Celebrating Gulzar and his magical poetry

Celebrating the magic and might of Gulzar’s pen, Majha House organised a special session on the eminent poet’s life and work. The programme titled ‘Zindagi Gulzar Hai’ was convened by Gurpartap Singh, author and Professor of English Department, Hindu College. Several interesting details from the celebrated poet’s life were discussed.

The panel of speakers included Seema Grewal, Shivani Ahuja and Tanzeel Fatima from Lahore, Pakistan, who read some selected poems of Gulzar.

Gurpartap shared how Gulzar witnessed the tragedy of Partition at a young age and felt the violence deeply, which later was expressed through some of this earlier works.

“This violence had such a deep impact on the poet that he kept having nightmares for years. He expressed these experiences beautifully in his poems. After Partition, he settled in old Delhi with family. There he got the opportunity to read Rabindranath Tagore’s composition Baghban. This collection not only evoked Gulzar’s interest in poetry, but he also decided to become a poet. Despite the family opposition, Gulzar made up his mind and after a fight with his family, he went to Mumbai,” said Gurpratap.

In Mumbai, he met lyricist Shailendra at a mushaira, who introduced him to Bimal Roy and this meeting led Gulzar pen a song for Roy’s classic Bandini. The song ‘Mora Gora Ang Lei Le’ became very famous and from there Gulzar’s film career started.

“Gulzar’s professional collaboration with greats like Hrishikesh Mukherjee and RD Burman created masterpieces that even today evoke surreal emotions,” said Gurpratap whose debut novel has a foreword by Gulzar.

Gurpartap said there was a lot of criticism of politics in Gulzar’s films and his poetry and he made a lot of satire on it. Another aspect of discussion was Gulzar’s fondness and association with children. A lot of his poems and songs, including the timeless ‘Lakdi Ki kaathi’ from Masoom, are his heartfelt literary gift to childhood.

Gulzar has been associated with Aarushi, a Bhopal-based organisation, which is working for differently abled children for many years. “He has been someone who has the longest career in the film industry, working in it for the last 65 years and active at the age of 90, still writing songs, which are popular. Gulzar remains timeless, relevant through ages and transcends language,” said Seem Grewal, actor and writer, who was on the panel. Poet and educator Jasmeet Nayyar performed dramatic reading of Gulzar’s poetry.

The session concluded with performances of Gulzar’s most famous songs by Saloni Arora, Gaurav Kaushal, Vaani Kapoor, Yogesh Kumar, Vaani and Vanya Saini, Vivaan Malik and Balender Singh.

Amritsar