Raja of romance
He was the uncrowned king of romantic numbers. But Hasrat Jaipuri, whose 10th death anniversary fell on September 17, was also much more than that. And perhaps he never got his due in a milleu where flowery shaayari ruledHasrat Jaipuri was the underdog of the legendary Shankar-Jaikishan-Hasrat-Shailendra quartet that ruled from their joint 1949 debut Barsaat till the late ‘60s and is unanimously considered as the fountainhead of modern film music.
The legendary lyricists can be broadly split into three groups: the kavis, the Hindi-based writers whose work often had deep philosophical insights, the Urdu-based shaayars whose special strengths were romance, the craft of flowery verse and later even cynicism, and those who balanced Urdu and Hindi with equal felicity. Among these, Hasrat Jaipuri was a bit of a rebel - he never wrote high-flown Urdu, nor was he into philosophy. And so he suffered. His supple romantic numbers seemingly stood low in comparison to the depth of a Shailendra.
And yet a Doctorate from the World University Round Table and the Josh Mahilabadi award from the Urdu conference for his literary work seemed to be vindication enough for Hasrat’s all-round calibre along with the Dr Ambedkar award for the song Jhanak jhanak tori baaje payaliya from Mere Huzoor, written in a blend of Hindi and Brijbhasha for a Muslim social! But when one of his eminent contemporaries wrote him off as a mere tukbandi karnewala (a cheap rhymester), one bristled at the injustice.
The legendary lyricists can be broadly split into three groups: the kavis, the Hindi-based writers whose work often had deep philosophical insights, the Urdu-based shaayars whose special strengths were romance, the craft of flowery verse and later even cynicism, and those who balanced Urdu and Hindi with equal felicity. Among these, Hasrat Jaipuri was a bit of a rebel - he never wrote high-flown Urdu, nor was he into philosophy. And so he suffered. His supple romantic numbers seemingly stood low in comparison to the depth of a Shailendra.
And yet a Doctorate from the World University Round Table and the Josh Mahilabadi award from the Urdu conference for his literary work seemed to be vindication enough for Hasrat’s all-round calibre along with the Dr Ambedkar award for the song Jhanak jhanak tori baaje payaliya from Mere Huzoor, written in a blend of Hindi and Brijbhasha for a Muslim social! But when one of his eminent contemporaries wrote him off as a mere tukbandi karnewala (a cheap rhymester), one bristled at the injustice.
Hasrat Jaipuri’s real name was Iqbal Hussain and he had acquired taalim in Persian and Urdu from his grandfather Fida Husain in hometown Jaipur. It is said that romantics are born, and Hasrat was just 20 when he fell in love with a girl called Radha and wrote the poem Yeh mera prem patra padhkar that was immortalized by Shankar-Jaikishan, Mohammed Rafi and Raj Kapoor in Sangam.
Hasratsaab never discriminated between religion or languages. “Hindi and Urdu are like inseparable sisters!” he would say. And about Radha, he said eloquently, “It is not at all necessary that a Muslim boy had to fall in love only with a Muslim girl!” Hasrat’s struggle in Mumbai ended when Prithviraj Kapoor heard his verse at a mushaira and introduced him to son Raj Kapoor at the Royal Opera House
canteen where the former would stage his plays. The result was Barsaat. But Hasrat continued with his job - as a bus conductor! - even though Raj Kapoor predicted that both Hasrat and Shailendra would be flooded with work. “Rajsaab had more confidence in Shailendra and me than we did in ourselves!” the lyricist had told me. “What he said came true!”
Hasrat wrote over 2000 songs in over 350 films in a career that lasted 50 long years. He worked very infrequently towards the end because of a combination of factors - the lack of need to work (because he was financially comfortable) and also because he was not called to write often by the new breed of music directors (which included his nephew Anu Malik) and filmmakers. “I did not have to run after music companies or anyone else for work!” said the master-lyricist. Saazish (Jatin-Lalit) and Sher Khan (Bappi Lahiri) were his last releases in 1998. His last memorable songs were Rahaa jo dil mein (Mohabbat Ki Arzoo/ Laxmikant-Pyarelal) and Paas woh aane lage zara zara (Main Khiladi Tu Anari/Anu Malik).
