Kaifiyat, Kaifi Azmi - The Poet Extraordinaire Options

[swarapriya]

Kaifiyat

(I humbly dedicate this thread to the memory of Erum Hashmi who was instrumental in seeding this idea in my mind to start this thread on this extraordinary poet.)

(Note: These are excerpts from an article that appeared in the “Anmoal Fankaar” web site. The full text can be found at the following location …

http://www.anmolfankaar.com/specials/ek-fa...-extraordinaire

My many thanks to Aparna for her several suggestions to make the full essay cohesive and readable.)

Kaifi Azmi was an eminent poet with many progressive ideas. Throughout his life he championed causes that affect the under privileged, oppressed, and down-trodden. He crusaded tirelessly for secular values. He was the eloquent voice of the progressive movement. He was a poet at heart but a socialist in practice. Azmi left an indelible mark through his writings. He expressed through them views that were very intrepid in nature. He breathed fire into his literature campaigning and fighting vigorously for social justice. Azmi was a trendsetter who voiced the stark realities of life through the poems he authored. The intensity of emotions used in his words, the spirit of compassion for the down-trodden, stark but rich in imagery sprinkled throughout his writings, became hallmarks of his style. He once stated that his writings were born out of his engrained convictions. His daughter, actress Shabana Azmi, says about him that, “ … indomitable will and an extraordinary skill to organize people kept him dynamic throughout his life. ..”

Kaifi Azmi was born as Akhtar Hussain Rizvi in 1918 in a small village in Uttar Pradesh. His father was a landlord, but was an educated person and preferred to work for the government. He was very inclined to send his son to school so that his son could get a modern education, but because of the stiff opposition he faced from his relatives he had to call that idea off. Instead, Azmi was sent to school to study theology in Lucknow to keep his elders happy. Young Azmi was a nonconformist at an early age. He saw that students enjoyed few privileges at the school and organized a student union. When the union’s demands for fair treatment failed, he organized the students to go on a strike that lasted a very long time. The seminary got tired of him and finally expelled him from the school.

Azmi Saab studied from home and acquired a good knowledge of Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. He passed several examinations at Lucknow University and Allahabad University in these languages.

Azmi’s stint at the seminary in Lucknow didn’t go unnoticed by leading progressive writers homed in that town. They befriended with him and encouraged him to start writing poetry. This encouragement and his command of several languages made it possible for him to quickly establish himself as a budding and acclaimed poet admired by his peers.

Kaifi Saab wrote his first ghazal when he was only 11 years old. He was invited to participate in a Mushaira where he recited his small verse. That same ghazal became very popular and the great ghazal singer Begum Akhtar made it even more famous by singing it.

The year 1942 saw India mounting pressure on the English rulers by organizing protests , marches, slogans, and other forms of resistance. These agitations rose like hot fever and eventually culminated in the Quit India movement. Azmi Saab abandoned his studies and became part of the movement. He joined the Communist Party in 1943.

He moved to Kanpur and started working for a textile mill. Seeing how the mill was ill-treating its workers, Azmi once again started organizing unions, protests and agitation. By seeing the results Kaifi Saab was getting in Kanpur, the leaders of the Communist Party asked him to shift to Bombay to accomplish similar goals there.

While in Bombay he became a trade union worker and continued the work he started in Kanpur. He also worked closely with two of the Party’s Urdu newspapers, “Quami Jung” and “Mazdoor Mohalla”. He became associated with the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) and Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association (IPTA). For the latter organization, he participated in some of their plays.

With so many activities he was involved in, Azmi Saab still found time to often write and also attended mushairas whenever he could. In 1947, one of his visits brought him to Hyderabad. In the mushaira he met Shaukat Ali, a film and stage actress, who was also equally free spirited as he was. He fell in love with her and later they married. Actress Shabana Azmi is their daughter. The noted cameraman Baba Azmi is their son.

While tirelessly working for the Party and being associated with their related activities, Azmi Saab needed some financial relief to provide for his family. This led him to meet Shaheed Latif of the Bombay film world, who was about to direct a film called “Buzdil (1951)”. Latif Saab offered Azmi an opportunity to write the lyrics for the movie, and thus Azmi’s stint with the Bombay cinema began.

During his distinguished career, Kaifi Azmi was showered with many worthy honors. Some of these include Padma Shree, Sahitya Academy Award, Sahitya Academy Fellowship Award, and a host of others.

He also won Filmfare Awards for Best Story, Best Screenplay, and Best Dialogue for his work in “Garam Hawa (1973)”. He received the National Film Award for Best lyrics for his songs in K.A. Abaas’ “Saat Hindustani (1970)” which introduced Amitabh Bachchan as an actor.

He received several governmental honors. The government of Uttar Pradesh naming the road leading to the town he was born in as “Kaifi Azmi Road” and the highway as “Kaifi Azmi Highway”. The train from Delhi to Azamgarh, near his village, was named by the government of India as “Kaifiyat”.

In addition, the Purvanchal University now has a “Kaifi Azmi Media Centre” in Janpur. There is a Kaifi Azmi
Academy in Lucknow, In Juhu, Mumbai, a park was named as “Kaifi Azmi Park”. There is another park by the same name in Phoolpur. In Hyderabad, where Kaifi Azmi met his wife Shaukat, there are plans to build his statue.

