He has hovered around in the background while you were at the nearest nightclub (Dhan Te Nan) or at the crossroads, worrying about your place in the big city (Ek Akela Is Shahar Mein...).
He has helped you survive heartbreak (Mera Kuch Saamaan) and celebrate love (Aaj Kal Paon Zameen Par).
He has seen you through your existential moments (Tujhse Naaraaz Nahin) and your most joyous ones (Jai Ho). Or even when you just wanted to go with the flow (Chhaiyya Chhaiiya)
There is a Gulzar song for every mood, and every occasion. And never mind that the natural baggage which comes with film songs (the music, picturisation, the song situation, the actors) has ensured that the songs mean different things to different people.
A look at five eternal favourites.
Mera Kuch Saamaan
Film: Ijaazat (1987) Director: Gulzar Singer: Asha Bhonsle Composer: R D Burman
It's the mundane request millions of former lovers across the world make everyday: "Could you get your stuff out of my house?"
The answer from Gulzar's restless, free-spirited Maya (Anuradha Patel), however, was not so simple. "And can you return our memories?," she asks in response. Composer RD Burman initially thought this was too simplistic to be made into a song. But once he heard Asha Bhonsle, who was in the background, hum the last line "Mujhe lauta do", he changed his mind, and the song went on to become the perfect example of how a perfectly ordinary situation lends itself to poetry.
The song recalls the bitter-sweet moments the lovers shared: 116 moonlit nights, surviving a rainy walk under a single umbrella, complaints and promises, and a night wrapped in a letter.
Favourite line:
Ek akeli chhataree main jab aadhe aadhe bheeg rahe the Aadhe sookhe aadhe geele, sukha to main le aaye thee Geela man shayad bistar ke paas pada ho Vo bhijwa do, mera vo saamaan lauta do
Ek Akela Is Shahar Mein Film: Gharonda (1977) Director: Bhimsain Singer: Bhupinder Composer: Jaidev All that Gharonda's hero (Sudip, played by Amol Palekar) wanted was a home to call his own. He was ready to go to any extent to fulfill what continues to be the great middle-class dream, even if it meant losing his girlfriend to another man. But luckily for us, the hero was real and human enough to feel the alienation which led Gulzar to write this very existentialist song about loneliness in the big city.
The song got a romantic twist in the noughties as Ajnabi Shahar Hai (Jaaneman, 2006). In keeping with the time, perhaps, the new hero finds himself in the city, unlike Sudip, who loses himself.
Favourite line: Is Ajnabi Se Shahar Mein Jaana Pehechana Dhoondta Hai Ek Akela Is Shahar Mein...
Chhod Aaye Hum Vo Galiyaan Film: Maachis (1996) Director: Gulzar Singer: Hariharan, KK, Suresh Wadkar and Vinod Sehgal Composer: Vishal Bharadwaj
Before Kaminey and Omkara, Gulzar and Vishal Bhardwaj paired up for one of the best-ever Indian films on what terrorism can make an ordinary person do.
Male bonding has never gone out of fashion in Hindi film songs. Chhod Aaye Hum Vo Galiyaan, however, is sung by four young men driven out of their homes, trying to navigate the mountains and make sense of their situation.
The song shuttles between extreme nostalgia and playful Nerudaesque descriptions of a lost love and land - "Rivers flow at the twirl of your waist; Crops ripen with the sound of your laughter"
The song, incidentally, is also the first sung by the now-popular KK.
Favourite line: Chhod Aaye Hum Vo Galiyaan Jahan tere pairon ke kawal gira karte thay Hanse to do gaalon mein bhanvar pada karte thay Teri kamar ke bal pe nadi muda karti thi Hansi teri sun sunke phasal paka karti thi
Humne Dekhi Hai Un Aankhon Ki Mehekti Khushboo Film: Khamoshi (1969) Director: Asit Sen Singer: Lata Mangeshkar Composer: Hemant Kumar
Gulzar is often criticised for his abstract, difficult imagery. But it is this very quality that makes many of his lines endearing and makes his songs relevant to generations of listeners.
Don't label love, Gulzar wrote way back in 1969.
Humne Dekhi Hai Un Aankhon Ki Mehekti Khushboo ("I have seen the wafting aroma of your eyes"): A line you could classify as brilliant, or as abstract beyond hope, depending on your tastes.
The song was written for an unconventional heroine, a nurse (Radha, played by Waheeda Rahman) who hopelessly falls in love with her patients - twice over.
The lines were originally meant to be sung by the hero, and Gulzar would later confess: "Only Lataji could change the gender of a song!"
Favourite line: Humne dekhi hai un aankhon ki mehakti khushboo Haath se chhoo ke ise rishton ka ilzaam na do Sirf ehsaas hai ye rooh se mehsoos karo Pyaar ko pyaar hi rehne do Koi naam na do
Dil To Bachcha Hai
Film: Ishqiya (2010)
Director: Abhishek Chaubey
Composer: Vishal Bhardwaj
Singer: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Naseeruddin Shah played the 1987 lover who inspired all that heart-rending poetry in Ijaazat.
Twenty-three years later in 2010, he is too old to "cut thread with his teeth". But just as flawed and as charming.
Naseer plays Khalujan, the hardened, uncouth middle-aged criminal who softens to love's charms in Ishqiya.
A rare gem in a youth-obsessed industry, Dil To Bachcha Hai is all about the unpredictability of the heart and the fear of falling in love with someone "unsuitable".
Favourite line: Dil sa koi kameena nahi Koi to roke, koi to toke Iss umr mein ab khaoge dhokhe Darr lagta hai ishq karne mein ji Dil to bachcha hai ji...
PS: For those interested in decoding the lyrics of Gulzar, we recommend 100 Lyrics, a translation by Sunjoy Shekhar, published by Penguin Books in 2009. The translation was authorised by Gulzar, who says he decided to "undress his lyrics". "I realised that the lyrics survived on their own, without the mannequin of the visuals," says the poet in his introduction to 100 Lyrics, a bilingual volume containing the original lyrics in Devanagari script alongside English translations.
Comments