Majrooh Sultanpuri

Majrooh Sultanpuri's reputation as a poet was ironically overshadowed by his being a lyricist for popular Bollywood films. It has happened very frequently that the real merit of a person is pushed into the background by some lesser work that is done for a medium with a bigger outreach or for some popular event. Though Majrooh was a very successful lyricist and his "geets" were hummed by millions of people in continents where Indian cinema is the rage, yet it would be unfair to judge him based solely on this lesser work. He was a serious poet who made significant contributions to the development of a sensibility and an idiom, that was truly inspired by the Progressive Writers Movement. In the early years after partition the poets felt hugely hemmed in by the their lack of reaching out to the people they were supposed to be addressing. Though they had a steady audience, it was very tiny compared to that enjoyed by popular media including that of the cinema. It was decided by a fe... [Details Intro]