1. Majrooh Sultanpuri was one of the dominant musical forces in Indian cinema in the 1950s and early 1960s, and was an important figure in the Progressive Writers' Movement.
23 Facts About Majrooh Sultanpuri
1. 2.
Majrooh Sultanpuri is considered one of the finest avant-garde Urdu poets of 20th century literature.
3.
Majrooh Sultanpuri won the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award in 1965 for "Chahunga Main Tujhe" in the film Dosti, and the highest award in Indian cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for lifetime achievement in 1993.
4.
Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote for Jatin-Lalit films like Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander and their debut film Yaara Dildara.
5.
Majrooh Sultanpuri thereafter joined Lucknow's Takmeel-ut-Tib College of Unani medicine.
6.
Majrooh Sultanpuri was a struggling Hakim when he happened to recite one of his ghazals at a mushaira in Sultanpur.
7.
The ghazal was a hit with the audience and Majrooh decided to drop his fledgling medical practice and began writing poetry seriously.
8.
In 1945, Majrooh Sultanpuri visited Bombay to attend a mushaira at the Saboo Siddique Institute.
9.
Majrooh Sultanpuri contacted Jigar Moradabadi who helped him get in touch with Majrooh.
10.
However, Majrooh Sultanpuri refused to write for films because he did not think very highly of them.
11.
Majrooh Sultanpuri gave Majrooh a tune and asked him to write something in the same metre, and Majrooh wrote Jab Usne Gesu Bikhraye, Badal Aaye Jhoom Ke.
12.
Naushad liked what he wrote and Majrooh Sultanpuri was signed on as the lyricist for the film Shah Jehan.
13.
Majrooh Sultanpuri subsequently wrote lyrics for films like Naatak, Doli and Anjuman but his major breakthrough came with Mehboob Khan's Andaz.
14.
Majrooh Sultanpuri was sentenced to two years imprisonment due to his politically-charged poems in 1949.
15.
Majrooh Sultanpuri worked with many music directors like Anil Biswas, Naushad, Ghulam Mohammed, Madan Mohan, O P Nayyar, Roshan, Salil Chowdhury, Chitragupt, N Datta, Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and R D Burman.
16.
Just as Majrooh Sultanpuri was establishing himself as a lyricist and songwriter of repute, his leftist leanings got him into trouble.
17.
Majrooh Sultanpuri's arrest took place during a nationwide arrest of communists after the 2nd Congress of the Communist Party of India in 1948, in which the communists had decided to carry out a revolution against the Indian government.
18.
Majrooh Sultanpuri was asked to apologies, but he refused and was sentenced to two years in prison.
19.
Majrooh Sultanpuri was arrested in 1951 for writing and reciting a poem in which Jawaharlal Nehru was compared to Hitler.
20.
Majrooh Sultanpuri went on to write lyrics for popular films throughout the 1950s.
21.
Majrooh Sultanpuri won his only Filmfare Best Lyricist Award for the song "Chahunga Mein Tujhe Saanj Savere" from Dosti in 1965.
22.
Majrooh Sultanpuri was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1993 and became the first lyricist to win the prestigious award.
23.
Majrooh Sultanpuri was aged 80 at the time of his death.