Just like his films and lyrics, Bollywood veteran Akhtar has had a well-rounded life, peppered with moments laced with all the makings of one of his blockbusters

“Lamha lamha kisi jadu ka fasana hoga...” wrote eminent poet and lyricist Jan Nisar Akhtar about his son when he was born, giving Javed Akhtar his pet name (“Jadu”) and also prophesying the talent of the eminent scriptwriter, lyricist and poet.

Padma Bhushan Javed Akhtar, whose lineage can be traced back to seven generations of renowned Urdu writers, poets and freedom fighters, is also a respected social commentator and activist admired for his secular, liberal and progressive values, who has written a large number of poems against communalism, social injustice, national integration and for women’s rights.

Just like his films and lyrics, Bollywood veteran Akhtar has had a well-rounded life, peppered with moments laced with all the makings of one of his blockbusters — emotion, comedy, romance, drama, ennui and resolution

The beginnings

Javed Akhtar’s grandfather was the formidable Muzter Khairabadi and another famous Urdu poet, Majaz, was his mother’s brother. His parents were also professors at the Hamidia College in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. As a young lad, Akhtar went to Cambridge School, Bhopal. He graduated from Safiya College, Bhopal in 1964. "Please allow me to revel in the glorious tradition of poetry that runs in my family. In my teens, I could recite thousands of couplets of several writers. There was so much wizardry with words at home, that by the time I was 18 or 19, I was aware I could write. And yet, until the age of 31 or 32, I never wrote at all!” reveals Akhtar.

When Akhtar arrived in Mumbai in 1964, he was a homeless man without any food or shelter. He struggled to find work in the Hindi film industry. He used to sleep under trees, or in corridors, until he took shelter in Kamal Amrohi Studio in Jogeshwari. He got his first major break in the year 1969 in the movie Seeta aur Geeta. It was on this set that he met Honey Irani and later married her.

“I came to the film industry when I was 19, after my graduation. I wrote my first film when I was 20. From 20 to 35, I was a scriptwriter. But at 36, I was more interested in lyric writing. And for 34 years I wrote lyrics and poems,” says Javed Saab, summing up his career. But there are several events that changed the course of Akhtar’s life.

The unbeatable pair

Salim Khan met Akhtar for the first time while filming Sarhadi Lootera. Akhtar recollects how the film was a turning point in his own life.

“Salim was an actor and I was a clapper boy who was later made the dialogue-writer of the film as director S M Sagar was unable to find one,” informs Akhtar.

He also recounts the tale of his first-ever script narration. He had gone to a producer called Baboobhai Bhanji, having got an appointment with many recommendations. “He listened to the script without interruption. After finishing, I was very nervous and respectfully enquired what he thought. ‘Darling, your story is good, but there is a big risk involved...this hasn’t been used in any film yet.” Adding a jocular post-script, Javed Saab says, “Actually, I never wrote a story that has not come before. I do not believe there is any story that does not derive from something older, except the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Originality is the art of concealing the source.”

The writing partnership between Khan and Akhtar, which began in 1971, managed to redefine the course of Hindi cinema in a single decade. The innovation they are usually credited with is thematic: the figure of the Angry Young Man, whose intense rage against the system had a starkly different tenor from an older Hindi film hero, whose disillusionment was in a more soulful register (think of Pyaasa). Salim-Javed's influences were many — from James Hadley Chase novels to Ibn-e-Safi’s Urdu detective stories. "The script for Majboor, for instance, was an emotional reworking of a thriller called Zig-Zag, in which a dying insurance executive frames himself for a murder in such a way that his wife and daughter can benefit from the reward money. Instead of a wrong diagnosis, as in Zig-Zag, Amitabh Bachchan in Majboor is dramatically cured by an operation, but the resolution is very similar,” confesses Akhtar.

