There are item numbers, and then there are item numbers penned by Gulzar. The likes of Babuji zaraa dhire chalo on the one hand and Kajrare and Beedi jalai le on the other are worlds apart. One belongs to instant rhymesters, the other to an iconic free-flowing poet in white.

When an average Hindi film lyricist puts pen to paper to rustle up an item number, he has his sights set on a raunchy chartbuster. But not so Gulzar. When he composes one, he draws on the art of the conjurer.

Gulzar, who turned 70 in August, is in the midst of a brilliant phase of fecundity as a lyricist. He explores new modes of expression but, magically, he doesn’t lose touch with his personal creative credo, grounded in the golden era of Hindi cinema.

So even as he writes the rustic Beedi, the playful Kajrare and the conversational Ek lo ek muft (Guru), he is capable of stunning flights of poetic fancy as in Dekhna mere sar se aasmaan udd gaya hai (Bunty Aur Babli), Puchhe jo koi meri nishaani rang heena likhna (Yahaan) or Naina thug lenge (Omkara).

Even in Jaan-e-Mann, probably the most mainstream of the films he has written lyrics for in recent years, he manages to craft a gem like Ajnabi shahar mein ajnabi shaam hai, a throwback to Ek akela is shahar mein. “The sensibility is mine, the rendition is modern,” he says.

Gulzar is, however, aware that his in-your-face item songs have taken some of his admirers by surprise. “The way a song is eventually presented on the screen is not in my hands,” he says, “but how it is actually written certainly is.”

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