Gulzar

Sampooran Singh Gulzar (born as on August 18, 1936), famously known as Gulzar, is an Indian poet, lyricist, film-maker, director, and playwright from India. He works primarily in Hindi and Urdu languages. He was born in Dina, Jhelum District, British India, located in the current-day West Punjab, Pakistan.

As a lyricist, Gulzar is best known for his association with the music director Rahul Dev Burman, and has also worked with other leading Hindi movie music directors including Sachin Dev Burman, Salil Chowdhury, and Madan Mohan.

Gulzar was born a sikh, but is clean-shaven. Before becoming an established writer, Gulzar worked as a car mechanic in a garage. Gulzar has worked exhaustively in the Indian film industry for over forty three 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 Indian Television Channel 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 honored with Padma Bhushan in 2004, the third highest civilian award in India. Also, Gulzar and his movies have won numerous awards at the National level including awards for best director and best lyrics.

Gulzar has developed a new style of writing poems called Triveni which comprises stanzas comprising three lines rhyming with each other. His private album "Koi Baat Chale" with Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh has all the songs written in Triveni.

Gulzar is married to actress Raakhee. They have one daughter, Meghna Gulzar who has turned film director and made a sensitive film on surrogate motherhood, Filhaal. Her next movie has a lighthearted take on the marriage institution and is called Just Married. It was released in Feb 2007. Gulzar has given her nickname 'Boski', which is also an eponym for their home, 'Boskiana'.

An insight into the life of Gulzar can be taken though a book called 'Because he is...', a biography written by his daughter Meghna Gulzar.

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