Author: Nasreen Munni Kabir
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 150
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0-19-566462-0
Description
Sparkling with Akhtar's wit, intelligence and skill as a raconteur, this well-illustrated book will appeal to everyone interested in cinema and the arts.
Poet, lyricist and screenplay writer, Javed Akhtar is that rare individual celebrated in the diverse worlds of popular cinema and of literature and letters. Zanjeer, Deewar and Sholay, with screenplays written by him in partnership with Salim Khan, are milestones in the history of Indian cinema. Javed Akhtar's book of poetry, Tarkash, published both in Urdu and Hindi, has enjoyed enormous critical as well as commercial success.
Here, the author talks with his hugely creative writer about his life and work in films where he began as a clapper boy in the mid-sixties. He is illuminating about many aspects of screenplay, dialogue writing and lyric writing, bringing alive his understanding of these creative forms with his descriptions of the way well-known film dialogue and famous songs came to be written. Akhtar speaks with clarity and honesty, about his development as poet and his growth as a politically-aware person.
There is one more state in this country, and that is Hindi cinema. And Hindi cinema also has its own culture . . . Quite different from Indian culture, but it's not alien to us, we understand it. - - Javed Akhtar