Nida Fazli

Nida Fazli
Nida Fazli (Chandigarh, 28 January 2014)
Born	Muqtida Hasan Nida Fazli (1938-10-12)12 October 1938 Delhi, India
Died	8 February 2016(2016-02-08) (aged 77) Mumbai, India
Occupation	Poet, novelist, lyricist
Language	Hindi, Urdu
Nationality	Indian

Muqtida Hasan Nida Fazli, known as Nida Fazli (12 October 1938 – 8 February 2016), was a prominent Indian Hindi and Urdu poet, lyricist and dialogue writer. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2013 by the government of India for his contribution to literature.

Born in Delhi, India into a Kashmiri family, Nida Fazli grew up in Gwalior, where he attended school and subsequently studied English literature. His father was also an Urdu poet. During the partitioning of India, his parents migrated to Pakistan, but Fazli decided to stay in India.

While still young, Fazli was passing by a Hindu temple where a bhajan singer was singing a composition of Surdas about Radha sharing her sorrow with her maids at being separated from her beloved Krishna. The poetic beauty of the Pad, relating to the close rapport and bonding between human beings, inspired Nida to begin writing poems.

During that period, he felt that there were limitations in Urdu poetry. He absorbed the essence of Mir and Ghalib to express what he intended. He was fascinated by the lyrical mood of Meera and Kabir and widened his knowledge of poetry by studying T. S. Eliot, Gogol and Anton Chekhov.

He moved to Mumbai in search of a job in 1964. In the early days of his career, he wrote in Dharmayug and Blitz . His poetic style attracted the notice of filmmakers and writers of Hindi and Urdu literature. He was often invited to Mushairas, the prestigious recitation sessions of one's own poetry. He became known among readers and ghazal singers for his elegant presentation and exclusive use of colloquial language for ghazals, dohaas and nazms, while avoiding ornate Persian imagery and compound words to simplify his poetry. He wrote the famous couplet: 'Duniya jise kehte hain jaadu kaa Khilona hai Mil jaaye to mitti hai kho jaaye to sona hai'. Some of his famous film songs include Aa bhi jaa (Sur), Tu is tarah se meri zindagi mein (Aap To Aise Na The) and Hosh waalon ko khabar Kya (Sarfarosh). He wrote essays critical of contemporary poets of the sixties in his book Mulaqatein which outraged poets including Sahir Ludhianvi, Ali Sardar Jafri and Kaifi Azmi. As a result, he was boycotted in some poetic sessions. His career improved when Kamal Amrohi, a filmmaker, approached him. The original songwriter Jan Nisar Akhtar working on the film Razia Sultan (1983) had died before completing the project. Nida wrote the final two songs and attracted other Hindi filmmakers.