Shailendra: The Man Who Wove Magic With His Words

"Shailendra is the best lyricist, whichever happened to the Hindi Film Industry."- Gulzar Read further as we pay tribute to the famous lyricist Shankardas Kesarilal (Shailendra) on his birth anniversary and celebrate his contributions to the history of Bollywood

A stamp of Shailendra commemorating his contributions to the 100 years of Indian Cinema; Image Source: Forward Press

If you were to recall five popular Hindi Bollywood songs from the “Golden Era” of the 1950s and 60s, at least one of them, if not more, ought to be penned down by Shailendra.

Shankardas Kesarilal Shailendra, or more commonly referred to as Shailendra, wrote about 900 songs in his career that spanned over a period of 17 years**.**

Born on August 30th, 1923, in a village in ****Rawalpindi, Punjab (in present day- Pakistan), Shailendra came from a humble background. Brought up in Mathura, he shifted to Bombay (Mumbai) to make a career. At the peak of his professional journey, he was much sought after by the best Hindi film music composers and had the opportunity to work with some of the legendary names in the industry like Salil Chowdhary, SD Burman, and Ravi Shankar.

Geetkar-Jankavi Shailendra Marg- A street in Mathura was named after Shailendra in 2016 where he spent 16 years of his life before moving to Mumbai.

The start of his filmy career is a rather interesting story which started with a brief encounter with the ‘Greatest Showman of Indian Cinema’, Mr. Raj Kapoor ****himself who was enchanted by one of Shailendra’s poems during a mushaira (poetic symposium). Raj Sahab offered to buy this poem, *Jalta hai Punjab *****which was based on Partition **for his movie Aag. Shailendra, owing to his socialist leanings, and apprehensive of entering into mainstream cinema, refused the offer.

But, as fate would have it, a few years later, he was in acute need of some money and recalled Mr. Kapoor’s offer who readily gave him ₹500. In return for this favour, Shailendra wrote two songs for the movie that Raj Kapoor was filming at the time- Barsaat (1949). The two songs that he wrote were “Patli kamar hai, tirchhi nazar hai” and “Barsaat mein humse mile tum”, the music for which was composed by Shankar- Jaikishan. The powerful trio of Shailendra, Raj Kapoor, and Shankar- Jaikishan was well recognized in the film fraternity and shared a wonderful rapport with one another.

Whether it, his “Pyaar Hua, Ikraar Hua” from Shri 420, or “Piya Tose Naina Lage Re” from Guide, or “Khoya Khoya Chaand” from Kala Bazaar, his songs had a knack for captivating his audience and transporting them to a world of visuals that were created by the lyrics and strung into beautiful songs with mellifluous melodies. To not picturize an image of Nargis and Raj Kapoor sharing an umbrella on a rainy night while listening to “Pyaar Hua, Ikraar Hua” is almost unthinkable.

Songwriter Dev Kohli remembering Shailendra remarked, “Like the dohas (couplets) that Kabir wrote, he (Shailendra) could encapsulate a world in a few words.”

His lyrics manifested an eclectic mix of simple words that were deeply reflective and had the potential to leave a profound and lasting impact. He used colloquial Hindustani language that helped his songs reach far and wide and also marked a departure from the heavy usage of the Urdu lexicon which was common at that time. The ability to capture the essence of the situation or story through minimalist poetry was his pièce de résistance.

Once, he accompanied Raj Kapoor to meet the storywriter KA Abbas who was to narrate a new story to Kapoor, and during the narration, Abbas noticeably ignored Shailendra. After the narration was over, Kapoor asked Shailendra what he made of it. The poet replied, “Gardish mein tha, aasman ka taara tha. Awaara tha.” This left Abbas spellbound for his two-hour narration was summarised in two lines and he realised that he had grossly under-estimated the quiet man.

These lines formed the theme song of the film *Awaara. *****This song also went on to become the most appreciated Hindustani film song outside India at the time.

Global recognition for his songs does not stop there but was taken a notch further when “Mera Joota Hai Japani” from Mera Naam Joker was featured in the Hollywood blockbuster movie, *Deadpool *****(2016).

As it is often said that life is not always a bed of roses; Shailendra too, faced hardships. He had heavily invested in the production of Teesri Kasam*,*** an adaptation of Phanishwarnath Renu’s short story “Maare Gaye Gulfam.” This production venture cost him a huge sum of money, and also antipathy from his friends in the industry. It is said that Shailendra died of a broken heart after the film didn’t do well at the box office. It was however well received by critics and also won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 1967 (unfortunately, Shailendra died before this). Post the failure of this film, he spent much of his time drinking and died at the very early age of 43 on December 14th, 1966.

While a lyricist's name passes the mind of the audience as quickly as the credits of a film scroll past us, we remember Shailendra on his 98th birth anniversary for his artistic offerings to the Hindi film industry and for giving it some of its most memorable songs.

*"..Ke mar ke bhi kisi ko yaad aayenge

Kisi ke aansuon mein muskuraayenge

Kahega phool har kali se baar baar

Jeena issi kaa naam hai"*

Two legs of the tripod- Raj Kapoor and Shailendra; Image Source: The Wire