A tribute to te legendary poet and lyricist Hasrat Jaipuri. Hasrat Jaipuri, born Iqbal Hussain (15 April 1922 – 17 September 1999) was an Indian poet, who wrote in the Hindi and Urdu languages. He was also a renowned film lyricist in Hindi films, where he won the Filmfare Awards for Best Lyricist twice – in 1966 and then in 1972.
Jaipuri was born Iqbal Husain in Jaipur,[1] where he studied English till medium level, and then acquired his taalim (education) in Urdu and Persian from his maternal grandfather, the poet Fida Husain 'Fida'. He began writing verse, when he was around twenty years old. Around the same time, he fell in love with a neighborhood girl name Radha. Hasrat talked about a love letter he wrote to this girl, in an interview, later in his life, that love knows no religion. Hasrat Jaipuri was quoted as saying, "It is not at all necessary that a Muslim boy must fall in love only with a Muslim girl. My love was silent, but I wrote a poem for her, 'Yeh mera prem patra padh kar, ke tum naaraaz na hona." It is not known for sure whether the love letter was actually delivered to Radha. But veteran film producer Raj Kapoor liked it enough to include it in his Sangam (1964 Hindi film) and the song ended up becoming a 'hit' song in India.
In 1940, Jaipuri came to Bombay (now Mumbai), and started working as a bus conductor, earning a monthly salary of eleven rupees.[2] He used to participate in mushairas. At a mushaira, Prithviraj Kapoor noticed Jaipuri and recommended him to his son, Raj Kapoor. Raj Kapoor was planning a musical love story, Barsaat (1949) with Shankar–Jaikishan. Jaipuri wrote his first recorded song, Jiya Beqaraar Hai for the film. His second song (and first duet) was Chhor Gaye Baalam.
Along with Shailendra, Jaipuri wrote lyrics for all Raj Kapoor films till 1971. After the death of Jaikishan and failures of Mera Naam Joker (1970) and Kal Aaj Aur Kal (1971), however, Raj Kapoor turned to other lyricists and music directors. Raj Kapoor initially wanted to call him back for Prem Rog (1982), but later settled for another lyricist, Amir Qazalbash. Kapoor finally asked him to write lyrics for the film, Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985). Later, he also invited Hasrat to write three songs for the movie Henna (1991). Jaipuri alleges that after Raj Kapoor's death, the music composer Ravindra Jain "conspired" to "scrap" his lyrics and replace them with his own lyrics.[4]
When fellow lyricist Shailendra turned producer with Teesri Kasam, he invited Jaipuri to write lyrics for the movie. He also wrote screenplay for the movie Hulchul (1951). His last film as a lyricist was Hatya: The Murder (2004)
