The Bard’s Unread Poems

No matter which party rules Lucknow,it’s the same forgetting,he says. Despite Majeed’s efforts,and though a road has been named after him,Badaun’s most famous son is a perfunctory memory in his hometown. He himself last saw Shakeel saab as a young boy of 8,says Majeed,as he shows off his carefully preserved collection of plastic-encased photographs and letters that Badayuni wrote in green-blue ink to Majeed’s father among others.

Badayuni,whose first film was Dard (1947),went on to write the lyrics for nearly a hundred films. He wrote intensely romantic songs,like Pyar kiya to darna kya (Mughal-e-Azam),Mere mehboob tujhe meri mohabbat ki kasam (Mere Mehboob),Chaudvin ka chand ho (Chaudvin Ka Chand) and Kahin deep jale kahin dil (Bees Saal Baad). Unlike his contemporary Sahir Ludhianvi,Shakeel saab’s romance was more intimate,less restless or radical.

Leaving Badaun as a young man to work in Delhi,then to Mumbai where he worked for Naushad at a salary of Rs 60 a month,he last came to Badaun in 1961. Shakeel Badayuni died in 1970.