BOLLYWOOD ACTRESS PATIENCE COOPER AND KUMAR PAASHI'S POEM

                                                                
Photograph of Anglo Indian actress Patience cooper ( 1905-1993 ) from Calcutta .


ACTRESS PATIENCE COOPER, MANTO'S SAUGANDHI  AND POET KUMAR PAASHI..

MERE SAATH ZAMAANE  TOONE  ACHHAA NAHIN  KIYAA  HAI....( O World  , You have been unfair to me )



Patience Cooper  is remembered for her roles in movies like NAL DAMAYANTI , VISHNU AVTAAR , CHANDI DAAS, FAKHR E ISLAM, NAKLEE DOCTOR , DURGESH NANDINI, PATNI PRATAAP, ZEHRI SAANP , BAAGI SIPAAHI , MOHINI,MERA PYAARA ,KASHMIRI SUNDARI, GAREEB KI DUNIYA ,HOOR E ARAB,TURKI HOOR ,SATYA VAADI RAJA HARISH CHANDRA , ALLA UD DIN AND THE WONDERFUL LAMP,ALI BABA AND FORTY THIEVES , ANOKHA PREM and LANKA DAHAN. She acted in about 44 films in total.she acted in movies of the silent era and later in movies with sound .Sadat Hassan Manto had recommended her to his film producers as a lead actress for a movie based on his own script.Patience is reported to have declined saying that she was too old for the role .
In 1926, She married Mirza  Isphahani , a tea-estate owner, when she was 21, but the marriage fell apart although they remained friends. In 1930, she  married Gul Hamid Khan, another actor, who died of cancer six years later. After Independence she emigrated to Pakistan along with her first husband Mirza Isphahani  and changed her name to Sabra Begum. She fostered and/or adopted 17 children during her life time. She died in 1993 at Karachi.

NOW SOME LINES FROM  URDU POET KUMAR PAASHI'S POEM ON SAUGANDHI, A CHARACTER CREATED BY SADAT HASSAN  MANTO IN   HIS STORY  HATAK .

If SADAT HASSAN MANTO created SAUGANDHI for his story HATAK and gave her immortality , urdu Poet Kumar Paashi stepped in and dived deep into her heart to express the hidden Pain , sorrow and anguish of this lonely character condemned to live a life of falsehood , self deception and exploitation . I share some  lines from Kumar Paashi’s poem SAUGANDHI……

Door khade meray  aangan dwaare

Pal pal paas bulaayein,

Kaho hawaaon se ab unko

Door kahin le jaayein ,

Jhoot ki yeh  chaaron deewarein ,

Jhooth ka farsh aur chhat hai,

Jhooth ka bistar ,

Jhooth ke saathi,

Jhooth ki har sangat hai,

Jhooth bichhaaoon  jhooth lapeitoon,

Jhooth utaaroon pehnoon,

Jhooth pehan kar jism ke veerane mein Daudatee jaaon,

Such ki titalee bol kahaan hai ,

Kab se tujhe bulaaon,

Ek lambi tareeq sadak par kab tak chalti jaaon,

Kyon nahi zehan Ki deewaron se takraa kar mar jaaon.

Ek mausam meray  dil ke andher

Ek mausam Meray baahar ,

Kyaa jaane mujh janam-jali ne kyaa apraadh Kiyaa hai

...........MERE SAATH ZAMAANE TOONE ACHHAA NAHIN KIYAA HAI………

"Manto has systematically projected the life of Saugandhi and laid bare her sentiments, the soul, the inner and external situation . After going through 'Hatak' one doesn't have a feeling of malice towards these hapless and poor women. Innocence of 'Sugandhi' and her womanhood--all these elicit new feelings, those of sympathy. This is the hallmark of a great litterateur".
Krishen Chander Urdu writer.

Those who haven't read it, need to read Manto's  HATAK to know SAUGANDHI.........

( Avtar Mota )

PS

KUMAR  PAASHI (1935-1992)  is the pen name of Shankar Dutt Kumar. Born   in Bahawalpur, in what is now Pakistan, he  spent his life in Delhi. He  was a prominent voice among the Urdu poets of the modernil generation.
Kumar Paashi was a poet of Nazm but he also  wrote Ghazals .
                                                                       

                             ( Kumar Paashi )

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