Hasrat Jaipuri

Hasrat Jaipuri (1922–1999), born Iqbal Hussain on 15 April 1922 in Jaipur, was the romantic voice of Hindi cinema's golden age — the lyricist who gave Raj Kapoor's films their songs of love and longing. He came to Bombay in 1940 and worked for eight years as a bus conductor, earning eleven rupees a month, while his verses found their way to mushairas. A poem about a labourer's corpse, recited before Prithviraj Kapoor, brought him to Raj Kapoor, and his first film songs came in Barsaat (1949) — "Jiya Beqaraar Hai" was his first recorded song, and he wrote six of the film's ten songs — beginning a partnership with Raj Kapoor and the composers Shankar-Jaikishan that ran through some three hundred films. His pen gave Hindi cinema "Baharon Phool Barsao", "Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana", "Ehsan Tera Hoga Mujh Par", "Tum Mujhe Yun Bhula Na Paoge", "Yeh Mera Prem Patra" and "Aji Rooth Kar Ab Kahan Jaiyega". He won the Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist twice, in 1966 for "Baharon Phool Barsao" (Suraj) and in 1972 for "Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana" (Andaz). Beside the films he wrote ghazals all his life, in the plain, musical Urdu of the romantic tradition, and he kept writing lyrics until his last breath — his final film work appeared in Hatya (2004), five years after his death. He died in Bombay on 17 September 1999, aged 77.