Sampooran Singh Kalra, more famous by his pen name 바카라Gulzar바카라, is renowned as a man and master of letters, in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, with over seven decades of rich contributions to the literary arena as well as Bollywood.
On Saturday, Gulzar and Jagadguru Rambhadracharya, Sanskrit scholar, spiritual leader and educator, were declared the recipients of the coveted 58th Jnanpith Award-2023.
For Gulzar (89), this is yet another feather in his artistic cap brimming with an Oscar Award, a Grammy Award, five National Awards, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award (Urdu), Padma Bhushan, and 22 Filmfare Awards. He also served as the Vice-Chancellor of Assam Central University besides being decorated with many more honours and accolades.
Born in Dina, Jhelum district (now in Pakistan), Gulzar started coining and penning couplets and 'shayris' from an early age, earning his father바카라s ire over his passion.
Post-Partition, when his clan also suffered a split, the young Sampooran, barely in his teens, moved to Mumbai to support his family, doing odd jobs, including as a car dent painter at a garage on Bellasis Road near the Mumbai Central Terminus.
Simultaneously, he devoured Rabindranath Tagore바카라s literature, completed his education, tended to his literary hunger and hobnobbed with the Progressive Writers Association (PWA), which had many like-minded young people interacting regularly on Sundays.
The PWA, which started as Progressive Writers Conference (1936), moved to Bombay in 1943, and had big names like K.A. Abbas, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Chetan Anand, Saadat Hassan Manto, Mehboob Khan, Rajinder Krishen, Inder Raj Anand, Ismat Chugtai, Kaifi Azmi, Jan Nissar Akhtar, Ali Sardar Jafri, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Mumtaz Hussain, Habib Tanvir and other stalwarts who contributed to the world of arts, music, literature and films.
It was at one of these meetings that he met Urdu-Hindi poet Shanker Shailendra, and filmmaker Bimal Roy, who had also moved to Bombay (now, Mumbai) in 1950. The duo later inspired him to chart out a career in the film industry that was already in full bloom.
A few years later, lyricist Shailendra and music director S.D. Burman goaded a reluctant Gulzar to write a song for the upcoming Bimal Roy film 바카라Bandini바카라 (1963).
Gulzar, who was working as an assistant to Roy, finally relented and delivered his first lyrical masterpiece, 바카라Mora Gora Ang Lay Le바카라, which was sung by Lata Mangeshkar and is memorable even today.
바카라Bandini바카라 was the final celluloid creation of Roy, who passed away due to cancer in 1966, aged 56, after bequeathing films like 바카라Do Bigha Zameen바카라, 바카라Parineeta바카라, 바카라Devdas바카라, 바카라Madhumati바카라, 바카라Sujata바카라, 바카라Parakh바카라, 바카라Yahudi바카라 and other films in Bengali.
After a grand beginning, Gulzar started penning lyrics for many films, including Hrishikesh Mukherjee바카라s 바카라Aashirwad바카라 (1968) and 바카라Guddi바카라 (1971), Asit Sen바카라s 바카라Khamoshi바카라 (1969) 바카라 the last two which catapulted him to the Big League with songs like 바카라Hum Ko Man Ki Shakti Dena바카라 and 바카라Humne Dekhi Hai Un Aankhon Ki Mehakti Khushbu바카라.
Starting with S.D. Burman, Gulzar went on to work with some of the biggest music directors of Bollywood such as Hemant Kumar, Salil Chaudhary, Shankar-Jaikishan, Madan Mohan, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, R.D. Burman, and the modern generation of baton-wielders comprising Rajesh Roshan, A.R. Rahman, Vishal Bharadwaj, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, and many others.
After penning songs, dialogues and screenplays for various film, Gulzar took the director바카라s megaphone with 바카라Mere Apne바카라 (1971) starring Meena Kumari, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha and Danny Denzongpa, which proved to be a musical hit.
Buoyed by the success of his maiden directorial venture, the next year he came up with two major films -- 바카라Parichay바카라 and 바카라Koshish바카라 (both 1971), the latter fetching its star Sanjeev Kumar a National Award.
In 1973, Gulzar came up with 바카라Achanak바카라 based on the sensational 1958 murder case involving an Indian Navy officer, Commander K.M. Nanavati, who killed his wife바카라s lover, in what is billed as the country바카라s first 바카라crime of passion바카라, in which he was sentenced to jail and then released on a pardon.
Gulzar바카라s another musical blockbuster 바카라Aandhi바카라 (1975), reportedly based on the life of the late PM Indira Gandhi, was banned during Emergency. He followed it with 바카라Khushboo바카라 and another superhit 바카라Mausam바카라 during that year, and 바카라Libaas바카라 (1988).
Later, he directed television serials 바카라Mirza Ghalib바카라 (1988) starring Naseeruddin Shah, and 바카라Tahreer Munshi Premchand Ki바카라, based on the life of the legendary writer, besides penning dialogues for many other serials, including 바카라Jungle Book바카라, 바카라Hello Zindagi바카라 and 바카라Potli Baba Ki바카라.
Gulzar is married to well-known actress Raakhee (79), and they have a daughter, Meghna (50), herself an accomplished director.
