Gulzar On Gulzar

Then you notice,yet again,his spotless white kurta pyjama,and realise suddenly there is something strongly symbolic in its starched crispness and the way it naturally crinkles here and there. Never has his pen taken an arbitrary route; never has he been apologetic about anything either. He rues that the world knows him only for his work with Hindi cinema,but it may be time for him to rethink this half a grouse. His nuances have begun to define him. Those crinkles in his crisp kurtas are like layered nuances in his poetry — silts of longing on the one hand laced with irony on the other.

Which is why whenever Sampooran Singh Kalra aka Gulzar comes back home to Delhi,and makes a statement like “my life experiences are not enough,I still need to learn from others’ experiences to evolve more,” the city smiles and wonders.

Rightly so. His lyricism remains unrestrained and shows no signs of tiring. Beedi jalaile of Omkara or Jai Ho of Slumdog Millionaire or his poetry compilations — Raat pashmine ki and Pukhraaj,he stuns the listener,the reader. In conversation with theatre director Salim Arif at Kamani Auditorium on Saturday,Gulzar gave another example of his indulgence in learning as he recited his “Hindustani” (he chooses not to call it Urdu) translations of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry. The event titled “Mera Kuch Samaan — Celebrating Gulzar” was created around his 75th birthday and was an apt conclusion of a four-day theatre festival organised by Arif. The festival opened on Wedneday with Gulzar’s lesser-known play titled Atthanniyaan— the poet’s take on poverty in Mumbai slums,which was followed by Lakeerein on the second day. Lakeerein is the story of a wireless operator with the Indian Army who is posted at the lone outpost in Jaisalmer. The third play,staged on Friday,was Kharashein,which is based on four poems and 25 short stories by the poet on riots in the country.

“I read Tagore’s poetry for the first time when I was in school and he has been an inspiration ever since. Translating him is not easy because of connotations,limitations and extensions. One has to be as true to the thought,while expressing it in another language. I love the sufiana style of writing in Tagore’s poetry,” said Gulzar. But he added that he gave up on a TV series on Tagore after getting delayed due to government wrangles. “I tried for seven-eight years and then gave up,” he said. Screen adaptations of Tagore have always required numerous permissions from Visva-Bharti and a lot of translations and adaptations of his works are looked down upon by Bengali purists,who are protective about India’s national poet,still looked upon only as a Bengali poet.

“There are far better works than the famous Gitanjali. His book The Gardener was a turning point in my life and I have always thought that his translations need to be better,” he added. For a change,and appreciatively,Arif never asked that much-strained question on his prowess in Bollywood lyrics and where the fire in Beedi jalai le came from. Instead,Arif discussed the difference between writing poetry and writing lyrics,to which Gulzar responded,“If you indulge in more than one medium,you will notice that along the way life brushes you,hurts you and wants you to express it in some way. If it is more intimate and personal,then I have the matter and meter for a nazm,while in a film,I transform into a character and create the imagery with colloquial words and the kind of language my character talks in,” said the poet,who did a dramatic reading of his own nazms as well.

From a poet’s ashtray,which is full of his thoughts in the form of cigarette stubs and pencil shavings to sarcsam about politicians by showcasing the common man’s plight,the poet easily built a web of words. And there he was,vehemently rejecting every theory and creating a paradox as soon as he had rejected it. This proved to be a good chance for a Delhi audience that had come to brush up their rusted Hindi and Urdu in a show exorbitantly priced at Rs 2,500.