In praise of Sahir Ludhianvi

Originally posted on 10 Jan 2011 :

The first collection of poems entitled “Talkhian” (bitternesses) written by Sahir Ludhianvi was published in 1944. It received critical acclaim, but the Urdu used by Sahir was so stiff that the lay Indian could not appreciate the work. Many years later, at the instance of Guru Dutt, the poet rewrote some of the poems as lyrics for Pyasa in 1957 and with that movie a ‘star’ was born. Like many young men, I became a fan of Sahir Sa’ab.

Recently I discovered that in the years that followed, this versatile genius produced songs in ‘shudhha’ Hindi. It came to me as a surprise that some of the lyrics for the film, “Chitralekha” (1964) were written by Sahir. Permit me to share a clip of the song, “Sansar se bhage phirte ho” Two of its stanzas are absolute gems,

“Yeh paap hai kya ye punya hai kya, reeton par dharm ki mohren hain

 Har yug mein badalte dharmon ko, kaise aadarsh banavoge??”

Ye bhog bhi eik tapasya hai, tum tyaag ke maaro kya jaano

Apmaan rachayata ka hoga, rachna ko jo tum thukravoge!!”

(rachayata is the Creator and rachna is the creation)

For those who may like to know, the music is set to Raag Kalyan (Yaman) on which some of the most endearing songs have been set and the ‘tabla’ beats to ‘dadra’

  1. excellent, iam thankful to you janab,
    with your courtesy the same has been shared on the sahir ludhianvi genius global council page on facebook.
    regards
    dr.salman abid
    associate prof & founder of the council

  2. Bajaj says:

    Wish you had penned the entire poem/song for us to savour.

    Also, a small note explaining the context in which it is beingsung

    would have helped in grasping the essence of the song.

    Cheers.

    Viren

  3. Mirza Yawar Baig says:

    May Allah bless you General Saab – He is also one of my favorites. Magar aaj urdu shaayiri samajhnay waalay hi nahin rahay

  4. VK Passi says:

    Good ones. My favourites too.

  5. Neena Singh says:

    Sahir is my long time favourite and I love to quote him especially from “Talkhian”

    ” Duniya ne tajurabt-o-hawadis ki shakl mein
    Jo kuch mujhe diya hai, woh lauta raha hun main”

    This beautiful song which you have listed from Saraswati Chadra- ‘Sansar se bhage phirte ho’ has immortal lyrics-thanks for sharing.

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