‘Urdu is the language of Hindustan.’
IMAGE: Gulzar launches a collection of work, Ghalib & Gulzar, by Shahid Rassam in 2015. Photograph: Sahil Salvi
Even at 89, the awards aren’t stopping any time quickly for Gulzar.
Bollywood’s icon acquired the Jnanpith award, India’s highest literary honour, and Subhash Ok Jha retrieves an fascinating throwback interview with Gulzar, the place he had mentioned, “Since literary circles perceive me as a man from cinema, therefore, I’ve had difficulty in obtaining the approval of literary masters.”
As a Sikh, how do you clarify your love for the Urdu language?
Urdu is my favorite language. I do know no higher technique of communication.
My writings — even my diary — are written in Urdu.
I may write in Devnagari, Bengali and English, however not as fluently as Urdu.
I’m glad as a result of it is an award for my written work. You know, writing has been my main ardour.
A e book has at all times been extra fulfilling than a movie.
In writing a e book, aisa kabhi nahin hota ke koi hasrat baqi reh gayi. Though with a movie, I can contact crores of hearts at one go, a e book has extra of me than a movie.
The medium of writing is probably the most autonomous, full, fulfilling and self-dependent type of creativity.
In writing, you’ll be able to by no means complain about issues going unsuitable. Good or unhealthy, it’s a must to stand by your creativity.
Cinema is extra collaborative.
There’s at all times the hazard of somebody spoiling your work otherwise you spoiling somebody’s work.
In writing, you can provide expression to all of the ideas and emotions that can not be communicated in a mass medium.
I’ve been writing extra poetry than prose in Urdu. Poetry is an even bigger ardour for me.
I’d relatively be recognised as a poet. Maybe sometime….
Is writing actually extra satisfying than cinema?
It’s not a query of kind of satisfying.
I’ve at all times been extra obsessed with writing.
Writing has at all times been the muse of all my artistic actions.
I got here to cinema as a author. Screenplays, dialogues and film-making are branches of my writing roots.
In cinema, my title as a author grew to become simply recognisable.
This has additionally been a handicap for me as a author since literary circles understand me as a person from cinema and subsequently, I’ve had issue in acquiring the approval of literary masters.
Do you’re feeling you’ll be able to get a bigger readership on your literary works due to your affiliation with cinema?
I’d say so. But it is onerous to inform if individuals learn my books after coming to my movies or they see my movies after studying my books.
How does one clarify your curiosity in Urdu?
The credit score should go to 2 individuals: Ahmed Nadeem Qazmi from Pakistan who inspired me to write down and Urdu critic Gopi Chand Narang. Narangsaab was among the many first individuals to touch upon my tales. He at all times inspired me.
How did you develop an curiosity in Urdu?
It was the primary language that I learnt in class in Punjab. Every male baby studied Urdu as the primary language, not Punjabi.
Even Punjabi was written within the Urdu script and continues to be written in Urdu in Pakistan.
Interestingly, the ladies in Punjab studied Hindi, with the consequence that husbands and wives could not talk with one another straight by letters!
IMAGE: Gulzar with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, 2013. Photograph: Kind courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Do you assume Urdu is dying?
Not the language, however the script is altering.
Like I mentioned, Urdu was the accepted language in Punjab and a number of other northern states earlier than Partition.
But within the final 50 years, Punjabi is written in Gurmukhi in India whereas it continues to be written in Persian in Pakistan.
So it is the script that’s altering. I can say the Urdu script in Punjabi is dying out.
Urdu is written in Devnagari in our nation.
Yet, 70 to 80 p.c of the language spoken in our movies is Urdu. So clearly the language itself is not dying.
In reality, Gandhiji had as soon as steered we name Urdu Hindustani. I feel it was a really sensible suggestion.
Urdu is the language of Hindustan, so let’s cease pitching Urdu towards Hindi.
Do you’re feeling it is as a lot the spoken language as Hindi?
I can provide you many examples. Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah cannot write Urdu.
But Naseer, who’s from Meerut, performed Mirza Ghalib very successfully in my serial.
Both of them converse Urdu fantastically.
In trendy India, Devnagri is not a automobile to speak solely Hindi, but in addition a automobile to speak Urdu in our nation.
In course of time, the prejudices towards Urdu will die out.
How will these prejudices will die down?
The individuals’s language will prevail.
In India, the individuals’s language is neither the Urdu nor the Hindi that is being propagated by Pakistan and India.
