“Just as you should not be arrogant about your success, you should not be arrogant about your sorrows.”
by Kavita A Chhibber
Javed Akhtar Sahib turns 81 today. And this post is so worth taking the time to read. I have been trying to write this post since 6 am and its almost 9 pm. The internet and Word have been acting up.
Three laptops in the house kept freezing up. But one thing that I’ve learnt in life is when the going gets tough, I definitely keep going! It’s still January 17th here and this story will remain on the net forever. Let every day be a celebration 
Life is never dull when you are with Javed Sahib or writing about him it seems!
Since 14th January I’m seeing a consistent viewing of thousands on the post I did on Kaifi Azmi to mark his birth anniversary. He was a legend I never met. People are texting me for more on him.
So the past three days, I have been wondering what to write about his equally legendary son in law, who I have had the privilege to meet, watch as the audience and have conversations in person, all of which I recorded.
I admire Javed Sahib – not just because he is a magician with words, not because he is so incredibly witty with a phenomenal memory and what my father referred to as superior intelligence, an incredible sense of humor = but because he is honest, a total gentleman and empathetic. If you watch him closely, he is far more vulnerable and emotional than you realize.
The first thing I want to do is to thank my older brother Rajan Jetley and his wife Rita Jetley because of whom I met Shabana Azmi ji and Javed Sahib in the first place. And their genuine warmth and affection for each other is extended to me as well.
My gratitude also to Ketki Parikh and Mustafa Ajmeri Ji who have been on the journey with me. Ketki is one of the most generous and giving friends who has made sure I had access to both Shabana ji and Javed Sahib whenever needed. 
I asked Rajan to share his thoughts on Javed Sahib. And he sent me this.
“My wife Rita, and I have known Javed Sahab and Shabana for over 38 years !! We actually first met through some common friends in Delhi in the early 80’s and then really got to know them well during my stint with Air India in the mid eighties. We have been friends since then, meeting periodically in various parts of World where we have lived and travelled.
My tribute to him on his birthday is simply based on my respect for his gigantic intellect that comes from his vast knowledge of literature and world affairs. He can speak on diverse topics with equal ease. His knowledge and insight into what makes for India’s composite culture is truly breathtaking! Javed Sahib’s interpretation and expression of such knowledge is nothing short of brilliant and amazing . His insight and observance of human personalities and behaviour is God gifted and the basis of his writing and genius.
We are often in awe of personalities whose reputation precedes them. If you put Javed Sahib in a roomful of people who had just descended from Mars, he would have them spell bound in no time! That’s Javed Akhtar Sahib!
I admire his insight, his intellect, his knowledge and most of all his steadfast moral honesty of his beliefs. True Patriotism, and love for his Country are visible in everything he says and believes in.
On the lighter side he has a wicked and highly developed sense of humour… reserved for his friends.
He once told me in a particular context .. “Rajan Sahib , “Chor toh saree duniya hi hai .. bas aur kisi ki chori bardasht nahin kar pate!! “ (Loosely paraphrased: The whole world is full of scoundrels. The truth is you can’t digest someone else being one and getting away.)
I am blessed to have him and Shabana, his equally beautiful,talented and brilliant wife, as our friends and I wish him Many Many Happy Returns of the Day !”
I have recorded some conversations with Javed Sahib and as I was listening to them, I was struck by many gems in each conversation.
The segments below are from a conversation which was over an hour long, which I have never shared before. What my brother said is very true. Javed Sahib’s phenomenal memory, honesty with which he answered all the questions I asked is truly impressive.
To begin with, his lineage is formidable. Eminent poets, and literary giants, freedom fighters on both sides of the family.
“My father was a poet as was my grandfather and my mother used to tell me how great poets are. How great a poet my father was. Her brother Majaz was a well known poet as well. Perhaps I was 6, and without understanding what poetry really was, I would say that I will become a poet.”
Javed Sahib memorized his first couplet when he was 7 and very soon he started listening to and memorizing thousands of verses. Javed Sahib has a hazy memory of impressing his mother who was a Professor of Urdu literature and was teaching a specific couplet to her students. He pointed out that the couplet she was teaching had a word that was being repeated in a way that was very similar to a couplet his father had written.
“She was quite impressed, that a 6 year old child has noted the repetition of words and has connected the dots.”
