Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

Had it been a birthday of a film star it would have been celebrated with great fanfare and lots of coverage would have been provided about the same in all the forms of marriage, but as it was the birthday of a writer, even though the writer under question is Javed Akhtar, he was not given the same respect by remembering him on his day.

Javed Akhtar is one of the rare writers who commandeers a status of a film star and has a market value which when added on to a film increases its value and its intrinsic worth. For a man who along with his partner gave a new meaning to the Indian cinema, once he branched out as an independent lyricist and a writer he came into his own being.

The independent journey as a lyricist and writer had its first major success in MR. INDIA and then there was no looking back. The spark of a new writer and more so a lyricist had become evident with the Yash Chopra's MASHAAL and Mushir-Riaz's DUNIYA. Both of the films had Dilip Kumar as the main characters, and in both the films a new lease of life was given to the careers of Anil Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor in particular who was able to establish his image as a rebel of the street and carried it with panache through various films like TEZAAB, RAM LAKHAN etc.

Both these films gave birth to a new lyrics writer who went on to win five national awards for the lyrics that he wrote, as also seven Filmfare awards to his oeuvre. The aspiration of youth dew faced on the path of a new life was summed with finesse in "Liye sapne nigahoon mein, chala hoon teri raahon mein zindagi aa raha hoon main". Then came MR. INDIA whose ‘Zindagi ki yahi reet hai, haar ke baad hi jeet hai’, is again an ode to life and the struggles which make a diamond of a stone.

It was the success as a lyricist that Javed Akhtar got in MASHAAL must have been in the back of the mind of Anil Kapoor that he picked up Javed Akhtar to write the lyrics for MR. INDIA The real turning point for Javed Akhtar came when he was drafted into Yash Raj Films SILSILA, and the elegies that he composed brought the memories of a softer and romantic side of the angry old man, aka Amitabh Bachchan in an equally impacted manner. It was his prowess with the written prose that earned him multiple awards, the crowning glory being the Padma Bhushan.

The swan song of R D Burman before he moved along with his baton to enthrall God with his orchestra in 1942 A LOVE STORY is still one of the important landmarks in the career of Javed Akhtar as a writer, and it was the passion that Javed brought into the lyrics as writer must have excited Pancham to catch the music of rain falling on the tin roof tops in actuality and amalgamating it in the composition as one of the prominent interludes.

If there is a writer who has brought a respect to the profession of writing in the recent times, it is Javed Akhtar. His lyrics that always celebrates life and sees light at the end of every dark tunnel and this must have been the reason why he continues to find himself as a judge in various reality shows, the only writer to have bestowed with such an honor.


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