मजरूह सुल्तानपुरी

Majrooh Sultanpuri (1 October 1919 – 24 May 2000) was the longest-serving of Hindi cinema's great lyricists — the only pen that wrote across fifty-five years and five generations, from K.L. Saigal's last immortal song to Aamir Khan's and Shah Rukh Khan's first hits. Born Asrar ul Hassan Khan in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, he first trained as a Unani hakim, but the applause of the mushaira turned the physician into a poet. He became a disciple of the Urdu ghazal master Jigar Moradabadi — and a soldier of the Progressive Writers' Movement.

In 1945, hearing his ghazals at the Sabbo Siddiqui Institute mushaira in Bombay, producer A.R. Kardar signed him for Shahjehan (1946) — and Saigal made 'Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya' immortal, asking that it be played at his funeral. In 1949 Majrooh refused to apologise for a revolutionary poem critical of Nehru and spent about two years in jail, writing on. Released, he began a journey without parallel: the sparkle of C.I.D. and Paying Guest, the comedy of Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, the compassion of Sujata, the swagger of Nasir Hussain's cinema (Teesri Manzil, Caravan, Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Hum Kisise Kum Naheen) — and 'Chahunga Main Tujhe' (Dosti, 1964), which won him his only Filmfare Award.

In 1988 he conquered a new generation with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak ('Papa Kehte Hain') and again in 1992 with Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar ('Pehla Nasha'). In 1993 he became the first lyricist ever to receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. He died in Mumbai on 24 May 2000. His couplet — 'Main akela hi chala tha jaanib-e-manzil magar, log saath aate gaye aur karwan banta gaya' ('I set out alone toward the destination, but people kept joining and a caravan formed') — still travels on India's tongue, exactly like Majrooh's own caravan.