With an illustrious career spanning over five decades, Gulzar or Gulzar saab has been a name to reckon with in the Hindi film industry. He is one of India’s foremost writers in Urdu and Hindi. He has written dialogues, screenplays, lyrics and directed some of the most riveting films, and his pen continues to mesmerise us. His poems and nazms are a treasure for all poetry lovers.
Born as Sampooran Singh Kalra, best known by his pen name Gulzar, turns 88 today on August 18.
Here are some of the best books by Gulzar, cherished by poetry lovers.
The power of observation and his unerring eye shows the events of 1947 and how it continues to affect our lives to this day. The book is rendered in English by well-known author and translator Rakhshanda Jalil. Footprints on Zero Line is a brilliant collection on a cataclysmic event and a reminder that those who forget the errors of the past are doomed to repeat them.
Samay ka Khatola is a wonderful collection of poems and songs for children by the master poet and storyteller.
This collection of personally chosen poems by Gulzar features the works of poets from the north, south, west, and east of India, and the North-East, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. The book presents a kaleidoscopic view of history through human experience and poetic expression since 1947.
Do Log is Gulzar’s first novel that tracks the lives of the people a truck right from 1946 till the Kargil war. The novel talks about the effects of the Partition for ordinary people. Do Log is also a meditation on the fact that people like those who left their homes on that truck never found another home and they kept looking for a place to belong to.
Baaghbaan/The Gardener marks the legendary coming together of two giants of poetry, Rabindranath Tagore and Gulzar. Gulzar’s translation draws from some of Tagore’s well-known poetry collections such as Chitra, Kshanika, Sonar Tari in Baaghbaan.
