Might have faded away but Vishal Bhardwaj held my hand and carried me along: Gulzar

PTI, Jan 10, 2024, 4:06 PM IST

Eminent poet-director Gulzar says he might have ”faded” away into oblivion after hanging up his boots as a filmmaker had it not been for filmmaker-composer Vishal Bhardwaj who inspired him to continue his career as a songwriter.

Gulzar and Bhardwaj’s association dates back to the 1990s when they first worked together on ”Jungle Jungle Baat Chali Hai”, the theme song of the Hindi dubbed TV series ”The Jungle Book”. They later collaborated on films such as Gulzar’s ”Maachis” as well as Bhardwaj’s directorials ”Maqbool”, ”Omkara”, and ”Haider”, among others.

”I’ve had a long association with Pancham da (late music composer RD Burman). I might have faded away, but a young poet, singer, composer held my hand and carried me along, that’s Vishal.

”It is because of Vishal that I’m young in terms of writing. I’ve become young with my songs. For instance, I do certain things in a song, which might seem embarrassing, like you just can’t make ‘Beedi Jalaile’ (a song from Bhardwaj’s 2010 movie ‘Omkara’)” Gulzar told reporters here.

He was speaking at the launch of the book ”Gulzar Saab: Hazaar Rahein Mud Ke Dekhin…” on Tuesday night. The book is penned by National Award winner Yatindra Mishra and published by Vani Prakashan Group.

Actor-BJP MP Hema Malini was the chief guest at the event, which was also attended by Bhardwaj, his wife singer Rekha Bhardwaj, and lyricist-CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi.

Gulzar, known for directing 1970s dramas such as ”Mere Apne”, ”Parichay”, ”Mausam”, and ”Aandhi”, said he is still learning.

”I’m ready to learn and one should keep learning. If I become big, then I’ll stop learning. No one person can attain anything in life alone. All these creative people are saying I’ve inspired them but the truth is it is not a one-way street. ”I also might be getting inspiration from others, and these people as well. I’m not the most learned and there are many who have learned more than me, so I seek inspiration from them,” the 89-year-old added.

Bhardwaj said it was his dream to work with Gulzar and he is blessed to have had a long association with him.

”Hindi film music would have been incomplete without Gulzar sahab… I wanted to work with Gulzar sahab at least once. When I came to Mumbai I thought I’ll do one song with Gulzar sahab, but I’m grateful to God that I got the opportunity to work on 500 to 700 songs or more. About 99 per cent of my songs are with Gulzar sahab,” he said, likening the industry veteran’s influence to a mighty banyan tree (‘bargad ka ped’). Speaking of Hema Malini, Gulzar said he is in awe of the actor’s devotion towards dance. He has directed Malini in three films: ”Kinara” (1977), ”Khushboo” (1975) and ”Meera” (1979). They first worked as writer-actor on Ramesh Sippy’s ”Andaz” in 1971.

”’Andaz’ was my first film with her (Malini), her mother and aunt would come along with her on set. She had said ‘Whether my films work or not, I would never leave dance. I’ll keep dancing till the end of my life’. And she continues to dance even today.

”You learn that kind of devotion and dedication from your juniors, not necessarily from your seniors. I kept making films, and then when I stopped making films, I started writing songs.” On her part, Malini said she evolved as an actor under Gulzar’s direction. She said the writer-director was against the idea of portraying her in a glamorous avatar in his films.

”When he (Gulzar) told me he is making ‘Khushboo’, I was very excited as I wanted to explore something different. He said ‘I want you to be as simple as possible’. So there was less make-up, no hairstyle. It was a little difficult for me to adjust but I started enjoying it,” she said.

The 75-year-old actor also recalled how Gulzar would tell her to slow down with her dialogue delivery.

”I had this habit of speaking dialogues very fast and he would tell me, ‘Why are you saying it so fast? Do you have to go somewhere else?’ I would reply, ‘Yes, I have to go on another set’. He would say ‘In this film, go a little slow with the dialogues’. So, it was difficult for me to slow down, but I learned and adopted his style. It was wonderful,” she added. Mishra, author of the book, revealed Gulzar had planned to direct a film titled ”Devdas”, featuring Malini, Dharmendra and Sharmila Tagore.

”…But that film remained incomplete. That way, Hema ji has acted in four-and-half films directed by Gulzar sahab,” he said.