Death Anniversary: Rajendra Krishan said I never played my own tune...

Rajendra Krishan, a well-known lyricist and dialogue writer of the Hindi film industry, born on 6 June 1919 in Jalalpur Jattan village of Pakistan, has earned fame and prestige by writing songs and dialogues in more than 250 films so far. It has its own interesting history. It is often seen that there is an unbreakable relationship between a writer and struggle, but circumstances were favorable for Rajendra Krishan from the very beginning and he never fell prey to the 'pushing' that was required to establish himself in the film industry. It seems as if the word failure was not meant for him - whether it was a horse racing ground or the most complex situations of the film industry, his fame spread equally everywhere, as if there were never any obstacles in his path.

Rajendra Krishan Songs

There was an atmosphere of reading and writing in the house from the very beginning. My grandfather, father, and elder brother were all literature lovers and everyone was interested in Urdu-Persian literature. In fact, the elder brother used to write stories, and one of his novels was also published. Due to this family background, he developed the habit of writing poems from the seventh-eighth class itself. Though he was a student of Hindi-Sanskrit, he had a good command of Urdu. After matriculation in 1935, he became a clerk in Shimla. His writings were always published in newspapers like 'Tej', 'Milap' and 'Pratap'. Apart from this, he always got the company of famous poets like Asar Multani, Hairat Shivanvi, and Firaq Gorakhpuri. In Lahore, he was also in close contact with Ehsaan Danish. That is, he was acquainted with more than 90% of the top literary writers of that time. So many things are too much for anyone to become a litterateur or writer. During this time, an English newspaper named 'Liddle Weekly' was published from Shimla and Rajendra Krishna used to write reviews of English films in it. This newspaper was the newspaper of high-ranking British officers and it was a matter of pride to write in this newspaper. While his job of Rs. 55 per month was going on, Rajendra Krishna got married in 1941 and signs of a new turn in his life appeared. He thought that this job would not last long, why should I not try to write for films? This thought forced him to come to Bombay in January 1943.

To enter any field of film, almost everyone has to go through a long period of relentless hard work and struggle, but Rajendra Krishan can be considered an exception. When he came to Bombay, he had only ten rupees in his pocket. Those were the days of cheap money, but it lasted for two to three days. The money was spent and now the question was that something should be done, but while he was thinking about what to do and how, he met a very familiar person from Shimla, R. Rai Charni, on Station Road. He had come to Bombay to make a film with a lot of money. Both of them got acquainted with each other's ideas. Rajendra Krishan said-

'I have come to write in films.'

Ray had found a suitable man and he had a story too. Rajendra Krishan saw the story and it was so bad that it knew no bounds. He refused to work on this story but his film career started as a publicist in Ray Pictures. At that time, one had to use a lot of tricks to get inside the studio. This job as a publicist gave him a chance to reach out to the film people and that is why he got acquainted with top stars like Sehgal, J.K. Nanda, and Leela Chitnis. This job continued for two years and during this period people got to know his talent well. Now he gets an opportunity to write two-three songs in a year. Meanwhile, he got the job of writing half the songs and half the dialogues for two incomplete films of Janak Pictures- 'Janta' and 'Santan'. His work was praised a lot and people came to know that a new writer named Rajendra Krishan has also been born in the film industry. Babu Rai Pai of Prabhat Company established Famous Pictures in Bombay and he got an offer to write dialogues and songs for this company independently. Rajendra Krishna was asked 'What do you take? What are your needs?'

He replied- 'I am a royal person and my expenses are also big. I smoke cigarettes and I am also fond of racing.'

Babu Rao was very happy with this reply and he fixed a salary of one thousand rupees per month. The first film made and released by Famous Pictures was 'Aaj Ki Raat'. This film ran for 15 weeks in Minerva. The music of the film was by Husn Lal-Bhagat Ram and Moti Lal, Suraiya Yakub, and Shahnawaz were its main actors. While signing the contract for this film in January 47, Rajendra Krishna got information about his bright future. After the release of this film, the dialogues and songs of the film were praised in 'Film India' and many newspapers. This was the first phase of success. In the next films Famous Pictures, 'Pyar Ki Jeet' and 'Badi Bahan' also, his dialogues and songs were praised a lot. A song of 'Pyar Ki Jeet' 'Chup Chup Khade Ho Jarur Koi Baat Hai' is as popular today as it was then.

The wheel of time started moving in his favor. One day Babu Rao Pai said that if he gets foreign films, he would have no objection to writing for them. In this way, he was contracted as a lyricist for Jaimini Dewan's 'Lahore' and Verma Films' 'Pantaga'. A song from 'Lahohar' 'Bahare Phir Bhi Aayengi'-'Magar Hum Tum Juda Honge' became very popular. And even today its freshness remains the same. After this, a call came from Filmistan's Rai Bahadur Chunni Lal and Subodh Mukherjee and the freshness of the songs that Rajendra Krishna wrote for 'Samadhi', 'Nagin', and 'Anar Kali' in this film company will probably never end.

