, he might simply discover a story’s emotional register and seamlessly infuse it into cinema with sensitivity to issues like language, character, subtext, silence, refrains and motifs. He additionally made movies which have been topical, championed progressive values, spoke fact to energy, offered nuanced worldviews and requested uncomfortable questions all with out ever tipping into preachiness. His debut movie ‘Mere Apne’ positioned disaffected youth on the centre of a narrative about political disillusionment and loneliness. His ‘Aandhi’ was a political thriller which gave its feminine lead huge company the place the male lead performs second fiddle to her. His ‘Mausam’ delicately handles the misplaced romantic affection a intercourse employee feels for her personal organic father, a story selection most administrators would have flinched at again then. His ‘Maachis’ was a daring and layered exploration of radicalisation set towards the Punjab insurgency probing uncooked wounds with out pointing fingers. He has by no means been the one to take the straightforward path, neither in his selection of topics nor in his remedy of them.
As a poet and a prose stylist exterior movies, Gulzar has been nothing wanting prolific. His Partition tales carry the emotional authority of getting skilled it first-hand. He has written for youngsters with the identical sincerity he reserves for grownup readers. His poetry seamlessly strikes between the formal structure of the Urdu ghazal and nazm and the autonomy of the free verse. He’s additionally the creator of the Triveni, a three-line verse akin to an Indian Haiku whose third line, with a sleight of thoughts, completely alters the emotional that means of the primary two. Translations are a telling a part of Gulzar’s oeuvre. Aside from translating literary giants resembling Tagore and Kusumagraj independently, he has additionally translated a number of scores of latest poets throughout all Indian languages which have been anthologised in his A Poem a Day. What emerges from this huge physique of labor is solely a relentless love not only for the written phrase but in addition for the reader and a uncommon potential to distill probably the most mundane into beautiful poetry. Gulzar is just like the itinerant water-carrier whose vessel continues to pour out to generations of thirsty readers and but all the time stays crammed to the brim.
One other outstanding side of Gulzar is his unmitigated affection and respect for his seniors and friends that runs by way of his work, considerably just like the moon borrowing the solar’s luminosity however making it gentler for the passage. Be it in his biographical sketches or in his long-form interviews and even his variations of their lives and works, there’s an unfeigned humility and a willingness to let another person’s genius stand taller than his personal. He has quoted or paraphrased different poets resembling Khusrau, Ghalib and T.S. Eliot in his works exhibiting how grounded and safe he’s of his personal craft. His narratives on the likes of his mentor Bimal Roy, his pal R.D. Burman, his seniors Shailendra, Sahir, Faiz and lots of others are filled with tenderness. His landmark tele-serials Mirza Ghalib on the lifetime of the talismanic Urdu poet and Tehrir Munshi Premchand Ki too are wonderful instances in level.
But, his towering stature has satirically birthed a curious fashionable phenomenon. Having assumed a quasi-mythological standing amongst the lots, Gulzar’s identify is routinely invoked to lend gravity to mediocre verse he by no means wrote. The Web is awash with traces intentionally misattributed to him to confer credibility and heft to something vaguely poetic. It’s an irony of our instances that the extra a voice instructions out belief, the extra it’s pressured to talk phrases it by no means uttered. Although a vigilant group of admirers actively fight this digital misattribution by way of the hashtag #NotByGulzar, its sheer quantity reveals how perversely his poetic persona has permeated the general public consciousness, extra as a model to be flaunted quite than the painstaking artist he has all the time been.
In an age of public posturing the place dilettantes know simply sufficient to make sparing content material for senseless scrollers with reducing consideration spans, the place flamboyance is rewarded greater than moderation, the place the affected person romance of Take a look at cricket has misplaced floor to the titillations of T-20, Gulzar stands as a raging testimony to longevity and restraint. His endurance is much less owing to a sort discount struck with time than to his rigour, his resilience as a person of his craft and his incorruptible curiosity that also propels him to say issues and discover new methods of claiming them.
In one among his personal songs from the 80s movie ‘Hip Hip Hurray’, he writes:
Roz tere jeene ke liye ek subah mujhe mil jaati hai
Murjhati hai koi shaam agar to raat kahin khil jaati hai
Predominant roz subah tak aata hoon, aur roz shuru karta hoon safar
Haath badha ae zindagi, aankh milake baat kar
As Gulzar turned 92 this August 18, 2026, what units him aside is his potential to repeatedly meet life with the alertness of somebody encountering it for the primary time, look it proper within the eye and dare to chronicle its triumphs and sorrows with constancy and creativeness.
Completely happy birthday, Gulzar Saab! We’re infinitely grateful to have you ever in our lives, for higher and for verse.
(Kalyan is an IT skilled with Infosys. Views expressed are private.)
Printed – August 20, 2026 09:22 pm IST
