AN ODE TO HASRAT JAIPURI’S MEMORY

The Bollywood lyricist was honoured posthumously by the Rajasthan government

Bollywood lyricist, Hasrat Jaipuri was honoured by the Rajasthan government with the coveted Rajasthan Ratna award posthumously.The award, which carries a cash prize of one lakh rupees will be presented at a special function at Jaipur soon by the Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot.

Hasrat belonged to Jaipur where he used to write in Hindi and in Urdu and went to Mumbai in 1940 to try his luck as a writer and lyricist. He struggled and even worked as a bus conductor with Rs 11 as his monthly salary to make his ends meet.

He used to participate in ’mushairas’ (urdu poetry soiree) and luckily at one such occasion, Prithviraj Kapoor noticed Jaipuri and recommended him to his son, Raj Kapoor. Raj was planning a musical love story, ‘Barsaat’ (1949) with Shankar- Jaikishan and Jaipuri wrote his first recorded song, ‘Jiya Beqaraar Hai’ for the film. His second song (and first duet) was ‘Chhod Gaye Baalam’.

Along with Shailendra, Jaipuri wrote lyrics for all Raj Kapoor’s films till 1971. After the death of Jaikishan and failures of ‘Mera Naam Joker’ and ‘Kal Aaj Aur Kal’, Raj turned to other lyricists and music directors. Raj initially wanted to call him back for ‘Prem Rog’, but later settled for another lyricist. He finally asked Hasrat to write lyrics for the film, ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’ and also invited him to write three songs for the movie ‘Henna’.

When fellow lyricist Shailendra turned producer with ‘Teesri Kasam’, he invited Jaipuri to write lyrics for the movie. He also wrote screenplay for the movie ‘Hulchul’ (1951). His last film as a lyricist was ’Murder’ (2004) and he breathed his last in 1999.