[This is an article written by Sitaram Yechury, MP(Rajyasabha) and Member, Politbureau, CPI(M)]
Dilip Kumar, our one-time colleague in Rajya Sabha, tweeted on his 89th
birthday on December 11, even as the deaths of Dev Anand, Shammi
Kapoor, MF Husain, Bhimsen Joshi, Bhupen Hazarika and Jagjit Singh
continue to sink in. A void, difficult to fill, has been left behind.
But we must end this
year in celebrating the life and work of these
creative giants who, along with many others, moulded the collective
consciousness of the country’s post-independent generations. The
celebration lies in the resolve to carry forward their contributions in
creating, what is popularly called, a national psyche.
In the
1970s, I remember the night-long recitations of Faiz Ahmed Faiz at the
Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the enchanting singing of Bhupen
Hazarika, which left everybody at the university recite or sing these
for months on end. A Tamil student would be singing Bhupenda’s Asomiya
and Bengali rendition of Paul Robeson’s ‘Old Man River’ or an Odisha
student reciting Faiz saab’s poetry, melding revolutionary urge with a
lover’s passion. Persuaded by us, the university also invited Balraj
Sahni to deliver its convocation address. He chose to be cremated draped
in a red flag.
Hindi cinema — I don’t like the term Bollywood
as its origins lie in aping Hollywood — moulded a social consciousness
that reflected the aspirations of a resurgent and an independent India.
The hopes generated by Raj Kapoor through his characters achieving what
appears impossible, Bimal Roy’s influencing the national agenda on
issues like land reforms (Do Bigha Zameen), untouchability (Sujata), Dev
Anand’s eternal romanticism or Guru Dutt’s nostalgia of a bygone era,
among others, gave an expression to the concept of the ‘Idea of India’.
These contributions created a common consciousness that wove together
the bonds of commonality in diversity.
This, however, didn’t
happen accidentally. The Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA) was
formed in 1936 under the presidentship of Munshi Premchand in Lucknow.
In the same year and in the same city, the All India Kisan Sabha and the
All India Students’ Federation were established. Sajjad Zaheer, who was
sent as general secretary of the Communist Party of Pakistan, after
Partition, was its general secretary. The writers’ association brought
together literary giants like Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Saadat Hasan Manto,
Bhisham Sahni, Ali Sardar Jafri, Josh Malihabadi, Firaq Gorakhpuri,
among many others, including Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kaifi
Azmi and Shailendra, whose lyrics gave the most cherishable images of
the actors that we recollect today.
A few years later, in the
wake of the Bengal famine of the 1943 and the Quit India Movement, the
Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association (IPTA) was formed, bringing together
giants like Prithviraj Kapoor, Ritwik Ghatak, Utpal Dutt, KA Abbas and
Salil Chowdhury, among others. It no longer mattered whether one was
associated with the PWA or the IPTA. Every creative personality of those
times was influenced by these movements, as Dev Anand himself said
about Navketan Films and Vijay Anand in his last interview.
Premchand, in his presidential address, said that the PWA’s “purpose is
to mould our thoughts and emotions and give them the right direction”.
He summarised the duty of a writer by saying, “He becomes the standard
bearer of humanity, of moral uprightness, of nobility. It becomes his
duty to help all those who are downtrodden, oppressed and exploited —
individuals or groups — and to advocate their cause. And his judge is
itself — it’s before society that he brings his plant.” Both the PWA and
IPTA carried forward the struggle to give expression to the changes
taking place in Indian life and to assist “the spirit of progress in the
country... discourage the general reactionary and revisionist
tendencies on questions like family, religion, sex, war and society”.
It’s no secret that the Communist Party played an important role in
catalysing these organisations and their works, in addition to the
contributions made by the communists in bringing into the agenda of the
freedom movement the issues of complete independence (a decade before
the All India Congress Committee resolution of the ‘Purna Swaraj’), land
reforms, the abolition of zamindari through the militant peasant
movements and the linguistic reorganisation of the states. The
communists, thus, carried forward the realisation of the Idea of India.
It’s no coincidence that Mehboob Khan’s banner had a hammer and sickle,
opening his magnum opus Mother India. The giants of Hindi cinema came
from such ranks.
The generation of actors that gave expression
to such a collective social consciousness are no more but have left
behind their everlasting images for us to cherish. The content of these,
however, were given by the lyricists and were expressed by the artists.
It’s indeed ironic that while their words have been rendered into
songs, many of these people never got their due. They virtually remain
‘unsung’ heroes. Hopefully, Parliament will give them at least some of
their due by legislating the pending Copyright Act in the current
session.
The current domination of the Khan quartet over Hindi
cinema and its content created by many distinguished, creative minds
including our Rajya Sabha colleague Javed Akhtar, AR Rahman and others,
must continue to nurture the building of such social consciousness in
modern times that will further the realisation of the Idea of India,
combating, as PWA had said, “trends reflecting communalism, racial
antagonism and exploitation of man by man”.
With this spirit of
celebration, as 2011 draws to an end, we wish Yusuf Khan saab and Hindi
cinema that this ‘suhana safar’ continues towards the realisation of
the Idea of India.
( Sitaram Yechury is CPI(M) Politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP )
(From "Hindustan Times")
కామెంట్లు లేవు:
కామెంట్ను పోస్ట్ చేయండి