Kausar Munir-Bollywood’s top female lyricist

By

Sharada Iyer

Today on International Women’s Day, here’s a look at the journey of the super-talented Kausar Munir, who has paved her unique path and made a mark in the male-dominated arena of Hindi film song-writers. With her quick grasp of the cinematic medium and her sharp understanding of the situation of the film, Kausar Munir has proved her prowess and mastery over words time and again in all her films and has the gift for writing any kind of song- be it a romantic ballad, a motivational anthem, a qawwali, a poignant song, a song of separation or just a promotional song.

Kausar Munir has an impressive list of films to her credit –Rashmi Rocket, Shiddat, Ishaqzaade, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Ek Tha Tiger, Dear Zindagi, Padman, 83, Secret Superstar, Dhoom 3, Gunjan Saxena-The Kargil Girl, etc., and though we have all enjoyed the songs from these films, how many of us are aware that she is the writer of these songs?

Let us start the blog with a superb romantic number written by her for the film Padman, sung by Arijit Singh.

Film: PADMAN

Song: ‘Aaj se teri saari galiyaan meri ho gayee…’

Here is one of her popular anthems written for the recently released film 83.

Film: 83

Song: ‘Lehra do, sarkashee ka parcham lehra do…’

Both these songs are so vastly different in their genre and yet the words touch our hearts in a gentle soothing way in the first song and kindle our patriotic spirit in the second song thus bringing out the right emotions.

As more and more of our films are moving towards realism with emphasis on content-driven stories, the situations where a song could be interspersed in a script is fast diminishing and lip-syncing to a song unless it is a dance number, may soon become a thing of the past. With the result most of the songs are background songs and the lyricist has to work harder to be heard when so many scenes are being played during the song. Here is a beautiful song from a lesser know film Youngistaan, in which her use of words like ‘sangemarmar’ and ‘minaaren’ lent a fresh quality to the romantic song.

Film: YOUNGISTAAN

Song: ‘Suno na sangemarmar ki ye minaaren…’

Here is another beautiful number saluting the daughters of India who had the courage to overcome all obstacles in the pursuit of their goal :

Film: GUNJAN SAXENA:The Kargil Girl

Song: ‘Bharat ki Beti…’

In the film Bajrangi Bhaijaan she got the rare opportunity to pen lyrics for a qawaali- ‘Bhar de jholi…’, sung by Adnan Sami as well as a fun children’s song – ‘Chicken kukdoo koo…’, to spruce up the mood of the little protagonist of the film. Both were very well written and apt for the situations. Here’s my favourite song from this film and the poignancy of the lyrics is conveyed beautifully by the soulful rendition of KK.

Film: BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN

Song: ‘Tu jo mila…’

Kausar Munir graduated in English literature from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai and being born and brought up in the city, there was a heavy influence of Hindi films and Hindi film songs in her life. She had never thought of pursuing a career in films as the atmosphere at home was of Arts, Literature and Poetry. Her grandmother Salma Siddiqui was an Urdu literary writer and her father, a graduate from FTII was a professor of Film Studies. Somewhere subconsciously these influenced her, flowed into her psyche and she ended up imbibing a lot of it.

She was interested in writing and landed her first job with a documentary film maker which involved research and writing. From there destiny just led the way and she came on board as one of the junior writers of the popular television serial Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin. While working for the show, she met Vijay Krishna Acharya who was making his directorial debut with the film Tashan. Thus in 2008, she got the opportunity to write the first song of her career- ‘Falak tak chal saath mere…’. Picturized on Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor, and the song became a hit.

Film: TASHAN

Song: ‘Falak tak chal saath mere…’

After this she had to wait for two years to write her second song for the film Anjaana Anjaani and it took another two years to get the opportunity to write the lyrics for all songs (barring one) for the film Ishaqzaade in 2012. The music of the film was much appreciated and Kausar Munir’s song ‘Pareshaan…’ which expressed the awakening of first love became a chartbuster.

In the same year 2012, she was asked to pen the lyrics for two promotional songs for the film Ek Tha Tiger. Though she was signed after the film was completed and the songs were not part of the film, both became super-hits especially ‘Mashallah…’ and this was her first association with director Kabir Khan. After this, she became a part of many of his films like Phantom, Tubelight, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and 83.

Film: EK THA TIGER

Song: ‘Mashallah Mashallah chehra hai mashallah…’

Kausar Munir has been associated with top banners like Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions and has also worked top music directors Pritam and Amit Trivedi and even southern maestro Ilayaraja. She has worked in films starring Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ayushmann Khurrana, Taapsee Pannu, Deepika Padukone, Rani Mukherjee, Alia Bhatt, as well as newcomers Arjun Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Zaira Wasim, etc.

Film: MARDAANI

Song: ‘Aaj se ab se aan meri…’

There was a time when the name of the lyricist used to be announced over the radio before playing the song, but over a period of time, this trend disappeared and the whole focus now has shifted to the stars of the film followed by the music director and even the singer but the lyricist remains largely ignored. There have been instances when they have not even been invited for the music launch of the film. She shares a wonderful camaraderie with her fellow lyricists and together they are trying to raise this issue to give them the dignity they deserve. It is ironical that the very people who put life into the songs to convey the right emotion, are sadly placed last in the hierarchy in a film song’s journey.

Film: DAAWAT-E-ISHQ

Song: ‘Dil ne dastarkhan bichaya…’

Kausar Munir feels that she is blessed and though her journey has been a slow one, she has not encountered any gender discrimination in her path. People have been helpful and she strongly feels that since emotion has no gender, there will be opportunities if one keeps doing good work. Though she is not a poet per se, she has now started writing poetry to put down those thoughts which can be freely expressed without the constraints of cinematic demand. She remains a great admirer of Gulzar and Javed Akhtar.

She is also the writer of films like Jalebi and Shimla Mirchi and the additional dialogue writer of Bajrangi Bhaijaan. She was also signed up as the language consultant by her director friend Gauri Shinde for the film English Vinglish to help Sridevi with the diction and language. She was also the lyricist of Gauri Shinde’s much acclaimed film Dear Zindagi and her song ‘Love you zindagi …’ which expresses life’s philosophy in simple words, connected well especially with the younger generation.

She strives to keep subtlety, dignity and grace in her lyrics and tries to balance the demands of the producer and the music director as well for she understands that at the end of the day, the song has to bring in the viewership and money for the makers. She admits that she has yet to write a wedding song which has not come her way so far.

She has been nominated for many of her songs and won the award a few times. Here’s wishing her success in all her future projects.

I end the post with her latest hit ‘Doobey…’ from the film Gehrayiaan…

Film: GEHRAYIAAN

Song: ‘Doobey…’