Majrooh Sultanpuri

Birth: 1st October 1919
Birthplace: Sulatanpur, U.P.
Profession: Poet, Bollywood Film song Lyricists
Family:

BIOGRAPHY :

Think of an individual who has been in the Indian film music industry for the last five decades and been contributing continuously. One can come up with name like Lata Mangeshkar and …. Yes next name has to be Majrooh Sultanpuri. Changing with the pace of the times but still retaining the simplicity of the words and lyrics makes this man a true master worker of songs in Indian Film Industry.

Majrooh's parents wanted him to be a physician, but he preferred to be a poet, and touch many more lives that he would have, had he been a physician. He used poetry as a medium to express his communist views before he was drawn into the world of Hindi film lyrics. He was one of those lyricists with a never-say-die spirit, and who has entralled us over the past 50 years with his fine lyricism. His lyrics ranged from soft melodies, ghazals, romantic duets, rock-n-roll, pop, qawaalis to bhajans.

Majrooh Sultanpuri gets noticed

Majrooh Sultanpuri was first noticed at a mushaira at Bombay's Saboo Siddik Institute ground in 1945. The young poet was a protege of Jigar Moradabadi. The young poet after patiently awaiting his turn got the chance to step on to the podium. With his black sherwani buttoned to the throat, snow-white, full width Lucknowi pajama, fair complexion, and handsome countenance, he had a definite presence and commanded attention.

The cultured, well-modulated voice and the obvious beauty of craft and thought-content of the ghazal caught the audience unawares. There among the audience was A.R. Kardar, the famous motion picture producer and director. He was so impressed that he invited the young poet to see him after the mushaira. This was how Majrooh was signed for the unforgettable Kardar film, ‘Shahjahan’. Naushad set his lyrics to tune and K.L.Saigal sang them.

Majrooh saab penned eight out of ten lyrics for ‘Shahjahan’, and needless to say all of them were super hits. But before he could react to the large-scale, appeal created by these lines, he fell ill. The harsh Bombay weather made him leave the city and return to his hometown in the North.

Success eludes the talented poet and he gets arrested for his provocative writing: It was now 1947. The film industry remained idle for six months in the aftermath of the partition. However, as some semblance of sanity and peace returned to the nation, the film industry also started taking stock of its affairs. Sultanpuri came back to Bombay and, on the recommendation of Naushad, was contacted by director Mehboob Khan for the Dilip Kumar-Nargis-Raj Kapoor starrer, ‘Andaz’.


The year in Jail

The Iyrics of ‘Andaz’ are now history. But, again, Sultanpuri failed to cash in on this hit film. For, by this time his political activities as a communist and his literary pursuit as a member of the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) had convinced the Korari Desai government that this was one writer to be taken care of. An arrest warrant was issued and Majrooh saab went underground and remained so for a year. But he could not resist participating in a function protesting the arrest of Sajjad Zahir for his alleged involvement in the so-called Rawalpindi conspiracy. Sultanpuri recited a few of his fiery ghazals and, while coming down from the dais, was apprehended by the police. After that he spent a year in the Byculla jail.

After his release from jail, Kamal Amrohi asked him to write for his film ‘Daayra’. Then came his association with Guru Dutt and O.P. Nayyar. With O.P. Nayyar the rapport between the composer and lyricist were complete. It was also during this period that Asha Bhosle had her best to offer to the film industry as a singer. Songs like ‘Yeh hai reshmi zulfon ka andhera na ghabraiye’ and ‘Jaiye aap kahan jaenge, yeh nazar laut ke phir aayegi’ from ‘Mere Sanam’ and songs from several other films where Nayyar and Majrooh saab collaborated were a rage. This was also the time when the lyricist contributed at least 20 new words or sets of words hitherto unheard of in the film-lyrics vocabulary. These were words typical of the Urdu culture.

