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Qamar Jalalabadi

Lyricist and screenwriter who wrote Taj Mahal's story · 1917–2003

Qamar Jalalabadi was born Om Prakash Bhandari on 9 March 1917 in Jalalabad, near Amritsar, the last of thirteen children. A wandering poet named Amar Chand Amar met him in his home town, encouraged him to write, and gave him the pen name Qamar, 'moon', to which Jalalabadi was added for his native town.

He wrote lyrics for about 156 films, some 700 songs, among them the lively numbers of Howrah Bridge (1958), including 'Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu', and for television viewers he wrote the title song of the serial Vikram Aur Betaal. For Taj Mahal (1963) he wrote the story and the screenplay. He died in Mumbai on 9 January 2003.

We corrected this Wikidata gives Qamar Jalalabadi's birth year as 1919, to the year only. The sources that give a full date say 9 March 1917, and this record says 1917.

How we know

Rekhta, the Urdu poetry archive, gives 9 March 1917 to 9 January 2003, aged 86. Songs of Yore, in a guest article, gives the same dates and adds that he was the last of thirteen children. No other source consulted supports 1919.

Films

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Films

Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959)

Howrah Bridge (1958)

Taj Mahal