Anjaan (English: Anjaan; born- 28 October, 1930, Banaras, Uttar Pradesh; died- 13 September, 1997) was a famous lyricist of Indian English films and a renowned poet of his time. His real name was ‘Lalji Pandey’. The songs written by Anjaan are still on people’s lips. Anjaan wrote many evergreen songs like ‘Khaike Paan Banaras Wala’, ‘O Sathi Re Tere Bina Bhi Kya Jeena’ and ‘Rote Hue Aate Hain Sab’ and touched the heights of fame.
His songs filmed on Amitabh Bachchan were quite popular. Kalyanji-Anandji’s name comes first as Anjan’s favourite music composer. Anjan’s songs got a new identity under their music direction. Anjan sahab’s son Sameer is also a famous lyricist like his father. Anjan, a charismatic personality of English language and literature, was born on 28 October 1930 in the religious city of Banaras in Uttar Pradesh. He had a deep passion for poetry since his childhood days. To fulfill his passion for poetry, Anjan used to participate in all the kavi sammelans and mushairas organized in Banaras. However, he used to use Urdu very rarely in mushairas. While Urdu was used as a passion in English films, Anjan used to give more emphasis on English in the songs composed by him.
Anjaan started his career as a lyricist in the year 1953 with actor Premnath’s film ‘Golconda Ka Qaidi’. For this film, he first wrote the songs ‘Lahar Ye Dole Koyal Bole…’ and ‘Shaheedon Amar Hai Tumhari Kahani…’, but he could not make a special identity through this film. He continued his struggle. Meanwhile, he also did many small budget films, which did not benefit him much.
After some time, he suddenly met G.S. Kohli, under whose music direction he wrote the song ‘Mat Pooch Mera Hai Mera Kaun…’ for the film ‘Lambe Haath’. Through this song, he was successful in making his mark to a great extent. After struggling in the Mayanagari Mumbai for about ten years, Anjaan never looked back after the success of his song ‘Chali Aaj Gori Piya Ki Nagariya…’ in the film ‘Godaan’ based on Premchand’s novel Godaan, composed with music by Pandit Ravi Shankar in the year 1963. After this, Anjaan started getting offers for many good films, which included many films like ‘Baharein Phir Bhi Aayengi’, ‘Bandhan’, ‘Kab Kyon Aur Kahan’, ‘Umang’, ‘Riwaj’, ‘Ek Nari Ek Brahmachari’, ‘Hungama’. After this, Anjaan touched new heights of success and wrote one great song after another.[1]
If we look at Anjaan’s film career, his songs filmed on superstar Amitabh Bachchan used to be very popular. After the success of the song ‘Luk chhip look chhip jao na…’ from the film ‘Do Anjaane’ released in 1976, Anjaan wrote many successful songs for Amitabh Bachchan, which include many evergreen songs like ‘Barson Purana Ye Yaarana…’, ‘Khoon Pasina Ki Jo Milegi To Khayenge…’, ‘Rote Hue Aate Hain Sab…’, ‘O Saathi Re Tere Bina Bhi Kya Jeena…’.
Kalyanji-Anandji’s name comes first as Anjan’s favourite composer. Anjan’s songs got a new identity under the music direction of Kalyanji-Anandji. The first song of this duo was liked in the film ‘Bandhan’ released in the year 1969. After this, the film songs composed by Anjan used to have music by Kalyanji-Anandji only. The films for which this duo contributed were as follows-
Do Anjaane – 1976 Hera Pheri – 1976 Khoon Pasina – 1977 Ganga Ki Saugandh – 1978 Don – 1978 Muqaddar Ka Sikandar – 1978 Lawaris – 1981 Yaarana – 1981 Honest – 1987 Data – 1989 Jadugar – 1989 Thanedaar – 1990
Famous Songs
This song ‘Babul Ka Ye Ghar Behna Kuch Din Ka Thikana Hai’ composed by Anjaan in 1989 under the music direction of Kalyanji-Anandji in Sultan Ahmed’s film ‘Daata’ still brings tears to the eyes of listeners. Apart from Kalyanji-Anandji, Anjaan’s favourite music composers were Bappi Lahiri, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, O. P. Nayyar, Rajesh Roshan and R. D. Burman. His songs were sung by top singers like Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle, Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar.
Anjaan wrote songs for about 200 films in his film career spanning more than three decades. Anjaan, who adorned English cinema with his songs for almost three decades, died on 13 September, 1997 at the age of 67. With his death, a big star of the film world died. Even today, the songs written by him give peace to the heart and everyone hums them.
