Sahir Ludhianvi

1921–1980

Sahir Ludhianvi was a published Urdu poet before he wrote a film lyric, and he never entirely stopped being one. His collection Talkhiyaan made his name in 1945; the songs that followed carried the same politics, which is unusual in a form that mostly wanted love songs. He is one of the few lyricists who could insist on being paid more than the composer.

He wrote across four decades, for Guru Dutt's Pyaasa, for B. R. Chopra, for Yash Chopra. Deewaar is a late credit and a restrained one - six songs in a film that is mostly talk - and he died five years after it, in 1980.