By the time he was a young teenager Javed Sahib was memorizing thousands of verses and winning recitation competitions.
“But it was reciting the work of others”.
Dr. Rahi Masoom Raza, an eminent literary figure mentioned in one of his articles that there were only two people he knew who had such a formidable memory and a seemingly endless treasure trove of poetry ready to recite. They were Sardar Jaafri and Javed Akhtar.
But in spite of realizing that he could write poetry in meter, Javed Sahib did not try his hand at it even though he was constantly correcting and suggesting what his college friends (who were poets) should rewrite to help enhance their work.
I asked was there an inner rebellion not to write poetry because of his dysfunctional relationship with his father the great poet Jan Nisar Akhtar?
“Maybe that was a part of it. Maybe my priorities were different. I was very interested in films and influenced by some great fiction writers. I had started reading fiction from a very young age because we got almost all the literary magazines at home and there were quite a few in those days.”
“I was influenced by so many different things.”
“And it is a good thing. If you follow only one source, then you become a copy. But if you are influenced by many different sources then you can create some sort of synthesis and that becomes a rich voice in itself. I was influenced greatly by American popular literature, the progressive writers movement, and especially by Krishan Chander.”
“Then Ibn-e-Safi. He had a very fascinating style of writing. He was the first writer in our part of the world who had brought in western sophistication to us.”
“I was probably 6-7 years old when I saw my first film, Aan. There was a theater in Lucknow called Basant Talkies (- it no longer exists now) It was the first time I saw Dilip Kumar. He was riding horses, brandishing a sword and singing songs. I was very impressed. Then I saw Munim ji and Dev Anand singing jeevan ke safar me rahi. Then there was Shri 420 with Raj Kapoor. I was 13 when I saw Mother India. These films left a deep impression on me. But while I was interested in films and light fiction, I was equally interested in serious literature. I read the 10 volume unabridged version of Arabian Nights, and Uneasy Lies the Head the biography of the King of Jordan in my teens. I mean who does that?”
“I loved music. Songs like O door ke musafir, Dil mein kisi ke pyar ka, Jeevan ke safar mein rahi took me towards music and songs. I did not have the finances to learn music but I feel my interest in music is also a bit genetic. My father had an understanding of music, my grandfather (Muztar Khairabadi) was a full fledged musician. He was a great poet and could play the harmonium and the sitar and he could sing. He used to sing his poems in tarannum (musical recitation).”
I didnt know that part of his grandfather being a musician, I tell Javed sahib.
“I didnt either. I also had only read about it as I never met my grandfather. My grandfather had written a lot of poetry in Hindi and Urdu. He had written many bhajans, and ghazals also. After my father died, my stepbrother sent me a big package with many manuscripts in Urdu. The papers stayed with me for a while, until one day I decided to look at them. There were some very important letters there as well but in there I also found a potli (pouch). That potli contained 100-150 ghazals written by my grandfather and a small preface by my father, who was probably planning to publish them.”
“Some of them had alre.dy been published in various magazines but others had not been. I realized that some ghazals that I knew of personally, were missing.”
Javed Akhtar decided to start collecting his grandfather’s poems from every source he could find. Two young men were commisioned to help. It took 10 years but resulted in a 5 volume collection of Muztar’s poems, called Khirman (I’m still waiting for the Hindi version since I can’t read Urdu.)
For decades there had been a heated discussion on who had written the famous ghazal Na kisi ki ankh ka noor hoon. It was often attributed to Bahadur Shah Zafar, but Javed Sahib found the original copy hand written by his grandfather, finally laying years of conjecture to rest.
The sense of music is so strong in Javed Sahib that many of his friends who are music directors cannot believe he has had no training in music, whenever there is a musical discussion.. “Only a person who has a sense of music can write lyrics on a tune. It is not just the meter, you have meend (smooth sliding from one note to the other), murki (musical ornamentation) and the words need to sit well and flow with the tune. For that it is very important for the writer to have a sense of music.”
Javed Akhtar’s life threw him immense curve balls. His mother passed away when he was 8. His relationship with his father was difficult. He came to Bombay when he was barely 19, faced starvation, homelessness, but took it all in his stride. I asked Javed Sahib how did he handle adversity. Today people seem extremely stressed and unable to do so.
