| Reliving romance and history through Azmi’s pen |
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| Written by Amita Sarwal | |||||||
| Wednesday, 06 February 2008 | |||||||
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As a tribute to the legendry poet, writer and activist Kaifi Azmi, Kaifi Aur Main was premiered on his fourth death anniversary in 2006. Through the words of Shaukat and Kaifi Azmi, their daughter Shabana Azmi and son-in-law, writer, lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar took us on the couple’s life’s journey.  I got to see it recently, over a year and half later, in Singapore. For the audience of my generation it was a peek into the history of our country, the freedom struggle many of our parents were associated with. Above all, the play bore testimony to the love between the Azmis. The play was appropriately studded with Kaifi Sahib’s compositions which have lent essence to many celluloid frames in Indian movies. As Jaswinder Singh lent his voice to these compositions, so did many of us, humming and singing along and nostalgically reliving moment from the 1950s onwards. There were songs from Guru Dutt’s Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) – a film that brings to mind Geeta Dutt’s rendition of Waqt ne Kiya Kya Haseen Situm and the poignant Dekhi Zamaane ki Yaari, Bichde Sabi Baari Baari; Chetan Anand’s Haqeeqat (1964) with its memorable songs such as Zara Si Aahat Hoti Hai, and Hoke Majboor Mujhe Usne Bhalaya and above all the masterpiece Kar Chale Hum Fida Jan-o-tan Sathiyaon Hoga which I feel is one of Kaifi Azmi’s best and still brings a lump to one’s throat. Despite these, success eluded Kaifi Sahib for many years till he composed the entire dialogue in verse form for Chetan Anand's Heer Ranjha (1970) a kind of coup in Hindi Film writing. That was the turning point and after that Kaifi Sahib won awards and critical acclaim for his scripts, dialogues and lyrics. To mention some there is M. S. Sathyu's Garam Hawa (1973) based on Ismat Chughtai’s poignant story of India's partition and Pakeezah (1972), Hanste Zakhm (1973) and Razia Sultan (1983). The slim book contains 51 of Kaifi Sahib’s compositions ranging from poems of love to those about personalities like Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru (Nehru), and a tribute to his good friend Sardar Ali Jafri on his 70th birthday (Nazarey Jafri), his ideology, and above all the one thing that ruled supreme in his life – love. His first meeting with Shaukat is recorded for posterity in Pehla Salaam / First Meeting. It was at a mushaira in Hyderabad in 1947 that he met, fell in love with, and married the young Shaukat, who became a well-known theatre and film actress. The book is dedicated to his daughter Shabana who he says took the onus of finding a translator “with a fine ear and a finer pen” as Kaifi Azmi describes Pavan K.Varma a well-known writer himself. The English translation does justice to the lyrical compositions, thus making it possible for those not familiar with Hindi to enjoy the poems. Varma retains the essence of the Urdu verses living true to its meaning. For example, he translates the popular number from Shola aur Shabnam (1971) – Jaane kya dhundti rahti hain yeh aankhen mujh mein, Raakh ke dher main shola hain na chingari to I do not know what these eyes seek from me, In this heap of ash there is neither spark nor ember. Born in 1918 in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, his early activist interests were apparent as a student in Lucknow. The nonconformist formed a Students' Union and fought for students’ rights and got them to go on a year-long strike to get their demands fulfilled. He was then expelled from the seminary he had studied at. He then mastered Arabic, Persian and Urdu in Lucknow and Allahbad. His leadership qualities and poetry were noticed by leading progressive writers of Lucknow. He could be termed a child prodigy as his initiation into poetry was at the age of eleven when he managed to get himself invited to a Mushaira and recited a couplet of the ghazal. 
He could be termed a child prodigy as his initiation into poetry was at the age of eleven when he managed to get himself invited to a Mushaira and recited a couplet of the ghazal. 
During the Quit India movement in the early 1940s Kaifi Sahib became a Marxist and joined the Communist Party. He moved to Mumbai (then Bombay) where he continued composing his verses while working with is party. Kaifi Azmi’s association with the Progressive Writers' Movement and Communist Party led to his writing socially-conscious poetry. He highlighted the exploitation of the subaltern masses and through them he conveys a message of the creation of a just social order by dismantling the existing one. Many of his compositions of that period, and later, speak of the poor, the homeless, and the downtrodden. An example of which is Makaan where he writes: Ban gaya knsar to pehra pe koi beth gaya, So rahe khak pey hum shorishay tamer liye which Varma translates as: When the palaces were built, someone else sat on guard, In squalor we slept with cacophony our bed is very telling of the state of the labourers. Earlier, he published three anthologies of poemsb; Aakhir-e-Shab, Jhankar and Awaara Sajde. Kaifi Sahib has won numerous national and international awards and been honoured by various institutions. This book is one to be opened at random, again and again, and the verses read and enjoyed and mulled over. | |||||||
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