Nida Fazli

Nida Fazli: Urdu poet, Bollywood lyricist

Full Name: Muqtida Hasan Nida Fazli

Date of Birth: 12 October, 1938

Birth Place: Delhi

Nida Fazli is one of the famous Indian Urdu poet and song lyricists. The poet is awarded by many awards like Khusro Award, Mir Taqi Mir Award, Urdu Sangam Award and Sahitya Akademi Award for his work in Urdu and Hindi literature. It is difficult to categorize him in any particular category, because he had written on various moods. But his poetry is influenced by the India-Pakistan partition and human relations. One of his famous couplet is-

"Duniya jise kehete hai jadu ka khilauna hai,Mil jaye toh mitti hai, Kho jaye to sona hai"

Nida Fazli was born on October 12, 1938 in a poetic family. His father was also an Urdu poet. Although born in capital city Delhi, Nida grown up in Gwalior. Nida took his education in Gwalior. After the India-Pakistan partition, his family moved to Pakistan, while Nida choose to stay back in India. Nida attended the Gwalior College from where he passed his M.A. in 1954.

Nida get stimulated by the beauty of poetry with one incidence. One day when he was passing by a Hindu temple. He heard the beautiful bhajan of Surdas- in which Radha (lover of Lord Krishna) was depicting her sorrow to her maids as being apart from her love (Krishna). Nida get struck by that poetry and for the very first time he made a serious attempt to write a poem. Nida get influenced by the love and bonding in human relations, which also reflects in his later work.

"Hum laboN se keh naa paaye, unse haal-e-dil kabhi,Aur wo samjhe nahiN, ye khamoshi kya cheez hai''

In 1964, Fazli came to Mumbai to find a job. In his early career, he penned his skills for Blitz and Dharmayug. At the same time he was participating in Mushairas. His elegant poetic style was soon get noticed by film personalities and also by the other personalities in Hindi and Urdu literature.

He soon became a favorite amongst ghazal singers. Many of his ghazals are sung by ghazal singer Jagjit Singh. Also almost every top singer had sung his film songs and ghazals. Fazli has his unique style of poetry. He is quite famous for his elegant presentation of poems. The best feature of his poetry is that he used the common and conservational language in nazms, ghazals and dohas so that anyone could easily understand it.

However, Fazli turns as a Bollywood lyricist with Kamal Amrohi's film Razia Sultan. First lyricist Jaan Nisaar Akhtar was assigned as a lyricist for the film. But due to his untimely death the offer went to Fazli. Most of the songs for the film were written by Jaan Nisaar Akhtar, only two were remaining that were written by Nida Fazli. He became quite famous in the industry with his very first film Razia Sultan. A song 'Tera hijr mera nasib hai, tera gham hi meri hayaat hai...' from the film became famous.

His popular lyrics are used in film Gudiya, Tum Toh Aise Na The and Iss Rat ki Subah Nahi. His recent popular songs includes 'Kiska Chehra Dekhu Abb Tera Chehra Dekhkar' from Tarkeeb, 'Aa Bhi Ja', 'Kabhi Sham Dhale Toh', 'Dil Me Jagi Dhadkan Aise' from Sur and 'Kabhi Kisi Ko Mukammal Jaha Nahi Milta' from Aahista Aahista. Nida also had written title track of TV serial Sailaab.

Nida Fazli is also famous for his writings for communal harmony. He exclusively wrote against communal riots and selfish strategies of politicians in it. He was one of the victims of such riot which happened in 1992. During the period, he has to take shelter under his friend's house. His writing in this matter won him a National Harmony Award.

Fazli also caught into controversy due to his critical writings against poets of the same time in his book named 'Mulaqatein'. Those poets include the famous ones- Ali Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azmi and Sahir Ludhianvi. Due to such writings, he was banned at some poetic programmes.

Fazli has released various Poem Collections. Some of those include- Safar Me Dhup Toh Hogi, Mor Nach, Lafjo Ke Phool and Aankh Aur Khwab Ke Darmiya. He also owns 24 books on his credit written in Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati. Fazli's poetry includes the essence of Ghalib and Mir. As well as he get driven by the lyrical mood by Kabir and Meera. He also get inspired by the poetry of Gogol, Takasaki, Eliot and Chekhov.

Nida Fazli - Popular Songs

Kabhi Kisi Ko Mukammal Jaha Nahi Milta - Aahista Aahista
Kiska Chehra Dekhu Abb Tera Chehra Dekhkar - Tarkeeb
Kabhi Sham Dhale To Mere Dil Me Aa Jana - Sur
Dil Me Jagi Dhadkan Aise - Sur
Aa Bhi Ja, Aa Bhi Ja - Sur
Chahat Na Hoti - Chaahat
Darvaje Pe Tere Barat - Krishna
Kahi Kahi Se Har Chehara - Dil Kahin Hosh Kahin
Tera Hijr Mera Nasib Hai - Razia Sultana

Nida Fazli - Awards

1998 - Sahitya Akademi Award - for his writing on communal harmony
Khusro Award - for Urdu & Hindi Literature
Hindi Urdu Sangam Award - for Urdu & Hindi Literature
Best Poetry Award - for his Urdu Literature - from Maharashtra Urdu Academy
Mir Taqi Mir Award - for his autobiographical novel 'Deewaron Ke Bich' - from the Government of Madhya Pradesh

Nida Fazli - Poem Collections