Majrooh Sultanpuri(1919-2000)
"Ek din bike jayega maati ke mol...", "Piya tu ab to aaja..." the beautiful and melodious songs penned by one of the greatest poet of the century that bollywood has ever got Majrooh Sultanpuri. Asrur ul Hassan Khan better known as Majrooh Sultanpuri to all of us was born in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh in India in 1919. Born in a poor middle class family and a son of a sub inspector of police, he could not afford the expensive English language in that era.
Despite of that he completed his studies in Arabic, Persian and went to take the degree of becoming an Alim(scholar). He then joined Luckhnow's Takmeel-ut-Tib College of the Unani( Greek) System of practicing medicine. By that time the was an established Hakim(wise). One day he happened to recite one of his gazal's in a mushaira on hearing this gazal, Jigar Moradabadi one of the renowned Urdu poet became his friend. Giving serious thoughts to his gazal's he drooped his well established prosperous medical practice and began writing poetry. Later years Jigar Moradabadi became his guru, mentor or ustad.
In the early years after partition the poet felt hugely hemmed in by the lack of reaching out to the people they were supposed to be addressing. Through they had a steady audience, it was very tiny compared to that enjoyed by popular media including that of the cinema. It was decided by a few poets and literary organisations to ride on the back of a popular medium to exploit the greater outreach of the cinema, and as it were, to spread the message.
In 1945 he wrote his first film song "Gam diye Mustaqil..." which was sung by one of the all time great singer K.L Saigal and catapulted him to the forefront of film lyricist, a career which spanned more then five decades. Raj Kappor commissioned a song("Ek din bike jayega maati ke mol") from Majrooh for which he paid him Rs. 1000 much less compared to today's lyricist. Film fraternity use to say he use to pen lyrics for the situation of a film. He was himself an outstanding ghazal poet and introduced new imagery and new diction into the heavily stylised format. Majrooh Sultanpuri was the foremost poet in the modern poetry. His great contribution to the world of Urdu poetry and bollywood films was recognised and earned him the prestigious Dadasahib Phalke award in 19193. He worked with almost all the music directiors starting from O.P Nayyar to A.R Rehman. He died on 24 May 2000 by severe attack of pneumonia.
But Majrooh Sultanpuri reputation as a poet was ironically overshadowed by being a lyricist. This happens almost all the time that the real merit of a person is pushed into the background by some lesser work that is done for a medium with a bigger outreach or some popular event. For years after years even today people hummed his poetry, yet this will be unfair to judge him and his great poetry.
Perhaps history will judge Majrooh as a poet who partially frittered away his talent by writing for the films. The limited opportunity and the constraints of the situation do not let the poet grow and prosper in the same manner when he is just writing poetry as an autonomous form. But Majrooh's contribution in giving a new meaning to the ghazal will keep the torch of this name burning for quite some time.
Note : Data's and figures are collected form wikipedia.
