Anand Bakshi: The people’s writer

Many have earned the name of ‘People’s Poet’ over the decades. Anand Bakshi, who passed away 20 years ago on March 30, however, is the ‘People’s Writer’.

One of the few Hindi cinema lyricists who passed away when still at the top, it was said of Bakshi that if one listens to his repertoire, one would learn everything about life. ‘Accha to hum chalte hain’, ‘Tirchhi topiwale’, ‘Gaadi bula rahi hai’, ‘Chitthi aayi hai’, and ‘Solah baras ki bali umar’ are but fragments of his infinite genius.

Amazingly versatile, Bakshi could make even simple words sound profound. Like his most frequent composer team Laxmikant-Pyarelal (with whom he did over 300 of his documented 635 films), he believed that showing off one’s skills at the expense of the script was unacceptable.

Anand Bakshi also worked a lot with R.D. Burman, Kalyanji-Anandji, S.D. Burman, Rajesh Roshan, and Anu Malik, and veterans like (Shankar-) Jaikishan ( Main Sundar Hoon), Roshan ( Devar) and others. The young lot includes A.R. Rahman ( Taal), M.M. Kreem ( Zakham), Viju Shah ( Tridev), and Jatin-Lalit ( Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge). He has also worked with Shiv-Hari, Nadeem-Shravan, and Uttam Singh and more.

From the film Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives

Composer Ismail Darbar shared his experiences about Bakshi, who worked in his Mehbooba (2008), “He would write 8 to 10 antaras for every song, each relevant to the situation, perfect to the metre of the tune, and would ask us to take our pick. Bakshi-ji was something else!”

A firm believer in both destiny and hard work, Bakshi effortlessly wrote the song, ‘Haathon ki chand lakeeron ka’ for Vidhaata, where two friends, Shammi Kapoor and Dilip Kumar, sang about their respective beliefs in the supremacy of taqdeer (fate) and tadbir (efforts). “When Bakshi-saab thought of this concept in my version of The Godfather, I rewrote the plot. He would grasp a film’s story probably better than us filmmakers,” said the film’s director Subhash Ghai.

Longlasting bond

This association, which began with Gautam Govinda (1979), and went on to include mega-musicals such as Karz, Hero, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Khal-Nayak, Pardes and Taal, was just one of the many long-lasting bonds that Bakshi forged with filmmakers as varied as Manmohan Desai, L.V. Prasad, Yash Chopra, Raj Khosla, Ramesh Sippy, Shakti Samanta, J. Om Prakash, Rajiv Rai and many others.

Pyarelal, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Anand Bakshi, and Laxmikant.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives

As Raj Khosla once told me, “Laxmikant had made the tune for the first line of my title-song in Main tulsi tere aangan ki. We went to meet Bakshi at his residence, where he was recuperating from a fractured leg. I gave him a gist of the film’s story. Within minutes, he gave the second line for the mukhda —’Koi nahin main tere saajan ki’ (I am no one to your husband)!”

Khosla became emotional, as he added, “Can you imagine? In a split second, with just a few simple words that we use in daily life, Bakshi had encapsulated my entire film!” One of Bakshi’s favourite quotes was “My mind works only after listening to a story!” However, he had also written a few lyrics while working in the Armed forces before he came to Mumbai to become a lyricist (or singer / composer, as he had thought at first).

The late poet-lyricist Neeraj once told me, “Lyricists are always bigger than poets. They have to show their skill keeping in mind the story, situation and characters, the preferences of the filmmakers and composers, as well as the trends. And in all this, Bakshi had no equal!”

Anand Bakshi, who came from a well-to-do family from Rawalpindi in undivided India, faced a long struggle in cinema, technically making his debut in comedian Bhagwan’s Bhala Aadmi, which was released in 1958. However, films such as Silver Prince and Sher-e-Baghdad were released earlier in 1957. He, however, made his first real impact only with Mr. X in Bombay (1964), Himalay Ki Godmein, and Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965).

From there, his success streak was phenomenal — some of his best work was for Devar, Milan, Farz, Aradhana, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Haathi Mere Saathi, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Amar Prem, Bobby, Amar Akbar Anthony, Sargam, Ek Duuje Ke Liye, Betaab, and Chandni.

“One works hard during difficult times. But it is only after the success that one has to work the hardest,” he once told me. “A filmmaker came to me asking for six super-hit songs. I turned him down, telling him that I had never written a super-hit song in my life!” And he smiled, adding, “No one sets out to write a hit song. Film songs are always teamwork and no one can take individual credit for them!”

It’s Bakshi’s unshakeable faith in these tenets that make his songs eternal.

The writer is a freelance journalist.