A consummate artiste. Review on Gulzar

The name Gulzar evokes images - soft and velvety, poetry, stories, film scripts, dialogues, lyrics and movies. The last I can say about Gulzar saab is that he is a consummate artiste. A fact no one will deny.

Born in Deena (now in Pakistan) on 18th August, 1934 as Sampoorna Singh, he came to India after partition. His film career began as an assistant to Bimal Roy. In fact, Gulzar the lyricist came to the fore in one of Bimal Roy’s movies – Bandini. The song was Mora Gora Ang Laile. After that there was no looking back. As a director he made his debut with NC Sippy’s Mere Apne, a stark tale of campus upheaval. What others are doing now Gulzar saab achieved in the 1970s. He made Koshish, a story of a deaf-mute couple’s ordeal. My favorite Gulzar film has to be Ijaazat, a beautiful tale of human relationships along with Aandhi and the rib-tickling Angoor.

As a script writer, Gulzar saab wrote great stories and dialogues for Hrishikesh Mukherjee (Anand, Chupke Chupke and Ashirwad to name a few). In music he formed a formidable team first with SD Burman (Mora Gora Ang), his son RD Burman (Tere Bina Zindagi Se Shikwa, Mera Kuch Saamaan and many many more) and now Vishal Bhardwaj (Maachis, Hu Tu Tu). He has also written beautiful songs for other notable directors like Madan Mohan and AR Rahman.

Gulzar saab was the first to introduce the Sufi singer Abida Parveen in India. He is a prolific fiction writer too and his collection Raavi Paar are immortal. Add to that his collection of poetry. And not to miss his serials on Mirza Ghalib and Munshi Premchand. So much work in just one lifetime. Has to be Gulzar – the consummate artiste.