Karwaan charters the journey of four lyricists

Nagpur: Karwaan, a musical event that essayed the journey of four song writers of Hindi cinema, sought to attain the impossible and succeeded too.
Picking up two new and two vintage lyricists, the script with the help of songs, had a narrative that gave an insight into the words penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri and Yogesh, along with the newbies Amitabh Bhattacharya and Irshad Qamil, juxtaposing them in a manner which brought out the lyrical qualities of both, old and new.

Conceptualized and presented by radio anchor Shraddha Bharadwaj, the programme was presented by Chitnavis Centre on Friday.

2019 is the centenary year of Majrooh Sultanpuri, and the evening began with a tribute to the legendary poet. Charting his journey from the time he was a part of the Progressive Writers Association to the songs he wrote for films of nineties, singers Nandita Soni Sahu, Amar Kulkarni, Jaya Acharya, Sayali Maste and Vivek Deshpande presented hits like ‘Bahon main chale aa’, ‘Ek din bik jaayega, ‘Ab toh hai tumse’, Nazar laagi raja’ and ‘Teri ankhon ke siva’.

The lyricist had worked the most with RD Burman, doing a total of 74 films with him in a career that spanned five decades.

The segment on Amitabh Bhattacharya began with Chintan Deopujari presenting the national award winning song from Agnipath — ‘Abhi mujhme kahin’. “He wanted to sing but landed up writing songs which he initially had thought he could never do,” said Bharadwaj about Bhattacharya.

“His song Bhag bhag DK Bose’ from Delly Belly was instantly approved. But it was only after he came in contact with Amit Trivedi in Lucknow that he seriously pursued song writing,” Bhardwaj said. The brilliance of his poetry was brought out with songs like ‘Hawa ke jhoke aaj’, ‘Naina’ and ‘Zehnaseeb’.

The introduction to Yogesh was made with one of his poems read out by Kiran Mundara — ‘Kahan tak man ko andhere chalenge’ as Bhardwaj, who was his neighbour in Mumbai, said, “Yogesh had once said that it was after watching innumerable sunsets from his balcony that he could nuance the immortal song ‘Kahin door jab din dhal jaaye’ from Anand.

Three songs penned by Irshad Qamil, who has given lyrics in films like Jab We Met, Chameli, Love Aaj Kal, Rockstar and Aashiqui 2 were presented to give a flavour of his poetry.