Majrooh 8212; lonely in the crowd

Since Ali Sardar Jafri, at 88, is now fighting cancer in Bombay and Kaifi Azmi is struggling bravely with his paralysis, the Urdu literary scene, like much else in life, is in danger of being bereft of personalities.

Majrooh8217;s real name was Asrar Hasan Khan, a self-confessed Rajput by descent a lineage he was extremely proud of, whose early training was in Hikmat, a branch of herbal medicine. Even though he was born in Sultanpur, near Rae Bareli, he practised medicine in Azamgarh from where the known Urdu scholar, Rashid Ahmad Siddiqi, invited him to Aligarh in 1942 to nurture his early talent as a poet.

Majrooh burst upon the literary stage through the medium of the mushaira or poetic symposia in the 508217;s not only as an exceptional ghazal composer but also as the most gifted quot;reciterquot; of his verse. Only Jigar Moradabadi, a generation his senior, had a more melodious voice.

Two comparisons are made with Majrooh Sultanpuri: with Sahir Ludhianvi in the world of Bombay film songs and with Faiz Ahmad Faiz in the realm of ghazal. This latter observation will shock Faiz partisans alas Majrooh has none but I shall explain the comparison later.

Sahir Ludhianvi brought to the Bombay film scene a certain literary dignity. In this his emotional adolescence harmonised somewhat with the demands of Bollywood. His lyrics in films like Pyaasa stand out as literary pieces. But the poetic level never approximated to what Mathew Arnold called quot;high seriousnessquot;. In writing film songs, Sahir does not have to switch gears with a jerk: his film compositions are a continuation of his literary scale. There is not much of a gap between Sahir the poet and Sahir the film song writer.

Majrooh, on the other hand, was a bit of a schizophrenic: he led a literary double life. His popular film songs are just that: popular. They give no clue to the quot;high seriousnessquot; of some of his ghazals. In full flight Majrooh compares with the greatest lyricists in Urdu ghazal.

Like all young poets in the 508217;s, Majrooh too was drawn into the ranks of the Progressive Writers Association. He is, therefore, not just a romantic lyricist but also a socially aware, politically alert poet.He shares political affiliations with Faiz Ahmad Faiz, but, contrary to popular belief, he is much the more sensitive craftsman, a natural lyricist with a surer control of the diction of ghazal. This needs elaboration.

It must be universally acknowledged that Iqbal is the most versatile poet of this century. Josh Malihabadi is foremost among the poets whose control on Urdu diction is unmatched. In his craftsmanship, he derives largely from the tradition set by Mir Anis, the great master of the epic in the Lucknow of the 19th century. It is this celebration of Urdu diction that Josh passed onto poets like Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azmi and Niaz Haider. But Josh8217;s greatest contribution to Urdu literature are his rubais or quatrains.

Hasrat Mohani, Yaas Yagana Changezi, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Jigar Moradabadi are all masters of the ghazal.

Faiz Ahmad Faiz will rank among the greatest poets but not as a writer of ghazals. Faiz8217;s lasting contribution to modern Urdu poetry is his free verse. In ghazal, Majrooh emerges as a much more chiseled craftsman.

quot;Shabe zulm narghaye raahzan se/pukarta hai koi mujhe/Main faraz-e-daar se dekh loon/Kahin caravan-e-saher na hoquot; In this dark night of oppression, I hear someone call my name, screaming for help. It appears the caravan of the new dawn has been waylaid.

Just as the Ravi Shankar complex in great measure pulverised Vilayat Khan, much the finer player of sitar, the recognition accorded to Faiz as a ghazal poet hurt Majrooh. Faiz was a cosmopolitan intellectual and had a vast body of the Government College, Lahore, network to amplify his greatness.

Majrooh, the small-town man, had no such network to fall back on. He sulked and became a recluse in his last years. The death of a young son was a further blow. His tragedy was aggravated because towards the end not only had he stopped writing poetry but even the demand for his lyrics had dwindled in the new Bollywood