Shabana Azmi reveals Guru Dutt created a place for Kaifi Azmi’s Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam in Kagaz Ke Phool: ‘Guru Dutt fell in love with the song’

Talking about music composition during the golden era of Hindi cinema, the actor said, “My father said something really amazing. It’s very strange in those days, and in fact, it has started happening now again, that you would imagine when a song is being written, a song as beautiful as Waqt Ne Kia Kya Hasi Sitam or Bichhre Sabhi Bari Bari, you would imagine that the words would have been written first and then after that, it would be set to tune. But it wasn’t like that.”

The actor added, “First, the tune would be made, and then the words would be written. It would be written to the tune. So my father Kaifi Azmi always said it was like ‘as if you first dig a grave and then find a corpse that can fit into that grave. So sometimes the legs come out. Sometimes the head comes out. But people started giving me work because they felt that I was able to dig. He could fit it. I was able to fit corpses into the right grave.’ So that was the thing.”

Shabana Azmi also shared an interesting anecdote about Guru Dutt’s Kagaz Ke Phool and the film’s song “Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam”.

“You know there is such a lovely story about Waqt Ne Kia Kya Haseen Sitam. Abba said that they had written the song on their own. There was a tune that SD Burman had given, and Kaifi sahab wrote the lyrics. They had just written the mukhada,” she said.

The actor added, “Guru Dutt fell in love with the song. And he said that I really want this song. So they said, ‘There is no situation in the film.’ He said, ‘You can make the whole song, and I will create the situation. And that’s how this iconic Waqt Ne Kia Kya Haseen Sitam was made.”

Shabana Azmi further shared that Kaifi Azmi, who was a renowned Urdu poet as well, felt Guru Dutt had a “very keen ear for music”.

Shabana said, “Abba said that Guru Dutt had a very, very keen ear for music. See he didn’t know the language (Urdu) very well. There was something quite magical about what he wanted. It’s very interesting because SD Barman is also not known for his understanding of the Urdu language. Neither is Guru Dutt. But then look at the wonderful thing that came out of that era.”