Film Anarkali And Its Three Lyricists!
By Zulqarnain Shahid
Anwar Kamal Pasha’s film, Anarkali was released on 6th June, 1958. Five lyricists wrote songs for this film, while two greatest of tunesmiths composed 8 songs for it. The composers were Rasheed Attre and Master Inayat Hussain, probably two of the most versatile men in the local industry. The 5 lyricists of the film were Tufail Hoshiyarpuri, Qateel Shifai, Tanvir Naqvi, Saifuddin Saif and Hakim Ahmed Shuja, the father of Anwar Kamal Pasha.
Although all 8 songs of the film were hits, three numbers stand out for their merging brilliance of the lyrics and the compositions. They are:
- Kahan tak sunoge kahan tak sunaoon
- Jalte hain arman mera dil rota hai
- Sada hoon apne pyar kee
Saifuddin Saif’s Jalte hain arman mera dil rota hai is composed by Master Saheb, and he begins with a poetic couplet rendered tantalizingly slowly and dramatically by Noor Jahan. Taken to a crescendo, where the actual song begins to unfold, the couplet sets the mood:
Kat-tee naheen hai gham kee raat, aa ke theher gaee hai kya
Neend to khair so gaee, maut bhee mar gaee hai kya
This couplet has a double symbol, revealing not only the heart-rending frustration of a woman in the Mughal era of Kings and slaves, but the depression and emotion of a whole nation at the way the darkness seems to be eternally present all around it. After this couplet, the song begins with a pre-knowledge of difficult circumstances.
Next, you come to Tanvir Naqvi’s Kahan tak sunoge, composed by Master Inayat. The song not only has the lyrical symbolism, but also compositional symbolism. As in Jalte hain arman, there are pre-asthai lines. Here, the situation of the song is this that Anarkali (Noor Jahan) is writing poetry in her letter to Prince Saleem (Sudhir), who later became Shahenshah Jahangir. Anarkali’s friend, Dilaram (Shamim Ara) offers to deliver the letter to Prince Saleem personally. As she approaches the Mughal Prince, and asks him if she should reveal the contents of the letter, the camera leaves the scene, and moves to the ghulam gardish (Hall of the Slaves), where Noor Jahan has already begun to croon the song on cue, which, apparently, the Prince is unable to listen to.
Senior writer and showbiz journalist, Ali Sufyan Afaqi writes in his column, Hazaar Dastan that Tanvir Naqvi was in the habit of writing his lyrics in his own bedroom, and he used to invite the music directors to the room, and would listen to their music, and meanwhile, he would come up with his songs. In the evening, he would wash and dress in pristine white kurta pyjama, put on a good scent, put oil in his hair, and sit against a gao-takya, starting to write the moment the mood hit him, as the music director starts to play his composition on the harmonium or baja, in the film parlance. Then, he would pen some of his best songs. Aside from Khwaja Khurshid Anwar, all other musicians would visit his house for matching compositions with Tanvir Naqvi’s lyrics. Khwaja Sahab preferred the studios.
Master Inayat had been asked to create music for Anarkali, but later, Attre Saheb was also roped in. Master Inayat used to do his work in a relaxed way, while Anwar Kamal Pasha wanted the full score in a limited time. Master Sahab always used to listen to the lyrics first, and then used to create music for it. He never used to make the music first. He said, “This is not the work of some carpenter that you just fix the limbs of the chair and it is ready. Music is not thoka thaki! It is creative work, and needs inspiration to work. Therefore, master Sahab told Pasha that if he wants quick work, then he’d better ask somebody else to make his music. When Rasheed Attre was approached, he was reluctant to replace Master Sahab. But, Master Sahab told him to go ahead, because he had turned down the job himself. That’s when Rasheed Attre agreed to do the film.
As regards, Kahan tak sunoge, when Master Saheb went to Naqvi’s house, and they worked it all out. It is Master Inayat’s voice you listen to during the song, when Sudhir replies to Dilaram, “Zubani sunao!” Master Inayat talked to Tanvir Naqvi about the song, and pointed out that when a kaneez talks to the Mughal Prince, the song should portray the immense distance of social station between them. She cannot just come up to him and ask him to listen to her poetic renderings. So, Tanvir Naqvi wrote those pre-asthai lines:
Mohabbat ka naghma hai, main naghma gar hoon
Yeh nama kisi ka hai, main nama bar hoon
Parhoon khat ke mazmoon zubani sunaoon
Then, the Prince replies: Zubani sunao!
After this, Noor Jahan starts the song from some other place in the palace:
Kahan tak sunoge, kahan tak sunaoon
Hazaron hee shikwe hain, kya kya bataoon!
