Veteran lyricist Gulzar honoured with prestigious Jnanpith Award

Renowned poet, lyricist and filmmaker Gulzar has been bestowed with the 58th Jnanpith Award. Thehonour is considered the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith. Apart from Gulzar, Sanskrit scholar Jagadguru Rambhadracharya has been named the recipient of the prestigious award.

On Saturday, the award was announced by the Jnanpith committee. “It has been decided to give the award (for 2023) to eminent writers from two languages: Sanskrit litterateur Jagadguru Rambhadracharya and well-known Urdu litterateur Shri Gulzar,'' they said in an official statement.

The press release reads, “Along with his long film journey, Gulzar has been setting new milestones in the field of literature. In poetry, he invented a new genre ‘Triveni’ which is a non-mukaffa poem of three lines. Gulzar has always created something new through his poetry. For some time now he has also been paying serious attention to children's poetry.”

Gulzar, whose original name is Sampooran Singh Kala, is a renowned Indian poet, lyricist, and filmmaker, and is considered one of the most respected figures of Indian cinema and literature.

Over the years, he has written several poems, songs, and dialogues for many Hindi films that went on to become classics. He has written songs for Bollywood cult-classic movies such as "Anand", ''Kabhi Kabhi'', "Gol Maal", "Masoom", and "Ijaazat".

The multifaced personality has been honoured with several prestigious awards, including an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the song "Jai Ho" from the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

He has also been honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Padma Bhushan, Grammy and multiple National Film Awards.

While, Jagadguru Rambhadracharya, another recipient of the award,is a spiritual leader, poet, scholar, author and the founder and head of Tulsi Peeth in Chitrakoot.

Rambhadracharya, who isblind since childhood, is a polyglot and speaks 22 languages. He has written over 100 books.

(With agency inputs)