Everyone knows that Rajendra Krishna's name is a weakness for Madras producers. The story of Rajendra Krishna's presence in Madras films is no less interesting. 'Pantaga' was released in Madras in '50 and ran continuously for sixteen weeks. This was the first incident with any Hindi film. The reaction to this incident was that A.B.M. came to Bombay and found Rajendra Krishna and contracted him for his films. A.B.M.'s film 'Bahaar' was Vaijayanti Mala's first Hindi film and Rajendra Krishna's first Madrasi Hindi film as well. This film became a silver jubilee and Rajendra Krishna's name became famous. In this way, from 'Bahaar' to 'Larki', 'Bhai Bhai', 'Barkha', 'Bhabhi', 'Meherbaan', and 'Gopi', he wrote songs and dialogues in hundreds of films. Many of these films were Silver Jubilee films. But this does not mean that he did not contribute to Bombay films. Films like 'Kahani Kismat Ki', 'Jwar Bhata', 'Blackmail', 'Loafer' and 'Do Thug' are proof that his popularity remained the same in the Bombay film industry as in Madras.

The story behind Rajendra Krishna's success in the film industry is that he had gained a good acquaintance with the works of Hindi-Urdu writers. By studying the literary works of Premchand, Pant, Nirala, Firaq, Kishan Chandra, Ali Sardar Jafri, and Pandit Sudarshan, he got credit for bringing sophistication to the language of films. Regarding the language of his films, he is very conscious about the fact that they should not deviate from the commonly spoken language, hence he says - 'If I had not come into films, I would have been a great literary poet. Anyway, I have only written for films. But wherever there is a mention of high things in film writing, my name is definitely taken.'

Today, when film writers are taking an interest in self-promotion, Rajendra Krishan stays away from it. Commenting on self-promotion, he says, 'I have never blown my own trumpet and this is not right. Whatever we write, if there is something in it, it will speak for itself. The sun or the moon do not have to inform the world about their light and people breathe in their light. Kaur can deny this. In fact, today James Headleyches writes the story of a Hindi film, and film writers give their name and get themselves promoted.'

In the days when Rajendra Krishna entered films, a film writer was nothing more than a clerk and he did not sit on a chair in front of the producer. Rajendra Krishna dared to break this tradition and he would sit with the producers and smoke cigarettes. He told them that - 'If they have money, we also have pens.' In the beginning, he started the tradition of storywriters sitting in hotels and writing stories. On going to Madras, Rajendra Krishna would also stay in the hotel and suite in which the producer would arrange for the hero or heroine of the film to stay. This was a matter of prestige and this was regularly maintained.

There is a fundamental difference in the state of songs today as compared to the previous years. Rajendra Krishna ji says about this, 'Today there is more noise in songs, there is more western influence and this noise does not give the words and emotions a chance to emerge. Today, after watching the film, one does not even remember the lyrics of the song. This has not happened with my own films. Mostly a song from 'Block Master' 'Govinda aala re aala re' is sung by lakhs of people in Bombay every year on Janmashtami or the bhajan 'Badi der bhai Nandlala' from 'Khandaan' also became very popular. I believe that to write a film, it is more important to understand the rituals of folk life and the film-viewers only accept those who understand this.'

Apart from films, Rajendra Krishna prefers to be with good friends and in a family environment because he does not like factionalism in films. He is in favor of the steps taken by the government for reforms in films and says, 'If this is followed strictly, it will pave the way for making good social films.'

Playing races was Rajendra Krishna's passion and this passion coincidentally earned him 48 lakh rupees through a jackpot in 1971 Rajendra Krishna suddenly became very popular in the whole country due to this sudden wealth. Thus, the three partners of this amount were his wife, his son, and Rajendra Krishna himself. Out of this amount, one lakh rupees was given to Mrs. Gandhi in the Prime Minister's Fund in the name of needy children and women. He also donated one lakh rupees to Baba Lal ji's throne in Dhyanpur and many small institutions were given assistance with ten thousand and five thousand rupees each. Taking advantage of this news, many people started sending personal letters asking for help. But he did not like to corrupt human nature by giving money to unknown hands. He says, 'More than half the amount has been spent. The government gets 'wealth tax' on the remaining amount and the government has to pay income tax on the interest received on this amount.

But despite all these things, I do not think it is right to play races because sometimes if a person is lucky, he gets such things.

Rajendra Krishna narrates a story related to racing...' Racing was a thing for kings and maharajas but a lot of people got caught in this disease. When someone tells me about this, I tell them not to even go towards that ground. I had started racing just for fun and entertainment but now even this hobby of mine is coming to an end. Now I go to the race course only rarely. There is a very instructive story about how bad racing is- In Calcutta, a man worth one crore collided with a beggar. Threatening the beggar, the man said, 'Don't you see'. The beggar said, 'If I had seen, why would you have collided with me.' That millionaire started walking. The beggar blessed him to get into the habit of racing. The man got into the habit of racing and lost everything. A lesson can be learned from this.'

Rajendra Krishan pays special attention to the spread of national and cultural sentiments in his songs. After the death of Gandhiji in 1948, he wrote a song like 'Suno-Suno Ae Duniya Walo Bapu Ki Ye Amar Kahani' which is sung and recited by crores of people every year on 30 January to pay tribute to Gandhiji.

The reputation and fame that Rajendra Krishna ji has earned in his long film career and the invaluable services he has given to the film industry will always be remembered. 

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