Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

Words that heal

Leafing through life “Jaadu” on Javed Akhtar was a fascinating programme.

How often does one find a writer’s work interwoven with incidents of his own life? Only seldom. And when it’s the story of a man like Javed Akhtar, his struggle to success well knit with his own lyrics, dialogues and songs, it only become s a phenomenon. With its creative approach, the Niche Entertainment group, Pune, celebrated the 53rd year of Mahila Mangal, a women’s organisation that raises funds and runs schools for children from the lower economic strata. The audio-visual programme at New Delhi’s Kamani auditorium, titled ‘Jaadu - the Magic of Javed Akhtar’ took the audience on a journey into the life of the poet, grandson of Muzter Khairabadi, nephew of celebrated Urdu poet Majaz and son of Jan Nisar Akhtar and Safia Akhtar.

Javed Akhtar’s biography was narrated, coupled with his songs, sung by professional singers to colour the evening withentertainment and inspiration.

How Akhtar, a 15-year-old boy studying in Aligarh Muslim University, wrote his first love letter, handed it over to the girl in the badminton court, was followed by the song ‘ek ladki ko dekha’ from “1942-A Love Story”, his days in Bhopal where after three days of starvation he wrote ‘aankh khul gayi meri,’ ; those were the days he spent in the library and depended on friends for everything. A narration on what he suffered during his early days in Mumbai, spending the night under the sky he wrote,‘shaam hone ko hai… isi sheher mei mere baap ka ghar bhi hai...’ was followed by song ‘so gaya ye jahaan.’,Anote on determined and optimistic man struggling to make it big was coupled with ‘bas itna sa khwaab hai’ from “Yes Boss”.

It was said that it was his angst during the days of youth that reflected in the dialogues of the angry young man of “Deewaar”, “Coolie”, “Vijay” and “Zanjeer”. A description of how Akhtar found Meena Kumari’s Filmfare trophies on the sets of “Pakeezah”, cleaned them and posed with them before the mirror with wishful thoughts of waving to the audience was followed by visuals on his actual felicitation of awards like Padma Shri. “Success is like Aladdin’s magic lamp, that can make the world beautiful and people merciful,” is what Akhtar says of success in his biography.

The visuals of the songs that Akhtar wrote and his dialogues that won him acclaim including ‘kitne aadmi thhe kaalia?… ye haath humko de do thakur…angrezo ke zamaane ke jailor…’ from “Sholay”, ‘mere paas maa hai..’ , the dialogue that is supposed to depict the cracks between Javed and his father. The event also traced his achievements, and entertained the audience with songs from “Kal Ho Na Ho”, “Jodha Akbar”, “Sagar”, “Border”, etc. It concluded with the quivering notes of ‘Tarkash’, his famous book of poems. Sadly, the anchors’ improper Urdu pronunciation, including actor Sachin Khedekar, marred the evening.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail