Rahi Masoom Raza
Encyclopedia
Rahi Masoom Reza, born in Ghazipur
in eastern Uttar Pradesh
(India
) in a Muslim
family, was a famous Urdu shayar
. He also won the Filmfare Best Dialogue Award
for the hit film Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki
in 1979. He also wrote in Hindustani
and Hindi language
. He was also an eminent lyricist of Bollywood
.
He completed his early education in and around Ghazipur
from where he went to Aligarh Muslim University
to complete his higher studies. Masoom Raza did his doctorate in Hindustani Literature and persuaded his career in literature.
, Mahabharat
. The TV serial was based on the epic, the Mahabharata
. The serial became one of the most popular TV serial of India, and its peak Television Rating was around 86%.
Several works of Raza vividly depict the agony and turmoil of the consequences of partition
, and its effect on the Hindu-Muslim relationship in the Indian subcontinent
, as also the social tension among different social groups of India but above that Raza depicts the life in feudal India
and the ordinary happiness, love,emotions, pain, sadness of general people in his master story telling style in which at times he himself is the narrator. For instance, his novel named "Adha Gaon" (divided village/split village) narrates the story of two opposite land lord Muslim families of village Ganguali and there rivalry, life style, concerns, at the time when India was gaining independence, spread with depiction of ordinary life of every character of that novel and their love, romance, hate, vengeance, emotional struggle with every emotion of a ordinary man very clearly and vividly described. The Novel "Adha Gaon" is based on central theme that people whether elite or belonging to general class of both Hindu & Muslims were sharing same land, water and air like brothers with all their human qualities and weaknesses but communal rivalry was not that much prominent then the mutual relationship between the both the communities in United Provinces at the time of Indian Partition. In "Adha Gaon" Raza paints a very colourful picture of 1940's rural India showing interdependence of Muslim & Hindus on each other be it may be in form of relationship between two landlords or relationship between master and servants (right hand man of a Muslim Zamindar is a Hindu and best friend is also a Hindu Zamindar). Theme of novel is that,that before politics tore us away we (Hindu and Muslim)were one nation, Hindustan.
Katra Bi Arzoo (that is, The Lady Desire locality or The Lady Arzoo locality) is set in the city of Allahabad
, Katra being a locality of the city. The novel is set in 1970's India and as its central theme it bares the brutality of emergency in India and how general people were affected by such a draconian regime.Its an ode to anti emergency activist and shows how people through their vested interest enjoyed the fruits of emergency and how emergency ruined and destroyed the life's people. In foreword Raza dedicates the novel to anti-emergency activists and say that freedom of speech is basic freedom.The novel shakes the conscience of every reader and by the time one ends the novel he is in tears.
Another novel, named Topi Shukla also revolves around the acts and conducts of devilish politicians of India min character topi shukla being metaphor for Indian politician.
In his "Neem ka Ped" Raza tells the story of a "asami" i.e. tenant/serf and labourer and his landlord master, story starting in pre-independent India and ending in post independent India, showing the vagaries of both the feudal and democratic systems in India with its darker side. The main protagonist is a landless labourer who is very faithful and obedient to his master and dreams only of making his only son an educated person. Fortunes dwindles in landlords home and he is sentenced to jail for murder of a upcoming leader of congress because of manipulations of his cousin who is also a landlord but nurses a grudge against the landlord. After independence son of labourer becomes a member of parliament and son of landlord his trusted aid and advisor but as the saying is "power corrupts" the son of labourer who had now became an M.P. gets corrupt and selfish and in that is destroyed. Highly popular T.V. serial by same name was made on these novel in which Pankaj Kapoor marvellously depicted the landless labourer.
The pop sensation of yesteryears Parvati Khan
is his daughter-in-law. She is married to his son Nadeem Khan, director and cinematographer.
s of writings:
Ghazipur
Ghazipur , or Ghazipur City, previously spelt Ghazeepore, is a city/town and a municipal corporation and headquarter of Ghazipur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Ghazipur Division and Sub-division...
in eastern Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
(India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
) in a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
family, was a famous Urdu shayar
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
. He also won the Filmfare Best Dialogue Award
Filmfare Best Dialogue Award
The Filmfare Best Dialogue Award is given by the Filmfare as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films. Here is a list of the award winners since 1958 and the films for which they won.-Superlatives:Most AwardsGulzar - 4...
for the hit film Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki
Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki
Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki is a 1978 Indian film directed by Raj Khosla and Sudesh Issar. Based on a Marathi novel titled Ashi Tujhi Preet by famous Marathi storywriter Chandrakant Kakodkar .-Plot :...
in 1979. He also wrote in Hindustani
Hindustani language
Hindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
and Hindi language
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
. He was also an eminent lyricist of Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
.
