Javed Akhtar: ‘Sahir Ludhianvi wrote film songs with the same intensity that he composed poetry, ghazals’

“Sahir Sahab never took film songs casually. He wrote these with the same intensity as he wrote poetry, ghazals or any other forms. He was a public philosopher who offered moral values and a way of life,” said poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar on Saturday during the Vijay Tendulkar Memorial lecture on Sahir Ludhianvi in Pune International Film Festival’s (PIFF) 28th edition.

The lecture started with Jabbar Patel’s inauguration speech where he said that, usually, memorial lectures are themed on directors but, for PIFF, scriptwriters held equal importance and hence the Vijay Tendulkar lecture was organised to highlight their efforts. Akhtar’s lecture included a tribute to Tendulkar, whom he called his inspiration. “He was a very mild mannered and gentle-voiced man. Looking at him you would not believe his pen would create such fiery and bold content. His works started where everyone’s courage ended. I was nominated in Rajya Sabha and got Rs 6 crore for work. I built an open air theatre in Juhu and named it Vijay Tendulkar Rangmanch, which has become a centre of art in the area,” he said.

He said he had shared a close relationship with Ludhianvi. “My father was his close friend and he befriend me. Whenever he wrote a poem or ghazal he used to call me, mostly in the evenings when he was alone. I was so immature that I used to criticise him and he used to explain things to me. He used to call me naujawan in his elaborate style. I have spent lot of time with him. People like Sahir sahab, Ismat Chughtai and Tendulkar were public philosophers. They had a flair of humanity and morality to their writing,” said Akhtar.

He talked about the time he used to earn Rs 50-100 per month. “Once, I had just Rs 30 left in my account. I went to Sahir sahab for a job. He gave me Rs 200 with love and forced me to keep it. Times changed I created my place in film industry and we started working together. Then we used to make fun around the fact that I never returned the Rs 200. He used to sportingly say that he would take when time came,” recounted Akhtar. After Ludhianvi died, Akhtar recalled looking at his hands and the former’s “entire writing” flashed before him. “These hands had created wonders. After that, when we were leaving graveyard, a man came to me and asked for Rs 200 to pay the digger. I gave the money and realised that my debt was paid. His absence still hurts,” he added. Akhtar said that the world, which is filled with hate and prejudices, cannot produce a poet.