When Master Sahab looked at Tanvir Naqvi’s lyrics, he was truly infatuated by the poetry, and said, “Wah, Tanvir Sahab, Kamaal kar diya! Humility, courtesy, grievance, the warmth of love, the liberty that she can take with the Prince, and at the same time, the respect of royalty, are all there in these lyrics.”
Now, I must tell you that this song was first written by Tanvir Naqvi for K. Asif’s famous period vehicle, Mughal–e–Azam. But, since it wasn’t included in the film eventually, the lyricist offered it for Anarkali. Only its pre-asthai lines were added in this song. Right from the beginning, the song tells you that very courteously, Anarkali makes it apparent to the future king that he just couldn’t begin to understand the problems she is facing while falling in love with him. He could only carry on this love affair at his own convenience, without realizing how precarious it is for her to go through all this, hiding this fact from a palace full of spies, since socially it is just not the done thing. This asthai tells the listener that there are thousands of issues that she faces, not one. For instance, just picking one at random:
Huzoor aap par ik jahan kee nazar hai,
Nigah-e-karam seke mujhko yeh dar hai,
Jahan kee nazar mein kaheen aa na jaoon!
This Anarkali in Tanvir Naqvi’s lyrics is an intellectual person, not just any common court detail, as is the case with Qateel Shifai’s lyrics. She reminds the Prince that he is an international figure, whose every gesture is noted by all. So, being linked with him, she is also elevated to a place, where she might be in the glare of the world. That factor, in her insight, is liable to put her life on a continuous risk of persecution at every step. Now, most other slave girls would give their right eye to be in this envious position to be in the loving embrace of the Mughal Prince, and thus noted at every step. Not Anarkali. She notes that she had a quiet and private life up until she was romantically introduced to the Prince. So, what she is saying is that his nigah-e-karam is not actually the warm embrace that most others would want. Commonly, this would be considered a pessimistic or cynical viewpoint, but actually it’s closer to the mystical angle, which Tanvir Naqvi pinned to her personality. For a lowly kaneez, this is a world view, which increases her IQ level to that of a princess.
Again, in the second stanza, Anarkali notes:
Zamana hua hai mujhe muskuraey,
Mohabbat mein kya kya na sadme uthaey,
Kisey yaad rakkhoon kisey bhool jaoon!
So, she is more concerned with the changes that are coming in her personality. She feels that she has become glum and grave, while she used to smile and sing in the past. Those changes make her think as to what she may become if this continues, since there is no chance of ever getting betrothed to the Prince. She feels these negative traits would change her into a frustrated and devious woman. Considering the fact that she was thought to have had been put behind a cemented wall, where she died, this point of view was perfectly relevant. Indian film, Mughal-e-Azam shows that Akbar-e-Azam didn’t act as ruthlessly as was first thought, and he let Anarkali escape through a tunnel, which was later cemented and closed, creating the legend that Anarkali was cemented into a wall. But, in Tanvir Naqvi’s lyrics, Anarkali seems to be closer to mysticism than being just a worldly woman.
The only song in the film that has precedence over Tanvir’s Kahan tak sunoge, is Qateel Shifai’s Sada hoon apne pyar kee. Once again, symbolism is at the heart of this number. Qateel Shifai may not be considered amongst the top ten Pakistani poets as an intellectual and international personality, he, nonetheless, was a very different man in the film industry. When analyzed as a film lyricist, the amount of classical lyricism and symbolism that Qateel put into his poetry is no less than any of the best in the game. He may not have written such bold lyrics as Sahir Ludhianvi or perhaps Habib Jalib, but his symbolism is amongst the best that could be imagined. You cannot disregard the brilliance of that symbolism in films like Naela (Door veeraney mein ik shama hai roshan kab se etc). That progressive class is evident in his film songs. In Anarkali, Noor Jahan is dressed in pristine white for this number, and swings to the melody in the wind. Composed on visionary notes by Rasheed Attre, this song goes like this:
Sada hoon apne pyar kee,
Jahan se be-niaz hoon,
Kisee pe jo na khul sakey,
Woh zindagi ka raaz hoon!
In progressive poetry, this is called the personification of the poetry. Where the person singing the song, turns into the song, the symbol, the meaning. Thus, this woman, in herself, is a secret, which isn’t revealed till the end. This is exactly the case, when you consider her legend, that she isn’t revealed till the end. What she says is that she is a voice of her love, and doesn’t care for the world. She has turned into an eternal song. Other lines of the song:
Sunein agar meri sada,
To chalte karwan rukein,
Bhula ke apni gardishein,
Mein husn ka ghuroor hoon
Mein dilbari ka raaz hoon!
These lines show you that Qateel turns this woman, this character of the Mughal Darbar into a universal symbol. Symbols have a way of reaching you from across the universe. It is the call of the times. Here, it’s really beautifully done. Here, you can see how different in tone are these three songs from the other five numbers. They have a symbolic entity, which others are missing.
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