“I will call it a kind of naivete because even in my worst moments I never had any doubt, this thought never entered my mind, that I’ll never make it. It was naivete really. I cannot say it was great self confidence. Plus I had friends who spoilt me. Even when I was working for 50-100 rupees many of my colleagues who were senior to me would say ‘Arrey is ka toh kuch ho hi jayega (things will work out for him)’ Receiving that feedback also helped keep that faith and confidence. So I never became cynical or a pessimist.”
What was the worst moment in that struggle?
“I went through major troubles but the worst one is hunger. If you do not get food for 2-3 days, it becomes unbearable. I don’t think there can be anything more humiliating than hunger because there is no difference between a human being and a dog then. All your dignity and self esteem get totally crushed. And I thjnk that trauma of hunger is still there within me to this day.”
Was the Bombay of the sixties kinder than today? The older generation says it was. The younger generation today seems very troubled,with suicide, drug use on the rise.
“I met all kinds of people. People who humiliated me, who were indifferent, and also people who were wonderful and went out of their way to help me when there was no need for them to do so. They took care of me. They gave me food, they gave me shelter, they gave me clothes. They wanted nothing from me. They did not know what I would achieve, or what I would do for them in return. It was sheer goodness on their part.”
“In those struggling days, I still had a lot of friends. I remained a happy person, with a good sense of humor and I was good company. I never pretended to be a tragic figure who would become a liability . People enjoyed spending time with me.”
“There is a modus operandi everyone creates for survival.”
“Just as you should not be arrogant about success, you should not be arrogant about your sorrows! Sometimes we are very proud of our suffering, ‘ki humne yeh or woh suffer kiya. ( oh we suffered this and that).’ There is a showing off and a kind of masochism in that. When someone says ‘Oh I went hungry, I had nobody, my mother died’, they are in reality trying to tell you, ‘Look how far I’ve come!'”
For Javed Sahib, what matters is not to extend negativity and bitter experiences by glorifying them. To focus instead on the positive and to extend that. He said if you dwell on the fact that people didn’t care about what you were going through, it can cause you to become negative and uncaring as well.
But if you focus on the people who helped you and pulled you up, helped you survive, you may be inspired to do the same and extend that positivity and help others.
“There is no advantage to becoming bitter or cynical. It is only extending those things that made us feel bad. “
‘There must be a continuation of this tradition of helping and uplifting each other.”
“I have great respect for talent. If I see any kind of talent, anywhere, then I try to do my best to see if I can find a way to open doors for that person.”
And one such talent who was relentlessly supported by him was the great Amitabh Bachchan, who was struggling when they went to bat for him to get him the lead role in Zanjeer. I asked Javed Sahib if it was true that Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Dharamendra had rejected the film.
“Oh not just them, there were many others who did.”
Javed Sahib said they wanted Amit ji, and it was only after no one else signed up did the producers reluctantly agree. “It was good luck that Amitabh Bachchan got the role because who could have given the kind of performance he did?”
“We saw him in many films that didnt do well. But I had become a huge admirer of his work. I could see he was a great actor, but either the script was bad or the director wasn’t good. What could he do? And that is the case for everyone. If a film doesnt do well, you are automatically considered a bad actor. But ultimately he got his due.”
And Salim-Javed forced theirs. In those days writers were never mentioned on film posters. There were no nationwide releases so when their names were not mentioned on the posters of Zanjeer released in Bombay. “We hired people and told them to go and write on every poster that the film was written by Salim-Javed! After that the film industry took note and said dont mess with these people.”
Javed Sahib’s meeting with Salim Khan on the sets of a film called Sarhadi Lootere changed their lives. (Javed Sahib was pleasantly surprised when I told him the film was available to watch on Youtube.)
Salim Khan was doing a small role. Javed sahib found him to be “exceptionally bright, with an original sense of humor.” The Producer offered them a princely sum of 5000 rupees if both co write a screenplay from a short story he had. They did it in 15 days. The screenplay was well received but they did not receive credit for it.
“There was a man by the name of Sudhir Bhai, who knew we had done the actual work and he told us that Sippy Films are creating a story department and they want new talent, so why dont you go to talk to them? Salim Sahib said they are a very big company. Why would they give us work? We were told this on a Monday. But then on Wednesday after eating my lunch I thought why don’t I just go to meet them? What is the worst that can happen? They won’t give me work.”
