Colors of Poetry in Gulaal

This is a long overdue post.Sometime back I complained about popular music and poetry being heavily skewed toward the Love and related "mushy" emotions and lacking proper representation of other human emotions. Personally what i miss, most is the poetry about veer rasa(valor / Courage). As far as I remember "Rang De Basanti" was the only recent movie where someone showed that. So i was pleasantly surprised to see a very contextual use veer rasa poetry in the Anurag Kashyap's latest flick "Gulaal" . a movie based on student politics ,rajasthan and a Ex - Monarch turned revolutionarie's denial of new reality of unified india.

As someone who is born and brought up in rajasthan I could relate to it at so many level .Although story is a work of fiction in all probability but mental construct of character shown in the story is anything but fiction. In the street of Jodhpur, Jaipur and bikaner you can find every single character living , breathing, smoking beedi and chewing tobbaco (not to mention spitting it on the wall of fort also ) . 

I don't do movie and book review here on this blog but if there ever was a contemporary hindi movie i want to review it would be Gulaal.But this post is not about movie , its about the use of poetry in the movie's narration. hats off to Piyush Mishra for composing the music and writing lyrics . they were superb. My fave part of movie was the scene where narrator (played by Piyush mishra himself) recite two of very popular poems . incedently both of them were in my school text book . It was very nostalgic to see them in entirely deffrent but fitting context .

First was the famous poem by Bismil "Sarfaroshi kee tamnna" . Mr.Mishra has tweaked it beautifully to reflect the reality of modern day india. I am sure Bismil saheb won't mind the palagarism . see it in the embedded video below .

Second was a poem "श्री कृषण का दूत कार्य " ( When Krishna acted as messenger )by Ramdhari Singh "Dinkar". It was in my younger brother's hindi text book. Its really cool you can see the scene in embeded video below .it start at 2:27 in the clip.you can read the transcript of poem on my other blog here.

Finally there was best of all , a Piyush Mishra's orignal composition . Aarambh
listen to it here.its mind blowing. I liked it so much that i set it as ring back tone on my mobile phone. so here is one more reason for you to give me a call sometime . :) 

परिंदा

24 years of existence: No invention and No incorporation yet! Even Mt. Everest remains out of reach. What a waste the years have been!!

Varun Gupta's status message on Facebook on his birthday .

Here is something I wrote last night . These thoughts were germinated in my mind around my birthday couple of days back .It reached a crescendo last night and result is this poem. I hope you would like it.

प्रारंभ से पूर्व ही पटाक्षेप हो गया ,
जीवन प्रवाह में स्वप्न बस अवक्षेप हो गया
करता रहा प्रतीक्षा , रात भर वो भोर की
सोचा किया की , क्षितिज पार कहीं सूर्य सो गया
बचपन में था चाहा उसने छुना आकाश को
फिर घोसले का प्रेम उसकी बेडी हो गया

जीवन में शीत आयी तौ दाना " खुदा" हुआ
रिमझिम जो बरसे मेघ तो , महा भोज हो गया.
कौए की भांति पाले उसने, सपने किसी और के
जब उड़ गयी वो कोयलें , वीराना हो गया.

देखो सरल इंसान कितना गूढ़ हो गया
योवन के राह देखने में प्रोढ़ हो गया

सर्वत्र है सम्मान उसका , पर किसको ये ज्ञात है
जय घोष में दबी कहीं जो उसके दिल की बात है
कर कर के हर किसी की कही , वो महान बन गया
जन्मा था जो परिंदा वो अब इंसान बन गया

Note:Regular reader of "knowprashant" might remember when same thing happened last time . This time however I was not exceptionally happy or sad that day . but its kinda hard not to reflect on your life on your birthday.

The Book

In my last but one post I complied to a long standing request of some of my readers 

Reading that post one of my college time buddy got upset .Honestly speaking he had good

reason to be angry , for last two years or so He was requesting me to email him the transcript of

a poem which I wrote for him while we were in college . Yes !! Back than I used to be something 

of a poet While some of my work was sort of "Okie Dokie". But most of it was CRAP .

However this Poem was "special" for my friend because I had written it for a Valentine Day card 

which He planned to give to a girl who was [At the time of writng ] Love of his life.As expected,

He got Rejected ( poor bastard) .She tore the card apart and threw it on his face without even 

reading my poem once (Bitch !! ) .

I had Fun watching the whole drama from a [safe] distance . As far as I know me & my friend were 

only two peeople in world who read that poem. Year and Half back my freind got married.On My

very first telephonic conversation with his wife, I told her the whole incedent (Thats what freinds 

are for, right ?) .Bhabhi was ROTFL listening to the story , and requested for the poem. Now there

were two people requesting the same thing .

But Somehow I never responded to their request. I was Lazy and I was afraid to look back .

But after getting their IM yesterday I decieded to finaly do it. So here is the poem "The Book ".

Fitting title I guess ,as He used to see that girl only at our college Library . Enjoy !

The Book

All Alone All by Myself  ,I am a book on her shelf 

Waiting for the day when She will come to me .

What my contents are she would like to see

This Distance is too long , From this shelf to that table 

And My Plight is that She hates My label 

Days Passed in this Way , and Thus past years 

But my silent Prayers She doesen't seems to Hear 

My Pages turned in to Yellow , and I am covered in Dust,

But Still in My life , She is a MUST

Come oh My Angel, I am waiting for you since Ages

Jsut Come for Once and Scroll My pages

Dr. Kumar Vishvas and His Poetry

Readers of My Blog,

Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year .
In My First post of 2007 I want you to meet someone .His name is Dr. Kumar Vishvas . A young Poet from India . I meet this Energetic , romantic and exceptionally talented poet two year back at a "Kavvi Samealan" [ Yes i attend that too, some time :) ]

That day we had dinner together and he promised me to come to my wedding and recite a poem specially written for the occasion . ( I Hope he will keep his promise )

Today while browsing Google Video i came across some clippings his performance at a college fest. just watch this video to know what it take to touch the heart of everyone.

Another One From Dr. Kumar Vishvas . it 's titelled "इक पगली लड़की " .
its real touching poem with a hint of humour and day to day life of Indian youth . Watch the video for compelete poetry

In my school days i used to read and Admire Dr.Harivansh Rai Bacchan and Suryakant Tripathi "Nirala" but i never knew any contemporary poet worth mentioning other than Dr. Vishvaas . it Might sound like a tall comparison to those who know and understand poetry but still i will go ahead and say the Dr. Vishvaas is Dr.Harivansrai Bacchan for My Generation . if you have seen the video I know you will agree with me . Don't You ??