True to his name "Sahir" which means a magician, he proved to be a magician of words. He painted fascinating images in songs and ghazals, He made his debut as a lyricist with the film "Azadi Ki Raah Par" in 1948. but got fame in 1951 after the release of Baazi, Naujawan, and Saza
He did not praise Khuda (God), Husn (beauty), or Jaam (wine). Instead, he wrote bitter yet sensitive lyrics about the declining values of society; the senselessness of war and politics; and the domination of consumerism over love. His love songs, tinged with sorrow, expressed his realization that there were other, starker concepts more important than love.
Close to his heart was the farmer crushed by debt, the soldier has gone to fight someone else's war, the woman forced to sell her body, the youth frustrated by unemployment, and the family living on the street for instance.
He touched upon issues like poverty, inequality, gender gap, environment, the threat of a war that has not gone away. Some of the challenges are even bigger today than in his time. If he would have been alive today, he would be writing on the self-appointed custodian of religion, the self-serving politician, the exploitative capitalist, and the war-mongering super-powers.
Recall the songs of Pyaasa or Phir Subah Hogi The song Woh Subah Kabhi Toh Aayegi with its minimal background music remains popular.
Sahir was a communist sympathizer, but he never became a member of the Communist Party of India or an agenda-pushing poet. He always expressed his true feelings. Sahir did something which no film lyricist did before. He transitioned his literary poetry from his book Talkhiyaan (1945) into film songs.
Sahir was hardly 58 and at his creative best when he suffered a massive heart attack. This bard from Ludhiana bid adieu to this world on October 25, 1980.
Here are some of his immortal songs
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