Kaifi Azmi had a natural flair for writing – the sharp tip of his pen always pointed like an arrow against authoritarianism. He believed in the use of art as a weapon of social change and practised what he preached. 

Akhtar Hussain Rizvi, or, as he was more popularly known, Kaifi Azmi was born into the family of a zamindar on 14th January, 1918, in a small village called Mijwan in Azamgarh, UP. Azmi displayed many early signs of revolutionary and communist leanings much before he understood the meanings of those terms. As a child, during Eid celebrations, he often rejected his parents’ offer to wear new clothes protesting that people who tilled the land could not afford new clothes for their children. He was sent to the biggest madrasa in Lucknow for Islamic religious studies, but within a month, formed a students’ union and led a strike against the institution. Not surprisingly, at the age of 19, he joined the Communist Party, subsequently moved to Bombay and began writing for the party newspaper, Qaumi Jung. Thereafter, he began writing lyrics and screenplays for Hindi films. He spent his final years in the betterment of his birthplace Mijwan, illuminating it from the shadows of oblivion to educational advancement. Therefore, to understand Kaifi Azmi, one needs to examine his life through the three key roles he assumed—poet, lyricist and activist.

The poet
His affiliation with the Progressive Writers’ Movement and the Communist Party enhanced the flavour of social critique in his poetry. He became a revered figure in Urdu poetry circles and mushairas. Often the last to recite amidst peers such as Sahir Ludhianvi, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ali Sardar Jafri, Azmi was the most awaited and the most applauded shayar. “He never basked on conquered laurels,” says his celebrated daughter, Shabana Azmi. She mentions how after returning home from a mushaira, he would never share details of what nazm he had read or how it was received. Once, on her persistent prodding, he remarked, ‘Chichore log apni tareef karte hain. Jis din bura padhoonga, aake bataa doonga’ (Only the frivolous praise their own work. The day I read a bad poem, I’ll come and tell you).

His poems were painfully truthful, deeply satirical yet carried the message of hope. Makaan speaks of a construction worker who doesn’t even have the luxury of living in the house he toiled for while Azadi and Doosra Banwas speak of the communal discord that plagued India after partition and the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1993. His poem Aurat – at once a plea of courage from and support for the suppressed feminine – is one of the best feminist poems written in Urdu. When quizzed on his all-time favourite poets, Shabana replied, “He admired Mirza Ghalib and Mir Taki Mir the most. [Among his contemporaries] Ali Sardar Jafri, Josh Malihabadi, Faiz Ahmed Faiz were his favourites but he was very encouraging of the younger poets too... and would say with pride that Javed Akhtar was a very important poet whose voice was his own and not an echo of anyone else.”

The lyricist
Despite living in the city of glitz, writing lyrics for films was not a vocation Azmi naturally veered to, given its limiting form. It was Urdu novelist Ismat Chughtai who suggested the idea when she discovered that Azmi was in need of money and that his wife Shaukat was pregnant. Chughtai recommended him as a lyricist to her husband Shahid Lateef, a film director, and Kaifi Azmi wrote lyrics for his first film Buzdil (1951). A number of films he wrote for after Buzdil were not particularly successful but lyric-writing continued to support the Azmi household. It was Kaagaz ke Phool (1959) that got him the recognition he deserved in films. 

Following that, he worked with Chetan Anand on Haqeeqat to give the film world gems such as ‘Hoke majboor mujhe’ and the patriotic war cry ‘Kar chale hum fida’. Songs he wrote for films such as Anupama, Kohra, Naunihal, Hanste Zakhm and Arth were extremely well-received. Who can forget the ballad of love fulfilled, ‘Tum jo mil gaye ho’; the woes of a stifled heart, ‘Ya dil ki suno duniyawalo’ or the veiled sadness of ‘Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho’. He established a historical landmark in Hindi cinema with the film Heer Ranjha, for which he not only wrote the song lyrics but also wrote all the dialogues in verse. He received much critical acclaim and many awards for his screenplay and dialogues for the film Garam Hawa.

The activist
He lent himself to every art form, every movement that held a promise of far-reaching effects. In the same vein, he joined and later headed the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) because he believed poems or verses could be understood only
by people who read and write, but drama could reach people who could do neither. He spent the last 20 years of his life in his birthplace Mijwan transforming it from a village devoid of electricity or even a pincode into a model village. Speaking of his passion for Mijwan, Shabana says, “He was a man on a mission. Mijwan,
the tiny village in which he was born and which he returned to after 40 years was a village frozen in time. He founded an NGO, Mijwan Welfare Society, because he believed that if India is to make real progress we need to turn our attention to our villages where 80 percent of our population lives, and focus on the girl child. Abba had said in anguish, ‘Koi toh sood chukaye, koi toh zimma ley, us inquilab ka jo aaj tak udhaar sa hai’. We are fortunate to see signs of that transformation in the girls of Mijwan who are breaking free from the shackles of patriarchy and negotiating more space for themselves.”

The colour red dominated the life of poet, lyricist and activist Kaifi Azmi. It was the colour of the communist party that he remained faithful to till the end, the colour of love that was splashed across his romantic poetry and lyrics, and the colour of dynamism and social change that he achieved with his art and activism. Shabana aptly describes what constitutes the legacy of the legendary Urdu poet: “His world view was one that encompassed social justice, gender equality and communal harmony. It was reflected in his work both as a poet and activist and informed all that he did. He believed that art should be used as an instrument of social change. It is a legacy both my brother Baba and I try to take forward in a small way in our work. I also feel strongly that it is a need of the times now more than ever before.”
 

This article appeared in the January 2019 issue of NCPA's On Stage magazine, ahead of Kaifi Azmi's centenary birth celebrations.