Javed Akhtar: 'If I had worked in a more disciplined way, I’d have done a lot more; that’s a lingering regret,'

I have known Javed Akhtar Saab for a good—and I do mean REALLY good—25 years. As he turns a year older I recall my first meeting with him at his residence that he shares with his wife Shabana Azmi in Juhu.

Going back to my first meeting with Javed Saab, back then there were no mobile phones (at least I didn’t have one) and it was a struggle for an out-of-towner to find addresses in Mumbai (then Bombay). I reached the Akhtars’ residence a good 45 minutes after the appointed time. I expected to be ticked off. But Javed Saab was busy with a TV interview.

The usually spick –and-span Azmi-Akhtar residence was, to put it politely, in a mess. The carpet in the living room had been pushed to one corner and the furniture was all over the place. Javed Saab caught my look of horror and grinned, “So now you know what the house looks like when Shabana is out of town. Don’t worry it will all be back in place before she returns.”

We hit it off instantly. This is one relationship that has never waxed and waned. That’s because, unlike another eminent poet-lyricist whom I know, Javed Saab’s ego doesn’t supersede his humane qualities. He is an artiste of great pride and even arrogance. But he knows where when and how to use his tools of self-expression. His lyrics as I have repeatedly told them do not hide behind esoteric metaphors. In his simplicity and lucidity, Javed Saab matches the late and great Shailendra. There are no “hidden meanings” in Javed Saab’s poetry. What you hear is what you get. And no double meanings, thank you. Karan Johar would vouch for that.

Javed Saab’s conversations are priceless and often so barbed they are award-winning performances. I will never forget the couple of hours he spent at my home over breakfast. He was in Patna for just a day to attend a conference. But he made it a point to come home.

When I told Shabana this she guffawed, “Hamari majaal hai ke hum Patna aayen aur aapke ghar na jaayen? Humein Zinda rehna hai ya nahin (can we dare to come to Patna and not visit your home).

 It is very hard to explain my relationship with this couple. In an industry of fickle friendships and brittle bonding and associations of convenience, this kinship has withstood the test of time. Thank you, Javed Saab for being the person that you are. Fearless funny, articulate, erudite, intellectually equipped but accessible, and one of your kind.

Looking back at a life well-lived poet-lyricist-writer-thinker Javed Akhtar says. “There have been bruises and pleasures, achievements and failure. Both are equally integral to life. But in totality life has been kind. Without trying to be over-modest, I’d like to say that I wasted about 10 of those 40 years. If I had worked in a more disciplined way I’d have done a lot more. That’s a lingering regret. I’m trying to compensate for that lost time. But I don’t think I can. Today I compete only with myself. If I look at the mediocrity all around me I can only get depressed.”

Compliment him for making poetry accessible to the common man and he counters, “Isn’t that what poetry is supposed to do? If you can’t communicate your lines to the common man then why are you making your art public? Some artistes say they don’t care if their art is not understood. There should be some difference between your diary and shairi.”

The rapidly plummeting standards of film music worry Javed Saab. “It can be best expressed by what Lataji sang in Silsila—my first film as a lyricist—Yeh kahan aa gaye hum. Jo halaat hain ussmein kya karen? I think the songs are a part of the narrative. If the narrative is of inferior quality, the situations are bound to be inferior. These in turn demand inferior songs. Songs for Kagaz Ke Phool, Pyasa, or Baiju Bawra could only have been possible in those films. Those songs couldn’t be a part of a film today. Also, there’s a kind of fear in filmmakers that audiences’ attention span has shortened. Hence there’s a frenzied tempo in the narrative at the cost of depth. When songs run at a frantic speed words are no longer important. And since words no longer register as poetry or anything near it, lyricists are allowed to get away with anything. The quality of music also is very unsympathetic towards poetic lyrics. The people who are extracting work out of lyricists aren’t trained to understand poetry. Earlier on composers understood music and poetry. Sachin Dev Burman was weren’t fluent in Hindi. But his sense of poetry was still impeccable. Something is wrong with society at large. In our educational system, the Hindustani and Urdu languages are being marginalized. We‘re living in an era of a cultural void.”

Speaking of his early years of struggle Javed Saab says, “It has taken me a lot of time to come to where I am. When initially my lyrics did well I was offered a lot of films. I declined all the films where I felt I’d have to write something I didn’t want to, and couldn’t. The film industry got the message loud and clear. Yeh agar likhenge to iss terah se warna nahin. I cannot go beyond my inbuilt sense of morality. Today I work with one-fifth of other successful lyricists. And I don’t regret it. You ask me how I seek out good projects. I think such projects seek me out. I admit there aren’t too many filmmakers and composers I’m comfortable with. Main to wohi karunga jo karta aaya hoon. No bad language, no grammatically incorrect meters for me. Poets can take liberties but within the given grammatical structures.”