“So I went. When I went there I spoke with great confidence. Ramesh Sippy was a young man of 25-26 then. He was about to start work on his first film Andaz.” Javed Sahib got that project for the two of them, and the rest they say is history. They also bailed out Rajesh Khanna, who came to them and requested they redo the screenplay for a movie that he was committed to and had taken a hefty amount to buy his house. “Aradhana and Do Raaste have made me a star, but this film might kick me out of the film industry”. The film was Haathi Mere Saathi. The script was very bad. We said we will keep the four elephants and the hero but we have to change everything else. Can you have the new script accepted?” Rajesh Khanna said he would and the film was another hit. Andaaz had their full names – Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar. They became Salim-Javed with Seeta aur Geeta.
Hopefully I can do another indepth interview on the films Salim-Javed did together.
But I did ask him about the fact that while they didnt write stories around women as the key actor, the women portrayed in their films were ahead of their times and independent.
“I would be very uncomfortable with a submissive woman. I do not have any experience of docile women!”
Javed Sahib said that when Salim Sahib and he started writing screenplays they didn’t really have much personal experience of women who were docile and submissive and the quintessential bharatiya naari. “I was 15 when I left home, but the homes I have lived in have had only empowered women, powerful women, career women, women who had an opinion on every subject, forward-looking women. They lived apart from their husbands, went for higher education, went to work and raised their children.”
“I’ve not had the experience of a traditional, domestic life. My mother was a professor, my aunt too was an educator. May be these women were a rarity but that is who I grew up with and it is reflected in our work in films. Be it Trishul or Kaala Pathar, or other films.”
Javed Sahib knew one of my favorite fiery women writers, also ahead of the times.. Ismat Chughtai.
“Ismat Chughtai was a very close friend of my mother’s. During summer holidays, when we visited Bombay, we used to stay in her house. I didn’t look at her work then but now the more I think of her, the more I remember her, the more I get impressed by her and now with time I am realizing how ahead of her time she was.”
“Languages are meant to be a source of communication but so often language becomes a barrier. It is a pity that the world doesnt know that in the 1930s and 40s, a woman was writing of things that the west could not even think about. She was the original woman “libber’ in the world. Her characters are not perfect. They have a lot of short comings, a lot of contradictions. They are not pious or noble. There are all kind of women – liars, manipulators. But at the same time you understand them. You have to be a great humanitarian to look at these characters and understand them with empathy and not necessarily sympathy. Ismat never sympathised with her characters. She was never condescending or patronizing. There is not an iota of pity in her work. She was ruthless, and called a spade a spade. But ultimately when you start looking at the spade, then you also start getting the real perspective and that was wonderful.”
In those days writers and musicians didnt get any royalty and often no recognition. Javed Akhtar was the leading force in recent times, to finally help secure royalties for Indian artists.
“Today any contract that takes away royalties from musicians and authors will not be valid. Even if newcomers are pressurised to sign a waiver, if they go to court they will receive their dues”
How did he handle success? Did it ever go to his head?
“I was only 30, when Sholay and Deewar became hits in the same year. Usme arrogance toh aa hi jati hai.. Im sure it may have gone to my head too, for a short time.”
“In what way?”, I had asked.
With his usual honesty Javed Sahib said, while it isn’t easy at times to realize it then, looking back, he feels there were some things he said, certain comments and claims he made, that he would never make today.
“I said this, actually with sincerity that hit film banane ke liye koi talent nahin chahiye. Flop film banane ke liye talent chahiye. (‘Write well, and the film will be a hit. But how do people make flop films, this I don’t understand.’.)”
“This is a very pompous statement. I would never talk like this today.”
“I think for a while, I definitely, talked big, said things that I should never have said.”
“But very quickly better sense prevailed and I realized that this kind of behaviour was not appropriate.”
I asked Javed Sahib what do flops teach someone that hits don’t?
“There is obviously a difference when you become successful and when you are not. Otherwise how will your success be visible to you?”
“I believe it’s difficult to digest success, but it’s hundred times harder to digest even that little failure which comes after success. Because when you are successful, everyone is praising you, paying you compliments and you can afford to be humble. But when that edifice of your success is shaken, then you become very insecure.”
