ON August 18, Gulzar Saab celebrated his 90 th birthday. Five days later, he was at the J.W.
Marriott Hotel in Juhu for the launch of his latest album Dil Pareshan Karta Hai, featuring singer Sumeet Tappoo, with music by Bhavdeep Jaipurwale. Before the cake was cut, the legendary filmmaker and lyricist joked, “I realise that some people in the room have found out that I just turned 19.” The album contains seven songs sung soulfully by Sumeet.
Most are in a ghazal format, though Mausam and Dil have pop-styled arrangements. Gulzar talks of love, longing and sadness, using simple words. On Samandar, he writes, “Woh aankhon se kuchh bhi toh kehta nahin hai, samandar samandar hai, behta nahin hai”.
The opening lines of Dard (earlier recorded by Jagjit Singh in a different arrangement) are, “Dard halka hai saans bhaari hai, jeeye jaane ki rasm jaari hai”. And on Mausam, he writes, “Humne tumhari yaad ka mausam bula liya, ek gham bujha diya kabhi ek gham jala liya”. Over the years, much has been written about Gulzar’s film songs.
He has also had some remarkable private albums from the late 1980s, though their number is much lower than his film work. In this column, let us look at some of his best non-film albums. The first that comes to mind is the 1987 album Dil Padosi Hai, with music director R.
D. Burman and singer Asha Bhosle. Today (September 8) is Asha-Ji’s 91 st birthday, and it would be interesting to recall that this album was released 37 years ago on thi.