Book Extract: Time hasn’t diminished Sahir Ludhianvi’s appeal

A remarkable film lyricist and iconic literary poet Sahir Ludhianvi passed away nearly 40 years ago, but time has not diminished interest in his personality, his poetry, and his ‘love affairs’, as observed in social media, and there’s an enduring public interest in his film lyrics. What is behind this undying attraction for him and his work?

What is that unstoppable magic that draws us time and again to Sahir’s poems and melodies? His book Talkhiyaan has appeared in dozens of Urdu and Hindi editions (both legal and pirated), and it is by far the largest-selling Urdu poetry book after Divan-e Ghalib.

Compilations of his poetry have sold more than the books written by his progressive contemporaries like Majrooh, Majaz, Kaifi, Akhtar, and Jafri combined. What is behind this popular appeal that shows no sign of letting up? There are no easy answers.

I think there is the magic of Sahir’s enigmatic personality. The choices he made in his life were far removed from the routine. 

He was a recluse, living alone in a big bungalow without any thought of starting his own family. His concept of family — he himself, his mother, and his two cousin sisters - was limiting. What would happen to his legacy when this family of four passed away? He never paid any attention to this.

He wrote highly appealing poetry that was deeply romantic, but it also had strong social, cultural, and political undertones. History has not been kind to progressives: The Soviet Union collapsed. 

China, once a bastion of communism, has become a one-party capitalistic state while nursing dreams of global domination. Nehruvian socialism in India has seen several dilutions through market-oriented reforms. Yet, hope for an equitable society still resonates.

There is a powerful message in Sahir’s poetry against the inequalities of wealth, maltreatment of women, exploitation of labour, and the threat of a more deadly nuclear war that still holds appeal, and his words give vivid expression to these injustices and fears in a most compelling poetic language. India’s richest 1 per cent, according to an Oxfam report (2017), owns 73 per cent of the wealth.

The position of women has improved over the past seventy years, but there’s a huge scope for improvement. Child marriage is common, and access to education by young girls is limited. Incidents of rape and sexual assault are on the rise. 

In 2007, the Ministry of Women and Child Development reported the presence of over 3 million female sex workers in India, with about 36 per cent entering the trade before the age of eighteen. 

These statistics show the difficult task inherent in raising the status of women to be on par with men, something that all progressive poets strongly advocated. On the threat of a nuclear war, there are not only bad state actors.

Globally, who might use nuclear bombs to advance their interests, but regionally, India and Pakistan have the nuclear potential to completely destroy the whole subcontinent in case of a new armed conflict.

Although some people assert that Sahir separated himself from the literary world after he had achieved success as a film lyricist, he never agreed with this assessment. He treated literary pursuit as the core purpose of his life’s journey. Every poem or ghazal that he wrote mirrored some facet of his life. 

It was a tapestry into which he wove the fabric of his aspirations, his successes and his failures, and the bitter and sweet lessons of his life; there is no way to separate his biography from his poetry. Sahir’s words often paint a gloomy picture of the world we live in, but we should not lose sight of his optimism. 

Although all progressive poets were optimistic in the sense that the revolution they expected to occur was supposed to be the natural cure for society’s social and economic problems, Sahir, not being a member of the Communist Party, expected things to improve through social and political action outside the scope of a grand socialist revolution.

For him, the day of a better tomorrow was not simply guesswork. It had to happen because people have the potential to create a better future for themselves. And this is something they are passionate about doing.

Reading Sahir affects the reader on several levels — rational, intellectual, emotional, and psychological. No wonder readers can’t get enough of Sahir!

A poet who consciously chose to call himself Sahir — meaning a magician or a wizard — needs an aura of mystery; without this veil of the unknown and unexpected, his magic will cease to have any appeal. 

Sahir’s work is a feast in every sense of the word and, as someone who has enjoyed his poetry over the past several decades, I would say that there is great joy in this onslaught of lyrical thoughts and romantic overtures that his poetry offers.

Title: Sahir: A Literary Portrait 

Author: Surinder Deol 

Publisher: Oxford University Press 

Price: Rs 763