Sahir Ludhianvi

Abdul Hayee, known by his pen name Sahir Ludhianvi (“the magician from Ludhiana”), was a major Urdu poet of the Progressive Writers' Movement and the most celebrated lyricist in the history of Hindi cinema. His first collection, Talkhiyā̃ (“Bitterness”, 1945), became one of the most widely read books of Urdu poetry, with its bitter love poems and its critique of class and power — above all the nazm “Tāj Mahal”, which sees in the Mughal emperor’s monument to his wife a mockery of the love of the poor. In Bombay from 1949, he wrote the songs for some of the greatest Hindi films — Pyaasa, Naya Daur, Hum Dono, Phir Subah Hogi, Kabhi Kabhie — carrying progressive ideals of equality, anti-war, secularism and justice into songs sung by the whole subcontinent.

Life

Sahir was born on 8 March 1921 in Ludhiana, Punjab, into a wealthy feudal family; his mother left his father, a landlord with many wives, when Sahir was a child, and won custody of her son in court after a bitter fight, living afterwards in poverty and fear. The bitterness of this childhood — against feudal power, patriarchy and wealth — shaped his poetry. At Government College, Ludhiana, he became famous for his poems and was expelled (it is said after a romance with a fellow student). He moved to Lahore, edited Urdu literary magazines (Adab-e-Latīf, Shāhkār, Savera), joined the Progressive Writers, and published Talkhiyā̃ in 1945. After Partition he lived briefly in Lahore, then, threatened with arrest for his communist sympathies, moved to Delhi and in 1949 to Bombay, where he became the leading lyricist of Hindi films, working with the music directors S. D. Burman, N. Datta, Ravi, Roshan and Khayyam, and with the director Guru Dutt and the producer B. R. Chopra. He never married; his relationship with the Punjabi poet Amrita Pritam, who loved him, remained unfulfilled. He received the Padma Shri (1971) and Filmfare awards for Taj Mahal (1964) and Kabhi Kabhie (1976). He died of a heart attack in Bombay on 25 October 1980.

Poetry

“Tāj Mahal” — “Ik shahanshāh ne daulat kā sahārā lekar / Ham garībõ kī mohabbat kā uṛāyā hai mazāq” (“An emperor, using the support of his wealth, has made a mockery of the love of us poor people”) — asks his beloved not to meet him at the Taj Mahal, since countless people have loved without the means to build monuments, and the marble was carved by labourers whose names are forgotten.

His long poem Parchhāiyā̃ (“Shadows”, 1955) is an anti-war poem contrasting a pair of lovers with the destruction of war. His film songs include:

• From Pyaasa (1957), the anthem of the disillusioned poet: “Ye mahlõ, ye takhtõ, ye tājõ kī duniyā… ye duniyā agar mil bhī jāe to kyā hai” (“This world of palaces, thrones and crowns… what is it worth even if one gets it?”) and “Jinhẽ naaz hai Hind par vo kahā̃ haĩ” (“Where are those who are proud of India?”), sung as the poet walks through a red-light district.
• From Naya Daur (1957): “Sāthī hāth baṛhānā” — a song of collective labour.
• From Hum Dono (1961): “Allah tero nām, Īśvar tero nām” — a prayer for peace and “Maĩ zindagī kā sāth nibhātā calā gayā”.
• From Phir Subah Hogi (1958): “Vo subah kabhī to āegī” — “That dawn will surely come someday”, a hope for a just world.
• From Kabhi Kabhie (1976): “Kabhī kabhī mere dil mẽ khayāl ātā hai” — one of the best-loved love songs of Hindi cinema.

Legacy

Sahir made film lyrics an art and a medium for serious poetry and political conviction; he also fought successfully for lyricists’ rights to royalties and to be named on radio. His songs remain part of the everyday culture of India and Pakistan; Indian Post issued a stamp in his honour in 2013.

In conversation

• “Ye duniyā agar mil bhī jāe to kyā hai” — what is the world worth if it has no room for human beings?
• “Vo subah kabhī to āegī” — that dawn will come someday.
• “Tāj Mahal” — the monument as a mockery of the love of the poor.