Short Biography
Kaifi Azmi was born on 14-01-1919 in Mijwan, Azamgarh in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. He was an Indian Poet, Writer, Songwriter & Lyricist.
Kaifi Azmi Complete Bio & Career
Kaifi Azmi’s actual name was Athar Hussein Rizvi. He was a renowned Indian poet and the one who is still remembered for bringing Urdu literature in Indian motion pictures. He started writing ghazals from a very young age and the first ghazal that he wrote was Itna To Zindagi Mein Kisi Ki Khalal Pade. Post that, he was invited in a mushaira over there. The organizers were very much impressed with his ghazals and in the later stage of his career, he collaborated with Pirzada Qasim, and Jaun Elia participated in some of the most famous mushairas of the 20th century.
He joined Communist party in 1943 and started writing socially conscious poetries. His first collection of poems Jhankar published in the year 1943. Some of his most famous poetries include Aakhir-e-Shab, Awaara Sajde, Kaifiyaat, Sarmaya, and Nai Gulistan among various others.
In addition to poetries, he also branched out to films as well. He started off by writing the lyrics of the film Buzdil which released in the year 1951. He then turned writer and wrote stories of some of the most famous films of the golden era which includes films like Yahudi Ki Beti, Miss Punjab Mail, and Parvin among others. His written film Heer Ranjha was arguably the biggest hit of his career. In addition to lyricist and writer, he also tried his hands at acting and one of his most memorable roles include Naseem’s grandfather in the famous film Naseem which released in the year 1995. He was also the subject of Raman Kumar’s documentary film titled Diksha which released in the year 2015.
For his contribution, he was felicitated with various awards such as Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award for Urdu, Lotus Award from the Afro-Asian Writers' Association among various others. He was honored with a Google Doodle on his 101th birth anniversary on 14-01-2020.
