KUCH GALAT RAH DIKHANE WALLON NE, SHAAYAR DR.RAHAT INDORI KI RAAH HI BADALDI... BY ALI PETER JOHN

It was a time when music directors like Nadeen-Shravan, Anand-Miland and Anu Malik ruled the world of music in Hindi films. They were churning out songs like biscuits and peppermints and sense, sensitivity and sensibility had very little or no place. It was all sound and fury signifying nothing in Hindi films songs - Ali Peter John

There was an acute shortage of song writers because song writers like Sameer and other young songwriters like him were ruling.

The songs of the times did not last for more than two weeks and that was the beginning of the fall in the standards of music set by the masters and the gurus and geniuses of the past.

It was during these bad times that a mahatma of a filmmaker like Mahesh Bhatt and Anu Malik who were working overtime to create the kind of music that would vanish within no time thought of bringing in a renowned Shaayar from Indore, Dr Rahat Indori to try and make him write songs which would sound poetic and give the listeners a taste of poetry.

Dr Rahat Indori was making a name in Urdu poetry, but the money that came from Urdu poetry was not so good and he had a family to look after.

And so he decided to try his luck in Hindi films. He agreed to write songs for Mahesh Bhatt and Anu Malik, but had a condition that he would quite writing songs for films as soon as he felt uncomfortable and unhappy.

The Hindi film industry treated him well in the beginning and kept him in good hotels and paid him reasonably well for every song that he wrote. And he was happy.....

However, the good times for Dr Indori didn't last long. Mahesh and Anu Malik gradually tried to pressurise him emotionally and financially to write songs as they wanted and Dr Indori saw the first signs of him and his poetry not being respected by the industry.

The worse happened when a young music director gave him some great lines written by the poet Mirza Ghalib and other poets like Mir Taqi Mir and some other outstanding and popular poets and asked Dr Indori to incooperate the line into the songs he was asked to write.

Dr Indori refused and when they insisted, he realised that writing songs for Hindi films was not his cup of tea and he decided to leave the industry inspite of all the attractions and all the money.

He went back to Indore and started writing gazals and shairs and within a matter of time his gazals and shairs became a craze in not only India, but all over the world and then wherever Urdu was known, understood and spoken. Dr Rahat Indori had become a one man industry of shairs, gazals and had become a part of every man and woman who loves shaayari.

Dr Indori not only wrote about love, wine and the wide range of the world, but he even directly or indirectly attacked the prime minister and his policy which sent the large audiences into a frenzy.

Men and women and even children waited for him to participate in mushaieras, kavi samelan and gazal sessions. Tickets for shows in which he was a participant were sold out once in advance and had double or even three times the original price.

The government of Mr Modiji and all his powerful cronies tried their best to get him into trouble, but he was too smart a shaayar to play into the hands of the powers that be. Like on one occasion, he said in a public mushaiera ‘ sarkar chor".

He was called to the police station the next morning and the inspector on duty asked him,“kal raat aapne kaha tha ki sarkar chor hai?" And he smiled and said,“haan sahab Maine kaha tha ki sarkar chor hai, lekin humne yeh kab kaha ki humaari sarkar chor hai?" The inspector smiled and told him,“toh Rahat sahab aap humko bewakoof bhi samajhte hai?"

His blistering attacks against the Modi government and his forever young romantic poetry kept growing more and more intense till he was 70 years old in 2021. The government agencies were trying every way to trap him.

The hungry audiences all over were waiting for the pandemic to get over so that they could listen to his new and old shaayari, and he was planning to visit many more countries after the pandemic. But the man who had confronted and conquered many other kinds of ‘enemies' couldn't conquer a little worm like covid-19, which stuck him mercilessly and finally claimed his precious life at the end of 2021 when covid-19 was showing signs of leaving the world in peace.

Dr Indori's last wishes were to write a slogan on his kafan saying,“ woh dekho mohabbat karne waala ja raha hai" and the other lines he wanted was to write a line in blood on his forehead which would say,“main Hindustani hoon".

AUR KITNA KUCH KAHOON MAIN AAP K BAARE MEIN, RAHAT SAHAB? EK HI BAAT SACH BATA SAKTA HOON KI AGAR SAHIR SAHAB K BAAD AGAR KISI SHAAYAR NE MUJHE ZINDA RAKHA HAI AUR AAG MEI TAPAAYA HAI AUR PHIR BHI ZINDA RAKHA HAI, TOH WOH AAP HAI, BAS AAP HAI.