“I have seen many very big people who were humble, modest, reasonable when they were at their peak. The moment they slipped, they started making tall claims, dropping names, information about themselves. They started showing off. There is this insecurity, ‘Are people thinking that I am finished? That person would have never spoken to me like this otherwise.'”
“What is important is that through that thunder and lightning, you should keep your calm, objectivity and mental equilibrium. Concentrate on your work. You cannot win all the time, but if you are a good player, you cannot lose all the time either.”
“If life isn’t good now, it will improve later. If you quit life, you will never get it back again. I dont believe in life after death, or life before my birth. This is the only opportunity you have to enjoy life. You have been given the privilege to think, hear, see, touch and taste. In that gratification, human society is created. You have been given so many opportunities to make the most of it, before quitting the club membership. You inherited so much from the other members of the club, who have made it so wonderful. Add something to it and make it better if you can, before you leave.”
The conversation could not possibly be complete without a brief mention of his talented children Farhan and Zoya Akhtar, For Shabana ji I will need a separate interview for sure as well!
“When Farhan was little I had kept a music teacher for him but he was just a kid and got bored with the teacher who came with a harmonium and kept repeating the sargam!”
“Then I got him a guitar because I could see he had musical talent. Then while he was in school in the 6th and 7th standard, he used to make me write plays for him. He used to act in and direct the plays. So I knew he was very talented.”
“When Zoya was 6 or 7 years old, my friends used to call her Rani Jethmalani (eminent Supreme Court lawyer) because even at that age she was very argumentative and she would give a logical explanation for everything. She has a very sharp mind and she is an exceptionally analytical person..”
Javed Sahib wrote a beautiful poem “Doraha’ (Crossroads) for Zoya telling her that she should have the confidence to find herself which she hadn’t then.
“That issue then was a feminine one. I wanted her to find her own identity and become someone in her own right. I am very proud of her. If you see her films, she doesnt paint her characters in black and white. She brings a third dimension and treats each character with empathy . We didn’t have those in my films. If someone had made her film Dil Dhadakne do, 40 years ago, the father would have been conservative, and not a likable guy. She has even looked at the father with empathy. I have a great respect for her as a writer as well.”
I tell Javed Sahib that one of my all time favorite films is Lakshya even though it was not a blockbuster.
“I put in a lot of research for Lakshya and I heard that many youngsters joined the army after seeing the film. Because of that film Farhan and I have a special relationship with the army and have been invited to the IMA (Indian Military Academy).The last time Farhan went there, the Commadant asked for people who joined the armed forces after seeing Lakshya to raise their hands, and almost 75-80 percent youngsters raised their hands. I have written the anthem for IMA. People found it hard to believe that the person who wrote the film had not served in the army.”
Do his kids take his advice on life and film making?
“I could see my kids were bright with a good sense of humor. I never gave them any opinion on what they should become. They had the freedom to choose what they wanted to do. I told them I will support their academic dreams, but I won’t be getting them married because I firmly believe that its not the parents job to get their kids married. ” And he adds with his famous impish smile, ” That mistake they must make themselves!”
“They come to me because I never give them unsolicited advice. But they give me their scripts to read, and will accept some recommendations, and won’t accept some others. Even when their picture is complete they will show me the first cut, There too they agree to some suggestions and not to others. They are very smart and balanced and in many ways I feel I can learn things from them. For example their approach to modern cinema is much more contemporary than mine.”
What did he think when Farhan decided to remake Don?
“I was surprised and wondered what was he thinking? But he did and it was a runaway hit. Personally I am an Amitabh Loyalist and for me the only Don that walked on screen was the one who appeared in the seventies.”
Any piece of advice he would like to give to people?
“Don’t carry the burden of bitterness in your life unnecessarily.”
“If you want to learn anything, learn to give respect to every human being. Don’t make a person lose his dignity.”
Javed Sahib said to me that he was impressed at the amount of research I had done for the interview. Frankly I wished I hadn’t because Javed Sahib is such an incredible story teller, and I forgot all the research! And one interview is never enough. Many happy returns of the day Javed Sahib and hopefully for me, many more happy returns of more conversations with you.
You must be logged in to post a comment.