Eminent lyricist Gulzar set to do work on Rabindranath Tagore

It's pouring. The tree-lined avenue outside the Pali Hill residence of poet-lyricist-filmmaker Gulzar seems darker. Inside, intense discussions on Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore compositions between the poet and Patiala gharana classical vocalist Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty’s seem to brighten the drawing room. They are preparing for the fifth edition of the NCPA's Bandish Festival where Gulzar will present his translation of the Nobel laureate’s work along with Chakrabarty. The duo share a bond tied together with their close association with the late composer RD Burman.

“The West's understanding of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore is limited to Gitanjali. When Indians go only by that limited perspective we do ourselves a great disservice. He is far bigger than that. His works mirror all of India’s fine arts and culture like almost no one else’s,” says Gulzar who admits, “Tagore's poetry was instrumental in shaping the course of my life. It inspired me in a way that completely changed my choice of books. I learnt to read in Bengali so that I could understand Tagore's poems better."

Gulzar is right. After all the author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-European Nobel laureate when conferred the 1913 prize for literature. The Kolkatan began writing poetry when barely eight. Eight years later, he released his first anthology of poems under the pen-name Bhanusi?ha ("Sun Lion"). His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays raise intense questions about the social, political and personal. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are some of the best-known works of the man whose verse, short stories, and novels are acclaimed for lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and contemplative style.

In fact it is the lure of his work which turned an accidental brush with Tagore into a lifelong passion for Gulzar who indulge in his “first act of stealing,” thanks to Gurudev. “As a young child who had nowhere to sleep in Kolkata I’d take refuge in a shop where a flickering oil lamp kept me company as I stayed up late voraciously devouring spy and crime thrillers borrowed from the local library for four annas each. The man who owned the library was fed up as I went back unfailingly every day for a new book. He’d run out of books to give me or was simply looking for a way to keep me away for a long time, I can’t say. One day, he just reached up to a high out-of-bounds shelf, picked up a dusty, old, thick volume of the Urdu translation of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s The Gardener and gave it to me,” Gulzar remembers, “He must be trying to fob me off for a few days but I feel destiny had played her hand in putting me on path to discovering Tagore who has left a lasting influence given my long association with Bengali literature. I fell so much in love with the book that I never gave it back. I simply HAD to steal it.”  

Its perhaps this understanding that has led to the Oscar-winner lyricist translating Rabindranath Tagore's poetry for the late Rituparno Ghosh’s Nauka Doobi in 2011 (dubbed and released in Hindi as Kashmakash), sung by Shreya Ghoshal. He is also translating the Nobel laureate's literary works for a hardcover poetry and a children's short-story book in Hindi and English.

Pointing out the importance in educating the current generation about Tagore, Gulzar said, "Its not like I’m against children learning Shakespeare. But in the process, they shouldn’t miss out on the magic that’s Tagore. There’s an urgent need to introduce him in our children's curricula and inculcate a love for them not as mere texts but works of art.”

He however doesn’t forget to criticise Vishwa Bharati India's major autonomous university located in Santiniketan, West Bengal which has founded by Gurudev and had sole rights to all his works. “The stranglehold of their copyright over his works made Tagore inaccessible to people. We have had some of the shoddiest translations that did the the rounds and this did a lot of harm. I’m glad that the end of this copyright has ended this dark era,” says Gulzar who says he is unhappy with Taogre’s own English translations too. “Gurudev knew it was his own work and went about freely editing, changing entire expressions and lines in the English work often making it completely different from the Bengali original. This is the reason why I translate only from his Bengali works.”  

Chakrabarty agrees. According to him Gulzar’s style makes him perfect to translate Tagore. “There is a sensitivity and sensibility match. He is able to bring out really fine nuances of Tagore’s works. Translations like his will help take the works to wider audiences because of the way he captures Gurudev’s style of saying the most profound with utter simplicity which is at once poetic too.”

Gulzar is smiling. “This pride that Bengalis take in Tagore needs to be understood given how they are raised on Tagore from early childhood,” he observes.
Chakrabarty says the idea of including Tagore’s works is a feather in the cap of the Bandish festival. “Coming from ‘tie’ or ‘bind,’ in music, bandish refers to words being tied to a beat and tune. Tagore’s works lend themselves with amazing ease to this structured melodic and rhythmic idea on which the edifice of the performance is sculpted and used in the context of both — vocal or instrumental music.”

Soon after a 2006 concert senior Jaipur-Atrauli gharana vocalist Shruti Sadolikar had commented in response to appreciation for her rendition of a rare bandish, “An artiste can wear the best silken raiment and jewels, but without a thorough grounding in music and the real jewels of sahitya (literature), all that will come to nought,” adding, “Sahitya is everything. It is like heirloom pieces which gurus hand over as legacy to worthy students.”
As Tagore’s beckons, will we legatees prove worthy?