|
Magazine
Seasoned wordsmith
ZIYA US SALAM
|
The focus is on Gulzar’s cinema and lyrics rather than the man and the poet.
|
Photo: K. Gajendran
Poet and director: Gulzar.
Even at his most ardent, Gulzar over his 40 years in the film industry has never been a merchant of words. His pen often acts like a brush and, in an industry that swears by exaggeration, he has never been guilty of overstatement. Yet he has never been dogmatic about his beliefs, assimilating the winds of change with grace: over the years the poet-director gave way to an activist, and the lyricism of his earlier work became more muted, as he sought to expose our society through his celluloid forays. Just as he gave up the fierce opposition to writing film songs — he had said an unequivocal no to none other than Bimal Roy when the legendary filmmaker asked him to write a song! — to go on to redefine the parameters of film lyrics.
And the much-maligned “Hu Tu Tu” and its final failure at the box office has been, and continues to be, a poignant expression of the filmmaker’s plight: he worked on his terms, which are no longer in consonance with a profit-driven industry.
In the fitness of things, Gulzar’s biography has been penned by Saibal Chatterjee, who earlier worked with Gulzar on Encyclopaedia Britannica’s volume on Hindi cinema. A National Award winner, Chatterjee brings to expression his rich repertoire even as he goes about penning this biography that does not shy away from the uneasy aspects of Gulzar’s life.
Of course, the focus is primarily on Gulzar’s cinema and his career as lyricist rather than the man and the poet. There is the mandatory reference to his early days — the time when Gulzar, born Sampooran Singh Kalra, stayed in Delhi’s Sabzi Mandi in the wake of the Partition. There is also more than a fleeting narration of his early days in Bombay: when Gulzar worked in a garage, when his association with some of the best creative minds in films and poetry shaped his thoughts!
Then there is the R.D. Burman story. In an industry where friendships are notoriously fickle, Gulzar had many wonderful associations, none more so than with the late R.D. Burman. As Gulzar said on more than one occasion, and as Chatterjee has points out, the two were almost inseparable. They churned out songs like Qatra qatra milti hai, Sili hawa chhoo gayee and Tujh se naraaz nahin zindagi. While soothing lyrics could be woven naturally into the context of films like “Ijaazat”, “Libaas” and “Masoom”, it is Gulzar’s ability to weave magic in films like “Jeeva” with Roz Roz ankhon tale that is remarkable.
Though Chatterjee has failed to point out the masterpieces the two dished out — maybe, he wanted to avoid the obvious — there is a quote attributed to Gulzar that says it all. On page 243 in the chapter “Anchors and Acolytes” — somewhat condescending a title — Gulzar states, “Pancham was completely involved with his music. When a tune struck him, he would not relax until he had shared it with me no matter where we were at that moment.” Interestingly Chatterjee points out, the two fabulously talented men seldom had formal sittings. Often Pancham Da got the hang of a tune while driving to a recording. He would then pick up Gulzar on the way, and play the tune on the dashboard of the car!
Where both Gulzar and Chatterjee deserve credit is in the frank words used to express the box-office debacle of “Hu Tu Tu”. In Chatterjee’s words, “‘Hu Tu Tu’, which had been launched amid a fair bit of fanfare in the wake of the runaway success of ‘Maachis’, turned out to be a damp squib at the box office, sending the writer-director’s career into a tailspin from which it has yet to fully recover. Six long years have elapsed since ‘Hu Tu Tu’ hit the screens. Meaty script ideas haven’t stopped swirling around in Gulzar’s head, but he now finds himself and his kind of cinema in a situation in which securing financial backing for a film has become far more difficult than ever before.”
This confession alone makes the book worth its place on your shelf. It saves it from being hagiography. There have been failures in Gulzar’s life. There are shortcomings in Chatterjee’s book too. Gulzar has never been an in-your-face poet. Nor is this book. When Chatterjee has to point out some lesser known interesting facets of Gulzar’s life, he uses the words of Gulzar’s chief assistant director Kailash Advani to point out that the seasoned wordsmith plays tennis, does yoga and retires early to bed. Nothing obvious, hardly anything missed. That is what makes this 260-odd page saga worth possessing.
Echoes And Eloquences: The Life And Cinema Of Gulzar; Saibal Chatterjee, Rupa and Co., Rs. 795.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Magazine
|
