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NEW DELHI: The eminent poet-lyricist-director Gulzar, who recently brought international fame with the song ‘Jai Ho‘ tuned by AR Rahman, has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Panjabi University in Patiala.
The honour was conferred on the poet by Punjab Governor Gen. SF Rodrigues in the presence of Vice-Chancellor Jaspal Singh earlier this week.
Gulzar said he was touched by the gesture and felt happy that it had come from his home stage, Punjab.
Born Sampooran Singh Kalra in Deena in the Jhelum District in what is now Pakistan, he came to Delhi after the partition during independence as a poet. He joined Bimal Roy Productions in 1961 and got his first break as a lyricist writing for Bimal Roy‘s Bandini (1963). The success of this film made him Bimalda‘s full-time assistant and got him writing for films by acclaimed directors likeHrishikesh Mukherjee and Asit Sen. The films he has written include Anand (1971), Guddi (1971), Bawarchi (1972), and Namak Haraam (1973) for Mukherjee; and Do Dooni Chaar (1968), Khamoshi (1969), and Safar (1970) for Sen.
Gulzar made his directorial debut with Mere Apne (1971). Based on Tapan Sinha‘s "Apanjan," the film looks at an old woman (played by Meena Kumari) caught between two street gangs of unemployed and frustrated youths. He then went on to make Parichay (1972) (loosely based on The Sound of Music (1965) and Koshish (1972) (based on the Happiness of Us Alone), which looks at the trials and tribulations of a deaf and dumb couple (played by Jaya Bhaduri and Sanjeev Kumar). Sanjeev also acted in his films Mausam (1975), Angoor (1982), Namkeen (1982), and the classic film Aandhi (1975), which had been banned for a while as it was loosely taken from the life of Mrs Indira Gandhi. Some films with other actors included ‘Achanak‘ (1973), Khushboo (1975), and Kinara (1977), ‘Lekin‘ (1990), ‘Maachis‘ (1996), and ‘Hu Tu Tu‘ (1999). He also wrote the songs for his own films, apart from those for others.
He also made the television series Mirza Ghalib (1988). Gulzar has also directed documentaries on Amjad Khan and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi as well as "Shaira," a film based on Meena Kumari. He has also turned his creativity into other channels--he has written screenplays for films like Masoom (1983) and Rudaali(1993), and has written the lyrics for films like Dil Se (1998) and Saathiya (2002).