Javed Saab’s role models as a songwriter? “Shailendra and Sahir Ludhianvi have written mind-blowing songs. Why just them? Majrooh Sultanpuri, Jan Nissar Akhtar, Raja Mehndi Ali Khan, Bharat Vyas, Pradeep, Kaifi Azmi, even today’s popular Sameer’s father Anjaan…they’ve all written exceptional songs. I’ve set certain standards for myself. I believe language is for communication. What’s the point of writing a song if it doesn’t communicate itself to the listeners? My father Jan Nissar Akhtar used to say, it’s very easy to write difficult songs and very difficult to write easy songs. A simple language possesses a kind of transparency that a lyricist can afford only when he’s sure of his ideas. You have to be very clear about your ideas to write simply. If you enter a dark room and you don’t know where the light switches, you keep groping in the dark. I’d like to believe I know where the switches are. Ambiguity forbids simple expression. I shy away from ambiguity.”

Why has Javed Saab stopped writing screenplays? “At one stage I felt I was becoming a mechanical scriptwriter. I felt I was moving towards mediocrity. Before that happened I stopped and concentrated on what excited me, namely lyric writing. In recent times I was enthused to script my son’s film Lakshya. I’ll not do commissioned screenwriting. I’ll write when I feel galvanized into the process. As for writing talent, Gulzar Saab is an exceptionally talented dialogue writer. But yes, we need scriptwriters. There’s a dearth of new ideas among them. The good screenplay writers are filmmakers themselves, for example, Karan Johar, Ashutosh Gowariker, Farhan Akhtar, and Aditya Chopra .”

He sees a lot of talent among our contemporary filmmakers. “Sanjay Leela Bhansali(whom I haven’t worked with so far), KaranJohar, Ashutosh Gowariker….they’re extremely talented. Technically our films have progressed. The same cannot be said about the content. And the problem is outside the film industry. Earlier on we had ideals philosophies and values upon which the heroes and villains of our films were based. But without sanskar, it’s difficult to tell black from white. The film does not address themselves social issues any longer. No Sujata or Paigham is being made. Earlier the mill owner was the bad man and the farmer was good. We no longer know who’s bad and good any longer!”

To what does he attribute this aridity of moral values in art? “Somewhere our society’s collective morality is lost. There’s a kind of moral confusion in our society which reflects in our films. Filmmakers are hiding behind romance, ghost stories, murder mysteries, and sex. No film is looking at social issues. Swades and Lakshya were made. They flopped. We suffer from a lack of history and sanskar. When Lakshya which I wrote, flopped I felt the time wasn’t right for me to write screenplays right now. How can better socially relevant films be made if they don’t get the audiences’ support? I’m not pessimistic about the future. I feel things are changing. If you listen to the film songs between 1985 and 1995 they were in extremely bad taste. I’d say comparatively things are better now. Gradually people feel the need for an improvement in lyrics and melodies. There’s a resistance to mediocrity. It may take another 5-6 years. But we’re moving towards a renaissance.”

Javed Saab misses the masters. “Today only Lata Mangeshkar remains. No singer in this universe can intone words the way she can. Even if you don’t know the meaning of a word you know by her expression. That’s what a lyricist craves for.”

What about finally directing a film? “It will happen sooner rather than later. I already have the idea in the process. I will tell you more soon,” he promises.

 Celebrating birthdays with a cake is not a big high for the Akhtar's and Azmis.

Says Shabana, “I’m dead against the colonial hangover of cutting cakes. Traditionally hamare yahan ladoo bante jaate thay. Javed tucked into mishti doi which was specially flown down for him from Kolkata. All the food he likes: biryani paya ,kabab, nihari, lamb chops. Ours is a pure nonveg table. To the vegetarians, we can only offer mirchi ka salan, palak paneer, and dahi wada with our condolences!! Jadu lives for meetha vanilla ice cream makes him believe there must be a heaven, gulab jamun, qubani ka meetha, moong dal ka halwa, and gile Firdaus so he will get all of that today.”

Adds Javed with a chuckle, “Shabana can’t cook. But she is very good at organizing parties and tucking into the food after it is ready. But on a serious note, I want to thank all those friends and well-wishers who have been with me all these years. The time has just flown by. I don’t feel my age until someone points it out to me.”

 Javed Saab reveals the secret of staying young. “I surround myself with young people. They bring a freshness and enthusiasm with them that I find very encouraging. The future of our nation is in safe hands.”

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

 

 

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