Poet and writer Kaifi Azmi (January 14, 1919--May 10, 2002) Picture courtesy: azmikaifi.com)
It was sometime in 1991 when I met the great Kaifi Azmi in New Delhi. That was the only time I did.
He was staying in a room shorn of all luxuries in what I remember to be a spartan guesthouse possibly belonging to the Communist Party, of which he was a card-carrying member. He was 72 and, by then, had already been at the pinnacle of his poetic and song-writing career for close to four decades. A handsome man with a rich head of salt and pepper hair, somewhat tousled, welcomed me with an ever so slight a smile. He was a bit under the weather, I was told.
The purpose of my visit was not a formal interview but just a conversation. We spoke about several themes, including his lifelong commitment to the Communist ideology. I have included that aspect in my memoir currently in the works titled 'A Tangential Life'. However, on the occasion of his 105th birth anniversary today, I want to mention two specific observations about what I think are some of the finest lines in Hindi cinema history and beyond, capturing a woman's profound anguish with such exquisite poetic austerity.
They both distil life's essence the way only a truly great poet possessing deep empathy would be able to. The lines below are respectively from 'Kagaz Ke Phool' (1959) and 'Pakeezah' (1972).
From 'Kagaz Ke Phool's enduring masterpiece 'Waqt Ne Kiya' composed splendidly by Sachin Dev Burman and sung enchantingly by Geeta Dutt.
जाएंगे कहाँ सूझता नहींचल पड़े मगर रास्ता नहीं
क्या तलाश है कुछ पता नहींबुन रहे हैं दिल ख़्वाब दम-ब-दम
I don't know where I might go
I have set out but without a path
Unaware of what I am searching
The heart conjures up dreams with every breath
From 'Pakeezah's enduring masterpiece 'Chalte Chalte' composed superbly by Ghulam Mohammed and sung mellifluously by Lata Mangeshkar.
ये चिराग़ बुझ रहे हैंमेरे साथ जलते जलते
Aflame along with me
These lamps too are losing their light
I pointed out to him how at one level these lines so powerfully captured two particular movie characters' specific states of mind in a given situation but then quickly broke out of the confines of the two films and became so memorably telling of many existential dilemmas and conflicts.
My question to him was about his process of distilling a crowded set of emotions into such verses so brilliantly spare and yet so evocative.
He said once he was given any situation for a song by a director he would get into the skin of that particular character. He said something striking in Hindi. "उस किरदार का मैं जज़्बाती जामा पेहेन लेता हूँ ," Mr. Azmi said. I would loosely translate that as ,"I slip into the emotional wear of the character."
Once he did that, he said, the poet in him took over. Given that poetry is the art of distilling life to its quintessence the craft then handles the rest.
I also mentioned to him how in both cases it was a female character that he had written so feelingly for and how it seemed he was particularly masterful at that. He smiled and said, "कहीं न कहीं हम सब एक नारी ही हैं. "
Here is to Kaifi Azmi.