We are glad to have Ashu, our collaborator from the Hindi Lyrics section, in the Hindi Cinema blog team. She is a fervent admirer of Gulzar's work and has written an introduction to the talented poet's life. Welcome to HCB, Ashu. It is our privilege to have someone as gifted with words collaborating with us.
As the world sang Jai ho and applauded the might of Indian film music… as AR Rahman accepted the much deserved Oscars followed by the Grammies… as millions of people watched this moment with pride…there was one hero of this success story that was missing from the limelight. One of the song writers of this song, which has become a rage world wide…Gulzar.
Born Sampurn Singh, in 1936, in a Sikh family of a small town (now in Pakistan), he adopted the pen name Gulzar, which can be loosely translated as “garden” or “collection of flowers”… so apt because this multifaceted, multitalented man has added so much color and vibrancy to Hindi film music over the years.
The recurring theme in Gulzar’s poetry is romance. He also seems to have a special fondness for the moon; the reference of which is cleverly interspersed into his lines. And somewhere deep down Gulzar remains a child, for the innocence and purity in his lyrics could only be because of that.
Click here to read English translations of Gulzar's beautiful work by Ashu herself.
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