Aahat si koi aaye to lagata hai ke tum ho
Saya koi lehraye to lagata hai ke tum ho
Bechain nazar betab jigar
Ye dil hai kisi ka deewana
Kab shaam ho aur wo shamma jale
Kab ud kar pahunche parwana
Jan Nisar Akhtar (1914-76) was born in Gwalior. His father was the poet Muztar Khairabadi (1875-1927), and his great grandfather, Maulana Fazl-i Haq Khairabadi (1797-1861), a poet as well as a theologian who served as the editor of the collected poems of Mirza Ghalib, at the poet’s request.
After matriculation from Gwalior, he joined Aligarh Muslim University for higher studies received his B.A. Urdu in 1937 and M.A. in 1940.Unfortunately he could not complete his doctorate. He worked as a lecturer in Urdu in Gwalior, later joined Hamidia College, Bhopal.
He left the job to join Hindi films as a lyricist, and arrived at Mumbai. Here, he came in contact with other progressive writers, like Mulk Raj Anand, Rajender Singh Bedi and Ismat Chughtai.
Jan Nisar Akhtar: The lover
As a student of Aligarh Muslim University, Akhtar was no stranger to love and romance in his personal life. He had heard of Safia sister of poet Majaz, through his cousins.Curious, he went to visit her at Abdullah Womens college of AMU. Aligarh. They were struck by love at first sight.
Soon, Akhtar’s family sent a marriage proposal to Safia’s family, and they were quick to respond with an approval. However, after a prolonged silence from Akhtar’s family, Safia expressed her interest to Jan Nisar herself, through a letter.
“If I hadn’t succumbed to my superfluous desire and blithe audacity in daring to write to you, who knows where our lives would be drifting now?” Safia wrote in 1950.
Jan Nisar Akhtar married Safia, sister of the poet Majaz in 1943.
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Safia worked as a school teacher at an urdu-medium madarsa (Muslim school) at a time when it was highly unusual for women, especially Muslim women, to work outside their homes. Yet, she was meeting a practical necessity, because Jan Nisar’s income was at best sporadic, and it was necessary for her to work to support her children.
Thus, when Jan Nisar moved to Mumbai to try his luck at earning a living as a film lyricist, Safia stayed back in Gwalior with their children, and wrote her absent husband a series of letters in Urdu.
A collection of these letters, written between 1 October 1943 to 29 December 1953, were first published in 1955 in two volumes under the title, “Harf-e-Aashna” and “Zer-e-Lab”. Professor Asghar Wajahat, former Head of the Hindi Department, Jamia Millia Islamia Delhi, translated these letters into Hindi and this was published under the title “Tumhare Naam” in 2004.
Safia Akhtar died of cancer on 17 January 1953
She died ten years after her wedding, and left behind two very small sons Jan Nisar left the children in the care of relatives while he pursued his hobbies of writing poetry and hobnobbing with various luminaries and socialites in Mumbai.
Second marriage of Jan Nisar Akhtar
Three years after Safia’s death, Jan Nisar got married again on 17 September 1956, to Khadija Talat. His children by Safia did not have a good relationship with their step-mother, and his relations with them were likewise dysfunctional.
Safia’s letters to Jan Nisar Akhtar
While Akhtar struggled in his initial years in Bombay, Safia supported him financially too. Thanks to his Bollywood ambitions, the two kept in touch through letters.
On 20 July 1950, Safia wrote, “Come Akhtar! Let me flow in your veins. I have prayed long and hard to make you mine. Seven years have gone by and for the most part we have been separated.My yearning grows with every passing day.
I cannot live away from you much longer…Akhtar, I desire your companionship and you want to send me a million miles away! I am truly scared of your lyrical style of love. My very own Akhtar! Come, take me to you, hide me within you in such a way that I may not exist outside of you. Let there just be you and me within you.”
A collection of these letters, written between 1 October 1943 to 29 December 1953, were first published in 1955 in two volumes under the title, “Harf-e-Aashna” and “Zer-e-Lab”.
Professor Asghar Wajahat, former Head of the Hindi Department, Jamia Millia Islamia Delhi, translated these letters into Hindi and this was published under the title “Tumhare Naam” in 2004.
Jan Nisar Akhtar in Bollywood as lyrist
His career spanned four decades during which he worked with music composers including C. Ramchandra, O.P. Nayyar, N Dutta and Khayyam and wrote 151 songs.
Notable among them were songs from his breakthrough film, AR Kardar’s Yasmin (1955), Aankhon hi Aankhon Mein ishara ho gaya in Guru Dutt’s CID (1956), Yeh dil aur unki nigahon ke saaye in Prem Parbat (1974) and Aaja re in Noorie (1979) and his last song, Ae Dil-e-naadaan, in Kamal Amrohi’s Razia Sultan (1983).
His poetry works include Nazr-e-Butaan, Salaasil, Javidaan, Pichali Pehar, Ghar Angan and Khaak-e-dil. The latter (“The Ashes of Heart”) was a poetry collection for which he was awarded the 1976 Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu by Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters.
It is said that O P Nayyar once said to him, “यार! तुम्हारे गीतों में शायरी बहुत होती हैं…..”.He replied, “शायरी के बग़ैर मैं कोई गीत नहीं लिख सकता दोस्त, मैं फिल्म छोड़ सकता हूँ, शायरी नहीं……. This was his passion for shayari!
He was associated with Kardar Productions, as a salaried lyricist, where he wrote all the songs for the movie, Yasmin (1955). Though C Ramchandra always worked with Rajendra Krishna those days, this was an exception! The songs of Yasmin opened the doors of success and fame to Akhtar.
In total he wrote just 151 songs for Hindi films, but his contribution is significant,. if we consider the quality and versatility of his songs.He wrote and produced the movie ‘Bahu Begum’ in 1967, but the lyrics were written by Sahir.
He was still working on Razia Sultan, when he died on 19th August 1976 in Bombay (now Mumbai).
Aye dile naadan
Aarzu kya hai justuju kya hai
Ham bhatakate hain
Kyon bhatakate hain
Dashtao sehara me
Aisa lagta hain mauj
Pyasi hain apane dariya me
The End
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