Hasrat Jaipuri

Career As A Lyricist

Hasrat Jaipuri began his career by selling tickets in local buses of Bombay. After traveling from Jaipur and settling in Bombay in the year 1940 with his wife Radha, Hasrat Jaipuri took up occupation as a bus conductor, earning a paltry sum of Rs. 11 at the end of each month. However, he also made sure that enough time was given towards the practice of poetry. Hasrat Jaipuri was a regular face in some of the most famous mushairas (a place where Urdu poets used to gather to share with each other their individual compositions) of Bombay during the 1940s. Therefore, Hasrat Jaipuri was in regular touch with the first love of his life, poetry.

Word has it that it was in a mushaira that legendary Bollywood actor Prithviraj Kapoor took note of the poetry composed by Hasrat Jaipuri and took the first step towards introducing him to the world of Hindi films. When his son Raj Kapoor heard about Hasrat Jaipuri, he decided to give the poet a break in his forthcoming Bollywood production ‘Barsaat’. The 1949 film had music by Shankar – Jaikishan and lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri. He debuted by penning the lyrics of the song ‘Jiya Beqaraar Hai’ for ‘Barsaat’. This was followed by the equally popular composition ‘Chhod Gaye Baalam’. ‘Barsaat’ was only the beginning of the success story of Hasrat Jaipuri in Bollywood and the start of his blossoming association with actor Raj Kapoor.

From 1949 through 1971, almost every single Bollywood film starring Raj Kapoor in the lead credited either had Hasrat Jaipuri or Shailendra as the lyricist. The music in these films was also composed by Shankar – Jaikishen only. With the death of Jaikishen in 1971 also ended a glorious era of Bollywood songs. Hasrat Jaipuri did not find favor from Raj Kapoor anymore largely because of the fact that songs from films ‘Mera Naam Joker’ and ‘Kal Aaj Aur Kal’ failed to draw the attention of the audience. As a result of this, Raj Kapoor was inspired to sign new lyricists and music composers for his upcoming movies.

Subsequently ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’ and ‘Sangam’ happened, enabling to a great extent to bring back the real flavor of a Hasrat Jaipuri writing. ‘Sun Sahiba Sun’ and ‘I Love You’ were indeed chartbuster numbers of their generation. After Raj Kapoor died in the year 1988, Bollywood was not the same place for Hasrat Jaipuri. New music composer Ravindra Jain had no respect for the genius and deliberately barred the famous lyricist from writing for further films. Help came in the form of Shailendra when he invited Hasrat Jaipuri to write the lyrics of his Bollywood production ‘Teesri Kasam’. The last Hindi film song he penned was used in the 2004 release ‘Hatya: The Murder’.

Career As Screenplay Writer

Bollywood lyrics and poems were not the only fields in which Hasrat Jaipuri flourished. The first part of his career with Bollywood saw the maestro in the role of screenplay writer for the movie ‘Hulchul’ in 1951.