In celebration of writers, lyricist Manoj Muntashir most recently the writer of the fabulous ‘Maaye’ from Sky Force among many others, speaks to Subhash K Jha about the renowned writer, lyricist, and poet Sahir Ludhianvi.
Like all writers, Manoj Muntashir idolizes the great Sahir Ludhianvi. “I want to say one thing about Sahir Saheb, that Sahir Saheb is the one who, for the first time, brought the writers out of the quagmire of poverty. What was the writer before him? There used to be a pitiful community, no matter how much inside you. No matter how much talent you have, no matter how famous you are. There may be fame, but it was just that the writer should be happy with the recognition; apart from that, he was not supposed to get anything. Sahir saheb made this announcement, that okay Brother my fees should not be less than that of the music director. He took this call; he gave dignity to the writer, and then he took this call that when the songs would be played on All India Radio, earlier the name of the lyricist did not appear, he said that not only the name of the composer and the singer would appear, my name should also appear, the name of the writer should also appear. So a writer who was so super-confident about his craft that he never lived with the insecurity that his films will be taken away from him or he won’t get work, which is what everyone in this industry fears. That’s something that I learned from him, and I have always fought for the credit. I have always adhered to whatever ideal I had.
Manoj Muntashir confesses he was inspired by Sahir. “I was a writer but I never had any plans of coming to the film industry and becoming a lyricist. I read a book which I found at the Pratapgarh railway station. It was in 1997. It was a book worth Rs. 18, a collection of poems by Sahir. It was titled Popular Urdu Poet and edited by Prakash Pandit. Sahir had two books, Talkh, and Aao Ke Koi Khawab Bune. While reading and on the first four-six pages I came across Sahir’s biography. I decided that I want to be like him. If Sahir were not there then probably I would have been writing, writing books, reciting ghazals, writing songs. But I would not have been in films. He was actually the first person who introduced poetry and shayari to the film industry. Majrooh Sultanpuri Saheb was also there in his period. Kaifi Azmi Saheb was also there in his period. All were doing very good work. But as hardcore shayari goes….Kisi patthar ki moorat ki ibadat ka iraada hai and Chalo ek baar phir se ajnabee bann jayen hum donon…. the hardcore shayari, that touch, that flavour, we had never seen them before Sahir Saheb.”
Manoj also credits Sahir with breaking the traditional bonding between composer and lyricist. “It is said that writing a song on a tune for the first time has now become a big tradition. But the one who started this tradition is Sahir Saheb. The writer was Sahir, and that movie was Naujawan, the music was by SD Burman sahab, and one day Burman Dada said to Sahir Saheb, in a casual conversation, that is it possible that he, Burman dada, compose a tune and Sahir Saheb write the lyrics on it. It was never done before, and Sahir took up the challenge; he said why not you give me the tune and… He wrote ‘Thandi Hawaye Lahrake Aaye’ on a tune Burman Dada gave. A good poet is not just a good writer, but someone who has a lot of self-esteem and self-respect, and Sahir Saheb never knelt down to any of the prevalent rules of the film industry.”
