The Hindu : Not a mere film lyricist

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 11, 2002

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Not a mere film lyricist

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI May 10. Kaifi Azmi, who died here today, was not a mere film song writer but a well-known Urdu poet, who enriched motion pictures which liberally used his outpourings centred around compassion, pluralism, freedom and human equality.

Born in Mizwain in Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh, Azmi was christened Aktar Hussain Rizwi.

His decision not to become a moulvi but to join the freedom movement, write verse, and bolster the socialist movement by joining the Communist Party was a turning point.

Four years ago, he had spoken of having been born in "an enslaved country, having lived in an Independent secular India, God willing, I will die in a socialist India''.

That would have been a major disappointment for Azmi, who two decades ago, shifted to his village from Mumbai but his faith in socialism and people in general was undying.

When his daughter, film actress, Shabana Azmi, MP, wanted him to seek safety during the 1992-93 riots here, he said "in his home, in his country, none can uproot him''.

He wrote that the December 6, 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid was the beginning of Lord Ram's second sojourn into forests — vanavas.He was a co-founder of the Indian Peoples' Theatre Association (IPTA) with Balraj Sahani and others. Azmi's poems, despite his popularity in films, were rooted in the tradition of great shahirs.

He was the last of the titans in the Progressive Writers' Association and his nagm after nagm written during the freedom struggle had an abiding influence. His contribution to film songs did not dilute from his tradition but helped make it more popular.

It is perhaps an unparalleled achievement that he wrote the entire script for the film Heer Ranja in verse and it was due to him and a few others like him that this genre of verse — songs belted out not to rhythm as of now, but as lilting melodies of yore — gained some respectability and found appreciation even from die-hard Urdu poets and writers. He did not descend into the popular mould but remained above it.

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Not a mere film lyricist