Gulzar

From Freepedia

Gulzar (born Sampooran Singh on August 18, 1936) is an Indian poet, lyricist, film-maker, director, and playwright from India. He works in Hindi and Urdu languages. He was born in Dina, Pakistan. He is best known for penning some of Bollywood's popular songs composed by Rahul Dev Burman. He is a widely acclaimed song-writer in Bollywood movies.

Gulzar has worked exhaustively in the Indian film industry for over thirty five years. Gulzaar saab, as he is affectionately known has written in Hindi, Punjabi, and dialects of Hindi like Marwari (Rajasthani) and Bhojpuri.

He is best known in India as a lyricist for songs that form an integral part of Indian cinema. Gulzar began his career under two other artists - Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. His book Ravi Paar has a narrative of Bimal Roy and the agony of creation.

Gulzar had leftist leanings (from an Indian perspective) in his early days that can be seen from his early movies (as director) like Mere Apne (translated as 'My dear ones'). His film Aandhi is an oblique criticism of Indian polity, and was banned for a time because it was seen as a criticism of Indira Gandhi for the imposition of the emergency. He also depicted a flair for adapting stories/concepts from literature as well as from other films. Angoor (translated as 'Grapes') is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. Gulzar also adapted the Hollywood classic The Sound of Music into Parichay. He directed an eponymous Television serial on Mirza Ghalib starring Naseeruddin Shah shown on Doordarshan in 1988.

Gulzar is known for making brilliantly sensitive portrayal of subjects ranging from human relations, biographical profiles and often controversial social issues. For his contributions to Indian cinema, Gulzar was titled Padma Bhushan in 2004 by the Government of India. Also, Gulzar and his movies have won numerous awards at the National level including awards for best director and best lyrics.

Gulzar was married to actress Raakhee.