Early life and education
Rahi Masoom Raza was born in Ghazipur district of Eastern Uttar Pradesh.He completed his early education in and around Ghazipur
Ghazipur
Ghazipur , or Ghazipur City, previously spelt Ghazeepore, is a city/town and a municipal corporation and headquarter of Ghazipur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Ghazipur Division and Sub-division...
from where he went to Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh Muslim University ,is a residential academic university, established in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan as Mohammedan Angelo-Oriental College and later granted the status of Central University by an Act of the Indian Parliament in 1920...
to complete his higher studies. Masoom Raza did his doctorate in Hindustani Literature and persuaded his career in literature.
Literary career
He wrote the script and dialogues for a popular TV serialTelevision program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
, Mahabharat
Mahabharat (TV series)
Mahabharat is a successful Indian television series based on the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. The 94-episode series originally ran from 2 October 1988 to 24 June 1990. It was produced by B. R. Chopra and directed by his son, Ravi Chopra. The music was composed by critically acclaimed music...
. The TV serial was based on the epic, the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
. The serial became one of the most popular TV serial of India, and its peak Television Rating was around 86%.
Several works of Raza vividly depict the agony and turmoil of the consequences of partition
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
, and its effect on the Hindu-Muslim relationship in the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
, as also the social tension among different social groups of India but above that Raza depicts the life in feudal India
Indian feudalism
Feudalism was a social system of medieval European origin, according to which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labor, and a...
and the ordinary happiness, love,emotions, pain, sadness of general people in his master story telling style in which at times he himself is the narrator. For instance, his novel named "Adha Gaon" (divided village/split village) narrates the story of two opposite land lord Muslim families of village Ganguali and there rivalry, life style, concerns, at the time when India was gaining independence, spread with depiction of ordinary life of every character of that novel and their love, romance, hate, vengeance, emotional struggle with every emotion of a ordinary man very clearly and vividly described. The Novel "Adha Gaon" is based on central theme that people whether elite or belonging to general class of both Hindu & Muslims were sharing same land, water and air like brothers with all their human qualities and weaknesses but communal rivalry was not that much prominent then the mutual relationship between the both the communities in United Provinces at the time of Indian Partition. In "Adha Gaon" Raza paints a very colourful picture of 1940's rural India showing interdependence of Muslim & Hindus on each other be it may be in form of relationship between two landlords or relationship between master and servants (right hand man of a Muslim Zamindar is a Hindu and best friend is also a Hindu Zamindar). Theme of novel is that,that before politics tore us away we (Hindu and Muslim)were one nation, Hindustan.
Katra Bi Arzoo (that is, The Lady Desire locality or The Lady Arzoo locality) is set in the city of Allahabad
Allahabad
Allahabad , or Settled by God in Persian, is a major city of India and is one of the main holy cities of Hinduism. It was renamed by the Mughals from the ancient name of Prayaga , and is by some accounts the second-oldest city in India. It is located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,...
, Katra being a locality of the city. The novel is set in 1970's India and as its central theme it bares the brutality of emergency in India and how general people were affected by such a draconian regime.Its an ode to anti emergency activist and shows how people through their vested interest enjoyed the fruits of emergency and how emergency ruined and destroyed the life's people. In foreword Raza dedicates the novel to anti-emergency activists and say that freedom of speech is basic freedom.The novel shakes the conscience of every reader and by the time one ends the novel he is in tears.
Another novel, named Topi Shukla also revolves around the acts and conducts of devilish politicians of India min character topi shukla being metaphor for Indian politician.
In his "Neem ka Ped" Raza tells the story of a "asami" i.e. tenant/serf and labourer and his landlord master, story starting in pre-independent India and ending in post independent India, showing the vagaries of both the feudal and democratic systems in India with its darker side. The main protagonist is a landless labourer who is very faithful and obedient to his master and dreams only of making his only son an educated person. Fortunes dwindles in landlords home and he is sentenced to jail for murder of a upcoming leader of congress because of manipulations of his cousin who is also a landlord but nurses a grudge against the landlord. After independence son of labourer becomes a member of parliament and son of landlord his trusted aid and advisor but as the saying is "power corrupts" the son of labourer who had now became an M.P. gets corrupt and selfish and in that is destroyed. Highly popular T.V. serial by same name was made on these novel in which Pankaj Kapoor marvellously depicted the landless labourer.
