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There is no formula for instant success: Irshad Kamil
For ‘Sadda Haq’ lyricist Irshad Kamil his struggle was a ‘training period,’ that helped him evolve as an individual and also honed his skills. On his formula for success he says, “Be it 1 year or 10 years, I take it as a learning period. I feel that failures happen due to some shortcomings, which we realise later on. There is no formula to avoid struggle and get instant success.”
The ‘Tum hi ho’ writer, who has been decorated with a string of awards, was in conversation with RJ Stutee Ghosh during the third day of curtain raiser event Lucknow Literature Festival at Jaipuria Institute of Management auditorium recently.
Speaking about how his writing style, Kamil says, “When a thought comes to my mind, I leave it for some time. If it has some weight then it comes back and then I write it down either on paper or type it on a computer. Sometimes I just don’t write it anywhere but it remains with me till the time comes for me to use it.” Kamil, though, specified it was his individual style of writing and may not work for others as every person has his/her own creative style.
On being influenced by legendary lyricists and writers, Kamil says, “It will be wrong to name just one of them. I like all of them and everyone has left some impact on me,” says the lyricist of films like Sultan, Rockstar, Jab We Met and Raanjhanaa.
On the trend of youths liking rap songs he says, “I find rap very funny. Either you can sing or you can say something. If you want to say something and do it in a singing form then I find it very amusing. I write for youths be it ‘Sadda Haq’ or ‘Patakha Guddi.’ Will these songs make a difference in the society or not I can’t say but I express whatever I want to convey through my songs.”
The lyricist says that he does not redo his work. “If someone asks for any changes or wants to me incorporate something then I prefer to redo the entire thing rather than making changes in my original work,” he said. Irshad revealed that sometimes he had written lyrics 3-4 times for one situation that has gone up 7-8 times too. He was also very critical about remaking of old classics by using the ‘catchy line’ and recreating it with new lyrics. On the trend of Western influence in songs he says, “We don’t take pride in our language and literature. Our focus is on English, which is not wrong but doing it at the cost of our mother tongue is not right. Today, we listen or read what the commercially driven agencies serve us. We should blame ourselves for the situation.”
Saturday evening proved to be indeed a literary one for Lucknow, where at the second day of ‘Curtain Raiser’ to the Lucknow Literature Festival, ‘Katha Kathan’, a literary group from Mumbai, set the show.
Jameel Gulrays, the founder of Katha Kathan, addressed the audience and emphasised on the importance of language and considered it as a medium of reviving the cultural heritage of India. The profound storytelling by Gulrays and his team of excelling narrators mesmerized the spectators. The story License written by Sadat Hasan Manto, struck every soul with the power with which Jameel and his co-speakers Farhan and Ashmita narrated. Audience that comprised of adults and even kids, laughed wholeheartedly at the humour and drama of the narration. The strong endings, as of ‘Kafan’ penned by Munshi Premchand, when narrated by the team, struck chords of awe and woe in the hearts of the audience.
The powerful narration of ‘Lihaaf ’ written by Ismat Chughtai took audience by surprise. ‘Deewana Shayar’ and ‘Sone ki Anghuti’, the works of Sadat Hasan Manto, captivated the listeners with the intense Urdu texture of the narrations. The last piece of the evening, ‘Kabuliwala’ written by Rabindranath Tagore, with the impactful recitation, rained a plethora of emotions to the engaged eyes and enthralled ears. The audience was in the flow of the stories with in the skin narrations of the speakers.
Gulrays told HT City, “These stories are about language. Language and culture are synonymous. If you forget your mother tongue, you forget your culture. If you want to save the Indian culture, you got to save the Indian languages. Through Katha Kathan, I aim at that revival”.
The stories made an appeal to the audience to work extensively towards the conservation and continuation of Indian languages. Earlier, the literary journey started with the lightening of lamp by Qamar Rahman, Anil Rastogi, Jayant Krishna and Kanak Rekha Chauhan.