Sahir Ludhianvi (Urdu: ساحر لدھیانوی ) (March 8, 1921 – October 25, 1980) was a popular Urdu poet and Hindi lyricist and songwriter.
Sahir Ludhianvi is his pseudonym. He won the Filmfare Award twice, in 1964 and 1977, and in 1971 was awarded the
Padma Shri.
Sahir Ludhianvi was born into the wealthy family of a Muslim Gujjar as Abdul Hayee on March 8, 1921 in
Ludhiana, Punjab in INDIA. Sahir's parents had a very loose and estranged relationship. In 1934, when he was thirteen years old, his father married for the second time. At that time, his mother decided to take the bold step of leaving her husband, forfeiting all claims to the financial assets. Sahir's father then sued his mother for child custody but lost. He threatened to make sure
Sahir did not live with his mother very long, even if that meant taking the child's life. Sahir's mother then found friends who kept a close watch on him and didn't let him out of sight. Fear and financial deprivation surrounded the formative years of this young man. His parents' divorce brought him and his mother face to face with poverty and struggle in life. The house in which
Sahir was born, a red sand-stone haveli, stands in
Karimpura, a Muslim neighborhood of Ludhiana, with a small plaque announcing its importance upon the arched mughal darwaaza - the only effort by this teeming industrial city to remember him.
Sahir studied at and graduated from
Khalsa High School in
Ludhiana. Upon Matriculation, he joined the
SCD Government College For Boys,
Ludhiana, from which he was famously expelled within the year 'for sitting in the Principal's lawn with a female class-mate'
Amrita Pritam became his most ardent fan in the college days at
government college Ludhiyana. She has openly acknowledged her love for Sahir in interviews and her books. He was quite popular for his ghazals and nazms in the college. However, he was soon expelled from the college (some say it was the work of Amrita Pritam's father who did not approve of Sahir as a potential match for his daughter because she was a
Sikh and Sahir belonged to a
Muslim family and also because Sahir was poor)
In 1943, after being expelled from college, Sahir settled in
Lahore. Here, he completed the writing of his first Urdu work,
Talkhiyaan ("Bitterness"). He then began searching for a publisher who would publish his work and after two years of search he found a publisher in 1945. After his work was published, he began editing four Urdu magazines,
Adab-e-Lateef,
Shahkaar, Prithlari, and
Savera; these magazines became very successful. He then became a member of the Progressive Writer's Association. However, inflammatory writings (communist views and ideology) in
Savera resulted in the issuing of a warrant for his arrest by the Government of
Pakistan. So, somewhere in 1949, Sahir fled from
Lahore to
Delhi. After a couple of months in
Delhi, he moved to and settled in
Bombay. A friend of his recalls Sahir telling him "Bombay needs me!"
Sahir prefered a
seculer India on
Islamic Pakistan.
Sahir lived on the first floor of the main building of an
Andheri outhouse. His famous neighbours included the poet,
Gulzar and Urdu litterateur,
Krishan Chander. In the 1970s, he constructed
Parchaiyaan ("Shadows"), a posh bungalow, and lived there till his death. Journalist,
Ali Peter John, who knew the poet personally, says real-estate sharks have been eyeing Sahir's abode after the death of his sister. His belongings and trophies are in a state of ruin, according to the journalist.
Sahir Ludhianvi made his debut in films writing lyrics for the film
Aazadi Ki Raah Par (1949). The film had four songs written by him and his first song was
Badal Rahi Hai Zindagi.... Both the film and its songs went unnoticed. However, with
Naujawaan (1951), he gained recognition.
S.D. Burman composed the music for
Naujawaan. Even today, the film's lilting song remains popular. His first major success came the same year with Guru Dutt's directorial debut,
Baazi (1951), again pairing him with music composer,
S.D. Burman. Thus he became, part of the
Guru Dutt team, and after the success of
Naujawaan and
Baazi, the combination of
Sahir Ludhianvi and
S.D. Burman came out with many more everlasting songs.
Sahir worked with many music composers, including
Ravi,
S.D. Burman, Roshan and
Khayyam, and has left behind many unforgettable songs for fans of the Indian film industry and its music.
Pyaasa marked an end to his successful partnership with
S.D. Burman over what is reported to be S.D. Burman's displeasure at Sahir receiving more admiration (and thus credit for the success) from audiences for the words of the lyrics than
S.D. Burman did for his memorable tunes. Later,
Sahir Ludhianvi teamed up with composer
Datta Naik in several films. Datta, a Goan, was a great admirer of Sahir's revolutionary poetry. They had already worked together to produce the music for
Milaap (1955).
Sahir wrote many unforgettable gems for
Datta.
In 1958, Sahir wrote the lyrics for Ramesh Saigal's film
Phir Subah Hogi, which was based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. The male lead was
Raj Kapoor and it was presumed that
Shankar-Jaikishan would be the music composers. However, Sahir insisted that only someone who had read the novel could provide the right score. Thus,
Khayyam ended up as the music composer for the film and the song
Woh Subah Kabhi Toh Aayegi with minimal background music remains an all-time hit.
Khayyam went on to work with
Sahir in many films including
Kabhie Kabhie and
Trishul.
Admirers and critics rate Sahir's work in Guru Dutt's
Pyaasa as his finest.
Pyaasa, some say, bears resemblance to Sahir's early years as a poet. The onscreen poet,
Vijay played by Guru Dutt, bears a strong likeness to the man whose poetry gave the film its soul.
Sahir Ludhianvi's work in the 1970s was restricted to films mainly directed by
Yash Chopra. Though his output in terms of number of films had thinned out, the quality of his writing commanded immense respect.
Kabhie Kabhie (1976) saw him return to sparkling form. These songs won him his second
Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist, the first being for
Taj Mahal (1963).
On October 25, 1980, at the age of fifty-nine, Sahir Ludhianvi died after suffering a massive heart attack in the midst of a card game. His final works were released for the Hindi film
Lakshmi (1982).
Although
Sahir Ludhianvi remained a bachelor all his life, he had two failed love affairs with journalist
Amrita Pritam and singer/actress
Sudha Malhotra, respectively. These relationships could not be cemented in marriage because these women's fathers refused to let them marry a Muslim.
In fact, Sahir Ludhianvi was not a Muslim but an atheist. These relationships had left
Sahir Ludhianvi an embittered man and he also had taken to drinking heavliy and drank himself deep into alcoholism. The tragedies and pathos of his personal life most truly reflected in his poignant poetry. He remained single all his life.