The pop sensation of yesteryears Parvati Khan
Parvati Khan
Parvati Khan is a pop singer who sang the song "Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" in the Bollywood movie Disco Dancer, which won a Gold Disc award. Later she also sang "Khula Thala Chod Aayi" after having won a nationwide talent contest in Trinidad...
is his daughter-in-law. She is married to his son Nadeem Khan, director and cinematographer.
Works
The following is an illustrative list of his works in different genreGenre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
s of writings:
- Novel
- Adha Gaon (that is, The Divided Village)A Village Divided
- Dil ek saada kaghaz
- Topi Shukla
- Os ki boond
- Katra Bi arzoo
- Poetry(books)
- Mauz-e-ghul mauz-e-saba(Urdu)
- Ajnabee shahar ajnabee raste(Urdu)
- Main ek Feriwala(Hindi)
- Sheeshe ke Makaan Wale(Hindi)
- Autobiography
- Chotey aadmi ki badee kahaani (that is, "Big story of a Small man")
- Movie and TV scripts
- Neem ka Ped - Novel and TV Serial with same name
- Kissi Se Na KehnaKissi Se Na KehnaKissi Se Na Kehna is a 1983 film directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. It was a sweet comedy with actors like Farooq Shaikh, Deepti Naval and Utpal Dutt.-Synopsis:...
- Main Tulsi Tere Aangan KiMain Tulsi Tere Aangan KiMain Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki is a 1978 Indian film directed by Raj Khosla and Sudesh Issar. Based on a Marathi novel titled Ashi Tujhi Preet by famous Marathi storywriter Chandrakant Kakodkar .-Plot :...
- Disco DancerDisco DancerDisco Dancer is a 1982 Hindi-language Indian feature film directed by Babbar Subhash starring Mithun Chakraborty in lead role and Rajesh Khanna in a special appearance. The film tells the rags-to-riches story of a young street performer...
- MahabharatMahabharat (TV series)Mahabharat is a successful Indian television series based on the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. The 94-episode series originally ran from 2 October 1988 to 24 June 1990. It was produced by B. R. Chopra and directed by his son, Ravi Chopra. The music was composed by critically acclaimed music...
- Movie dialogues
- Aaina (1993)
- ParamparaParamparaParampara denotes a succession of teachers and disciples in traditional Indian culture and Indian religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism...
(1992) - LamheLamheLamhe is a 1991 Hindi film directed by Yash Chopra and starring Anil Kapoor and Sridevi. The story was written by Honey Irani. The film was critically acclaimed, had exceptional music, and did brilliant business in UK. Unfortunately, it was not a box-office success in India...
(1991) - KarzKarz (film)Karz is a 1980 Hindi film directed by Subhash Ghai, starring Rishi Kapoor and Tina Munim as leads, also in a feat of perfect casting was Simi Garewal, who stood out in her role of Kamini Verma, the murderous wife from the past life, which won her a Filmfare nomination.Film's music was by...
(1980) - JudaaiJudaai (1980 film)Judaai is an Indian Hindi film directed by T. Rama Rao, released on 26 September 1980. The film stars Ashok Kumar, Rekha and Jeetendra in lead roles.-Plot:...
(1980) - Hum Paanch (1980)
- Gol MaalGol MaalGol Maal is a 1979 Bollywood comedy movie directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The film was produced by Mukherjee and N.C.Sippy with music by Rahul Dev Burman...
(1979) - AlaapAlaapAlaap is a 1977 Indian film produced by Hrishikesh Mukerjee and N.C Sippy and directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Asrani, Farida Jalal, Om Prakash and A. K. Hangal...
(1977)
- Movie Lyrics
- AlaapAlaapAlaap is a 1977 Indian film produced by Hrishikesh Mukerjee and N.C Sippy and directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Asrani, Farida Jalal, Om Prakash and A. K. Hangal...
(1977)
- Alaap
External links
- A Village Divided ISBN : 9780143029830