Gulzar

Gulzar (born Sampooran Singh on August 18, 1936) is a poet, lyricist, director, and playwright from India. He was born in Dina, Pakistan. He is best known for penning some of Bollywood's popular songs composed by Rahul Dev Burman.

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Gulzar has worked exhaustively in the Indian film industry for over 35 years. Gulzaar saab, as he is affectionately known has written in Hindi, Punjabi, and dialects of Hindi like Marwari (Rajasthani) and Bhojpuri.

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He is best known in India as a lyricist for songs that form an integral part of Indian cinema. Gulzar began his career under two other artists - Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. His book Ravi Paar has a narrative of Bimal Roy and the agony of creation.

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Gulzar had leftist leanings (from an Indian perspective) in his early days that can be seen from his early movies (as director) like Mere Apne (translated as 'My dear ones'). His film Aandhi is an oblique criticism of Indian polity, and was banned for a time because it was seen as a criticism of Indira Gandhi for the imposition of the emergency. He also depicted a flair for adapting stories/concepts from literature as well as from other films. Angoor (translated as 'Grapes') is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. Gulzar also adapted the Hollywood classic The Sound of Music into Parichay.

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In 2004, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan.

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Gulzar was married to actress Raakhee.

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August 18: August 18 is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 135 days remaining....

1936: 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar)....

India: The Republic of India is a country in South Asia which comprises most of the Indian subcontinent. India has a coastline which stretches over seven thousand kilometres, and shares its borders with Pakistan to the west, the People's Republic of China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, and Bangladesh...