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Qateel Shifai
Qateel Shifai
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LAHORE, July 12: Urdu poet and lyricist, Qateel Shifai died in Lahore at the age of eighty-two. He had been ill for several months. Qateel's work offered a rare blend of the classical tradition and the literary trends of his times, which brought appreciation in India as well as Pakistan and also among the American and European pockets of Urdu knowing people.
He was born as Aurangzeb Khan on December 24, 1919 at Haripur Hazara. Qateel's interest in Urdu poetry began as a child when he would listen to his father reciting verses of Kabir and Tulsidas and couplets of classical Urdu poets. While at school he showed an inclination for writing Urdu poetry quite early, probably at the age of 10 or 12. He was the secretary of Bazm-e-Adab. After completing High School, Qateel Shifai moved to Lahore where he edited the literary magazine Adab-e-Lateef for two years. He was also the editor of another Urdu journal Sang-e-Meel published from Peshawar. In Lahore, he became attracted towards the Progressive Writers' Movement. He hobnobbed with poets like Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi. Ultimately, he became a full time lyricist for the Pakistani films.
Qateel's poetry is very musical and this single attribute distinguishes him from his contemporaries. He was very careful in choosing the meters and vocabulary; he made use of only those meters, which have an innate musical quality and then prudently weaved around it a ghazal or nazm by electing the appropriate words. Qateel's poetry has, in fact, blurred the distinction between nazm and geet for he liberally borrowed from Hindi diction and its dialects. His association with films also helped him make his poetry melodic and enticing. Despite his association with the Progressive Writers' Movement, he was by temperament a romantic poet and in that particular domain had an important identity of his own.
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