A Hindi literature scholar from a small district in Punjab, lyricist Irshad Kamil quit his reporter’s job more than a decade ago and arrived at once in Mumbai, “by a direct train from Chandigarh, in coach no AS3 and seat no 64”, as he recalls rather sharply, to pursue television. Although he wrote poetry, he had no idea what lay in store for him. But unlike other aspirants, he didn’t have to struggle. “I already had work in my hand even before I came to Mumbai. I was asked by Lekh Tandon to work with him on a television serial. Thank god, I didn’t have to face tantrums from producers,” he laughs.
It was at that point that he met director Imtiaz Ali, an event that would change his life. Ali was trying to push his debut film, 'Socha Na Tha', and since it was a small project, he offered Kamil to pen songs for it. Since then, Kamil has become a significant part of the director’s oeuvre. “Imtiaz and I got along like a house on fire. Our views matched on music and so many other things and we knew this was turning into a special friendship of sorts,” says Kamil.
It has generally been agreed that 'Rockstar', with its memorable music, is their best work, yet. However, Kamil says cautiously, “I treat all my works as special. They all require equal, if not more, efforts. There are no favourites.” While 'Rockstar’s verses did win laurels from critics, his other songs such as 'Rabba' ('Mausam'), 'Tu Jaane Na' ('Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani') or 'Peen Loon' ('Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai') went on to become chartbusters.
Acceptance from the listeners is the biggest applause, he says. “I don’t write for myself, neither do I write for films though I work for films. I write for the public. Of course, it’s an entirely different thing that as lyricists, we are expected to write for a particular situation.”
Like most lyricists, Kamil is an admirer of Gulzar and Javed Akhtar, the two giants who have stood for numberless decades in film music like a rock. “They are unshakeable — and they are ustads (masters). They are not our competition; they are our guides,” says Kamil who recently dedicated his award at IIFA (he picked up one for the Rockstar song Nadaan parindey) to Akhtar for his efforts in “fighting for the rights of his fraternity”.
Overall, Kamil believes the song-writing scene is upbeat, with more and more talent coming in which is such a welcome change. “There are different kinds of writing today, but I cannot say which is good and which is bad. You hear some good songs, some okay ones and some bad ones at times but that’s how it will always be. I feel we can do with little improvement in the quality of our music.”
One of Kamil’s upcoming projects is the Aashiqui sequel. It’s a tough act to match, considering the original’s music was a chartbuster in its time. “That was the reason I took it up,” says Kamil, “It would be a real challenge to write songs for a film which people are dying to write off even before it is made, especially its music.”