Such was the volume and range of S-J’s work with Shailendra and him that Hasrat Jaipuri’s work outside them was restricted due to practical aspects. And yet he hit towering highs under other composers from the biggest to the smallest names, among them being films like V.Shantaram’s Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (Vasant Desai), Sehra and Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne (Ramlal), Ziddi and Tere Ghar ke Saamne (S.D.Burman) and Bhoot Bungla (R.D.Burman) and landmark songs like Aansoo bhari hain in Parvarish (Dattaram), Aisa na ho ke (Aakhri dao/Laxmikant-Pyarelal), Samaa hai suhana suhana (Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani/Kalyanji-Anandji), Jiske sapne hamein (Geet/Kalyanji-Anandji), Tu mere saamne hai and Tumhi to meri pooja ho (Suhagan/Madan Mohan), Mohabbat aisi dhadkan hai (Anarkali/ C.Ramachandra), Sun sahiba sun (Ram Teri Ganga Maili/Ravindra Jain) and many more.“I worked with the most number of composers,” revealed the poet. “From Khayyam and Sajjad through O.P.Nayyar and all the way till Jatin-Lalit I did films with them all. But there was no one to beat the four of us - Shankar, Jai, Shailendra and I - for 20 long years!”
Hasratsaab never discriminated between religion or languages. “Hindi and Urdu are like inseparable sisters!” he would say. And about Radha, he said eloquently, “It is not at all necessary that a Muslim boy had to fall in love only with a Muslim girl!” Hasrat’s struggle in Mumbai ended when Prithviraj Kapoor heard his verse at a mushaira and introduced him to son Raj Kapoor at the Royal Opera House
canteen where the former would stage his plays. The result was Barsaat. But Hasrat continued with his job - as a bus conductor! - even though Raj Kapoor predicted that both Hasrat and Shailendra would be flooded with work. “Rajsaab had more confidence in Shailendra and me than we did in ourselves!” the lyricist had told me. “What he said came true!”
Hasrat wrote over 2000 songs in over 350 films in a career that lasted 50 long years. He worked very infrequently towards the end because of a combination of factors - the lack of need to work (because he was financially comfortable) and also because he was not called to write often by the new breed of music directors (which included his nephew Anu Malik) and filmmakers. “I did not have to run after music companies or anyone else for work!” said the master-lyricist. Saazish (Jatin-Lalit) and Sher Khan (Bappi Lahiri) were his last releases in 1998. His last memorable songs were Rahaa jo dil mein (Mohabbat Ki Arzoo/ Laxmikant-Pyarelal) and Paas woh aane lage zara zara (Main Khiladi Tu Anari/Anu Malik).
Such was the volume and range of S-J’s work with Shailendra and him that Hasrat Jaipuri’s work outside them was restricted due to practical aspects. And yet he hit towering highs under other composers from the biggest to the smallest names, among them being films like V.Shantaram’s Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (Vasant Desai), Sehra and Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne (Ramlal), Ziddi and Tere Ghar ke Saamne (S.D.Burman) and Bhoot Bungla (R.D.Burman) and landmark songs like Aansoo bhari hain in Parvarish (Dattaram), Aisa na ho ke (Aakhri dao/Laxmikant-Pyarelal), Samaa hai suhana suhana (Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani/Kalyanji-Anandji), Jiske sapne hamein (Geet/Kalyanji-Anandji), Tu mere saamne hai and Tumhi to meri pooja ho (Suhagan/Madan Mohan), Mohabbat aisi dhadkan hai (Anarkali/ C.Ramachandra), Sun sahiba sun (Ram Teri Ganga Maili/Ravindra Jain) and many more.“I worked with the most number of composers,” revealed the poet. “From Khayyam and Sajjad through O.P.Nayyar and all the way till Jatin-Lalit I did films with them all. But there was no one to beat the four of us - Shankar, Jai, Shailendra and I - for 20 long years!”
Posted: Sep 18, 2009 at 1429 hrs IST
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