इरशाद अहमद

Irshad Ahmed was a lyricist of the early Hindi talkie era, credited — often as Munshi Irshad Ahmed — with writing all nine songs of Meetha Zahar (1938), a Minerva Movietone social drama directed by Sohrab Modi that campaigned against the evils of alcohol. His lyrics for the film were set to music by B. S. Hoogan and rendered on screen by Sheela, Naseem Banu and Eruch Tarapore, in songs such as "Phoolon Ki Mala Apne Devta Ko", "Manmohan Kab Ghar Aayenge" and "Ab Toh Banungi Main Star Film Ki". Like many songwriters of the 1930s studio era, little else about his life — including his birth and death details — is reliably documented, and his Meetha Zahar songbook remains his known legacy.