The unlikely auteurs

Blockbusters in which writers outshine everyone else

What connects Pyaasa and Sholay , two films that would find a place in the must-watch list of any Hindi cinephile? One point where the two films converge is in the heterodox nature of their auteurships, a term we usually associate with a director with a unique personal vision. While for Pyaasa , a film considered the brainchild of Guru Dutt, the soul behind the film was its lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi, for Sholay it was the writer duo Salim-Javed.

Sahir, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar have been pioneers in their respective crafts, and this was not only because their aesthetic high-points; it was also because of the unique imprint they’ve left on the films and in the minds of the viewers despite not being physically present on screen. Nowhere does it become more apparent than in the Pyaasa chapter of Akshay Manwani’s Sahir Ludhianvi: The People’s Poet and the Sholay chapter of Diptakirti Chaudhuri’s Written by Salim-Javed . The former, titled ‘The Lyrical Platinum Standard’, illustrates how the character of the disillusioned poet Vijay — interestingly, one of the recurring names in Salim-Javed’s writing — is a screen representation of Sahir’s own inner self. Vijay, a poetic chronicler of poverty, much like Sahir himself, is berated by his prospective publisher for not being romantic in his verse. Sahir’s anti-war poem, Parchaaiyaan , is recited by one of the characters later in the film. Almost every scene where Vijay appears is infused with Sahir’s poetry more than Dutt’s acting.

Two of the film’s best songs –

Jinhe naaz hai and

Ye duniya – were written before the music was composed, a trademark in many of Sahir’s films. The first was borrowed from a poetry collection called

Talkhiyaan .

However, unlike the lead character Vijay, Sahir found full recognition following the film’s release, his name being used to promote the film even ahead of those of the lead actors and S.D. Burman, the music director. Manwani calls it a victory not only for Sahir, but also for those who value “words in a song” more than “melody”.

By the dialogues

The

Sholay chapter of Chaudhuri’s book begins with the movie’s incubation — the writer duo selling their four-line plot to the Sippys for ₹1,50,000. It describes their involvement in every stage of the film’s making, from ideation to casting to publicity to release to post-release management. The one point that’s enough to highlight their audacity and calibre is that they made the lead villain, Gabbar Singh, the most indispensable character of the film, so much so that on hearing the script, every male lead associated with it wanted to do the role.

Another selling point for Sholay , much after its release, remained its dialogues. Polydor, the audio label, packaged them in 15 different records, making them a bigger money-spinner than even R.D. Burman’s soundtrack.