Even with Sholay, the most famous film that Salim and Javed wrote, the duo have never shied away from speaking of their sources of inspiration. “The coin toss scene to decide the course of action was inspired by a card scene in a film called Garden of Evil; the massacre of the Thakur's family was inspired by Once Upon a Time in the West; while Viru’s famous tank scene drew on an Anthony Quinn film called The Secret of Santa Vittoria. The main idea of convicts hired as vigilantes to defend a village wasn’t new either — Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai , reworked into The Magnificent Seven, had already spawned such Hindi films as Mera Gaon Mera Desh.

As a script-writing duo, Salim ideated stories and Javed helped him with dialogues. Javed wrote his scripts in Urdu which were then written out in Hindi by his assistant. Another assistant would type out a one-line summary in English. SalimJaved also took it upon themselves to ensure that their contribution was publicised, often putting their money where their mouth was. They were, perhaps, the first screenwriters to pay for trade advertisements in their own names. “After the success of Zanjeer, we decided to increase our price to Rs 2 lakh and did not sell a script for nine months.” But eventually they did and by the end, their fee matched that of the top-grossing star in the film, Amitabh Bachchan.

His own person

After his split with Salim Khan, Javed Akhtar was not sure the direction his life would take. Recalling those days, Akhtar says, “I was a closet poet and never got my poems published, except for once in DharamYug, that also thanks to Dharamvir Bharati. I never went for mushairas. I recited poetry for my friends, one of whom was Yash Chopra and he was the one who pushed me to write the lyrics for Silsila. I on my part tried my best not to do it, but Yash Chopra would not take ‘no’ for an answer." And thus, Javed Akhtar wrote Dekha Ek Khwaab for Silsila. A new phase had begun.

“A script for a film is tedious work. It is akin to running a marathon. A verse or a lyric is like a 100-yard run. But what gets me going is that any kind of writing is not lonely. It is either the characters of the story or the thoughts that race in your mind that keep you good company," says Javed Akhtar. That was the beginning of his first published work of poetry, Tarkash.

Writing, above all else

Javed Akhtar says he has always been inspired by great poets and lyrists such as Shakeel Badayuni, Sahir Ludhianvi, Shailendra and his father-in-law, Kaifi Azmi. “I like all of them, but I like Shailendra and Sahir (Ludhianvi) the most. They are my favorites. Sahir was the first writer who brought thought to the film song. There is no big gap between his literary poetry and and his songs. Many of his songs are pure literature.”

Of the several hats that Akhtar dons, the one that allows him to be a writer, a poet is closest to this wordsmith's heart. And more his verses, than his lyrics. “While I remember all my poetry, I don’t remember most of my film songs, perhaps, because that is work that I am paid for. It is art yes, I have done it, and yet I do not feel that attached to it,” confesses Akhtar.

So is there any favourite work? Javed Saab is quick to reply, “One can draw a certain amount of satisfaction that your work was appreciated, but I cannot revel in the fact that I have done it all.”

There, perhaps, has not been someone as prolific in literature as well as mass culture as Javed Akhtar. “I don't intend to be boastful, but Shabana had once written in the preface of one of my books that if my producers come to know how quickly I can write, they would probably stop paying me!” laughs Javed Akhtar, who also insists that the source of his inspiration is “mostly terror.” With a straight face, and in all earnestness, he says, “When I'm frightened and I won’t be able to do something, and there is no time left, it is only then my mind works. Ek ladki ko dekha was the toughest song I wrote. I brought the situation upon myself when I suggested that a song where the boy catches a glimpse of a girl on a bus can be created. I was asked to go ahead and write the song. I forgot all about it when I was asked to meet R D Burman. A thought came to me - that maine aisa socha hai ki ek ladki ko dekha to kaisa laga. This was pathbreaking because I had suggested we use only similes. R D Burman asked me to write a stanza immediately. And to my surprise, it was easy and once he had composed the tune of the first stanza in less than a minute, he asked me to go back and write the full song. That took time. Because I did not want any obvious similes that would convey an admiration that was tinged with any kind of objectification. I wanted it to be pure, almost like devotion. That song has 21 similes — that was my real test.”

Masses or classes, this wordsmith appeals to all groups!