His other innovation in film-lyrics was what came to be known in film music circles as ‘romantic comedy duets’. In one of the usual filmi parties, S.D.Burman was discussing with him the futility of investing precious time in composing tunes for duets, which seemed to have lost the ear of cine-goers. Sultanpuri, by now had established his reputation as a person who did not mince words. He plainly told Burman that it was the fault of the Lyricists rather than the music directors if duets were losing popularity. In his typical challenging way, he promised that he would write a duet soon and make it a success. Burman smiled and said, ‘Then why not write that duet for me?’ This was how S D Burman and Sultanpuri teamed up and, together, gave us such beautiful lyrics as heard in ‘Paying Guest’, ‘Nau do Gyaarah’, ‘Kala Paani’, to mention a few.

Sadly for the great man he has not found appreciation easy to come by. Majrooh saab has won only one Filmfare award. He won it for the song ‘Chahoonga main tujhe saanjh savere’ from the film ‘Dosti’ in 1964. He is also the only lyricist to have been awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke award.

Majrooh Sultanpuri has worked with everybody

Probably, Majrooh has worked with more music directors than any other lyricist. Not a mean achievement for a lyricist, who has to cope up with the varying styles of different MDs. While, for other lyricists their writing style or ego came in their way of working with any Music Directors, Majrooh had no such problems. He was versatile and a thorough professional and above all a nice person, as vouched for by many of his colleagues.

Here is a partial list of music directors with whom Majrooh has worked with: Anand-Milind, Anil Biswas, Chitragupta, Khaiyaam, Kishore Kumar, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Madan Mohan, N.Dutta, Naushad, O.P.Nayyar, R.D.Burman, Ravi, Roshan, S.D.Burman, and Salil Choudhury He has also worked with Anu Mallik, Bappi Lahiri, Basu Chakravarty, C.Ramachandra, Ghulam Mohd., Hemant Kumar, Husnlal-Bhagatram, Kalyanji-Anandji, Mukul Roy, Rajesh Roshan, S.Madan, Shanker-Jaikishan, Tushar Bhatia, Usha Khanna and Vasant Desai.

Many believe that he hasn’t been popular because he is not media savvy unlike his contemporary lyricists were or are. Even today one will never find Majrooh saab socializing with people from the film industry. His friends are books and books and more books, maybe also a few poets and writers. Majrooh saab is not just a film lyricist he is a poet to the core having written some outstanding poetry. His anthology titled, ‘Ghazal’, was published in 1959 and contained 33 ghazals created in the period from 1944 to 1953. They are still among the best-known Urdu ghazals, which had already earned the status of presenting a new idiom of progressive poetry.

The Best of Majrooh Sultanpuri
Song Movie
Babuji dhire chalna Aar Paar
Aankhon hi aankhon mein ishara ho gaya C.I.D.
Mana janab ne pukara nahi Paying Guest
Chahunga mein tujhe Dosti
Kabhi to milegi Aarti
Jaane kahan mera Mr. & Mrs. 55
Aankhon hi aankhon mein C.I.D.
Kabhi aar kabhi paar Aar Paar
Ab kya misal doo Aarti
Chod do aanchal Paying Guest
Udhar tum hasin ho Mr. & Mrs. 55
Baar baar ohe kya samjhye Aarti
Yaad aa gayi o nashili nigahen Manzil
Chori ho gayi raat Ishaara
Awards :
Award Contribution
Iqbal Samman Madhya Pradesh Government's highest literary award
Dada Sahab Phalke Award Government of India's highest award conferred on an artiste associated with films
Film Writers Association Award Indian Film Industry
Film Journalist Award Writing for Films
Uttar Pradesh Hindi-Urdu Sahitya Award Hindi and Urdu Literature
All India Journalist Award Writings

HIS LYRICIST IN THE MOVIES OF SUPER STAR RAJESH KHANNA :

10) Babu - 22-11-1985
9) Ram Tere Kitne Naam - 15-2-1985
8) Zamana - 1985
7) Dharam Kanta - 6-8-1982
6) Kudrat - 3-4-1981
5) Aanchal - 18-9-1980
4) Phir Wohi Raat - 15-8-1980
3) Janta Hawaldaar - 27-4-1979
2) Mere Jeevan Saathi - 1972
1) Baharon Ke Sapne - 1967