Kaifi Azmi was awarded many honorary doctorates by various universities including Vishwa Bharati University, Puruvanchal University, and Agra University.

Kaifi passed away on May 10, 2002.

"I was born in ghulam Hindustan, am living in an Azad Hindustan and will die in a socialist Hindustan." These were the words Kaifi Azmi spoke in an interview.

Kaifi Azmi. A great poet and leader. An even a better human being.

Kaifi Azmi's filmography follows ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Jul 27 2010, 07:28 PM

[swarapriya]

Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959)

When it was released in 1959 “Kaagaz Ke Phool” was rejected by both critics and audience alike. With the success Guru Dutt enjoyed with his earlier classic “Pyaasa (1957)”, there were so many high expectations about this movie. It even had a grand premiere in New Delhi that was attended by then Vice-President of India, Dr. Sarvepalli Radha Krishnan. But many now think of this movie otherwise. It has reached a cult status and enjoys full houses today whenever it is rereleased. There are several compellingly good reasons for this. Let us explore some of them here …

The movie was released commercially in France in early 80’s. It received unexpected and unprecedented praise from the French movie critics. French audience flocked to see the movie. France, the home of new wave cinema and the domicile of many experimental movie makers, when their discerning film critics took notice of this movie, everyone else started paying attention to what this was all about. In 2002, in Sight & Sound magazine’s critics and director’s poll “Kaagaz Ke Phool” was selected as 160th best film ever made in the world. This is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute. The critics’ poll is taken every 10 years with the next one due in 2012. Of course, each time the poll is conducted, the list changes.

This movie made history because it was the first movie shot in cinemascope. V.K. Murty, who photographed most of Guru Dutt’s movies, was sent abroad to study advanced techniques in photography and learn how to use cinemascope (simply stated, two lenses in stead of one for broader coverage) lenses. But it was not the technology that was used, it was how the lights and shades were used to picturize most scenes in the movie that became talk of the town. Murty got a Filmfare award for his work. The most famous example in the movie is the lighting used for the song “Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam”. This scene itself, the photography, the music, the song in Geeta ji’s rich voice, the richness of lyrics, all are subjects of study by serious-minded filmmakers. One of the criticisms of the movie was that the photography took the front seat to the rest of the movie. However, Guru was a master in using cinematography as one of the major narrative threads. There was an ample evidence of this in his earlier classic “Pyaasa”. The molding of lights and shadows the way Guru uses evokes as much emotion as dialogues or lack of them, as music or silence.

Even though Guru considered Khayyam initially to compose the music for this film, eventually he went along with SD. Guru and Burman worked before in few films together (“Baazi (1951)”, “Jaal (1952)”, and “Pyaasa (1957)”) and their combined work is fondly remembered even today. Their films always had unforgettable music. RD was the Assistant Music Director for this movie.

Apart from the classic “Waqt Ne Kiya”, the movie also had several other great songs. Rafi Saab’s song “Dekhi Zamaane Ki Yaari” is there throughout the movie. A beautiful piece that depicts not only the story of the movie accurately, but it parallels that of Guru’s real life. Apart from the classic “Waqt Ne Kiya”, Geetaji also has another winner in “Ek Do Teen”. “San San San Woh Chali Hawa” is also a breezy and cool song.

Originally, Guru Dutt wanted Sahir to write lyrics for the movie. But Sahir and SD never worked together again after their pinnacle achievement that resulted in the unprecedented success of “Pyaasa (1957)”. Guru next approached Kaifi Azmi to write the lyrics. Azmi was underground because of his work with Communist Party in late 40’s as the party was banned for some time. He was still looking for the recognition that eluded him and jumped at the opportunity offered by Guru Dutt. Even though he wrote exceptionally beautiful songs for the movie and most of them became highly popular, because of the commercial failure of “Phool” Azmi still could find only occasional work. His struggles were not over not until Chetan Anand’s “Haqeeqt (1964)” came along that changed everything for Azmi Saab for better.

The song “Waqt Ne Kiya” had interesting beginnings. Burman created a tune that Guru liked very much. He was looking to create a situation to use the music and approached Kaifi Azmi to write a song. Azmiji penned “Waqt Ne Kiya” in response to the request. Guru liked the song so much that later he created a sequence specifically to use the song in the movie. As it happens the song became an instant classic. Since then so much has been written about the song and the way it was filmed. The song itself became dear to many music lovers all over the world and the scene that was picturized on the song became a topic of study by the students of cinema.

By all accounts, reading from many books written about his life and his art, Guru Dutt’s mental state was not stable during the filming of “Kaagaz Ke Phool”. His home life was anything but peaceful. That affected a great deal his working style. He changed the script of the movie many many times while it was in full progress. “Kaagaz Ke Phool” almost was prophetic in the sense that it showed that death was a sort of release from all the suffering. The main character in the movie suffers that fate. It was a solitary end of a broken and abandoned man. This drama played out in Guru’s real life as well.

Heartbroken with the failure of the movie, Guru vowed never to direct another one again … What a pity …

I am uploading these songs in two back-to-back posts. The first post consists of all the songs from an original soundtrack album. The second post consists of several specials.

First post …