Come July and a biopic on revolutionary poet Majaz, popularly referred to as the 'Keats of Urdu' verse, is set to hit the screens which, its makers say, will celebrate his work and dispel the myths surrounding his life.
"The film seeks to set aright many myths associated with the life of Majaz," says Shakeel Akhtar, the producer and writer of the film, which has been largely shot in Aligarh and Agra.
Today, to many, the mention of Majaz brings to mind his equally famous nephew, poet and scriptwriter, Javed Akhtar. But in the 30s and 40s, Majaz's writing captured the imagination of readers and he tasted a meteoric rise in the world of Urdu letters, says Shakeel.
The film seeks to depict the culture prevailing in Awadh and Aligarh in the 1930s and 40s, when a young Majaz shot to fame because of his romantic poetry before going on to inspire an entire generation of freedom fighters with his revolutionary verse.
Shakeel says one of Majaz's immortal works is his ode to Aligarh Muslim University, his alma mater. The 'Nazm' (poem), Nazr-e-Aligarh, was first recited by Majaz at the AMU Students' Union in 1936.
Majaz, whose full name was Asrarul Haq Majaz, died in 1955 in Lucknow -- where he was being treated at the Balrampur Hospital. He was aged 44.
He belonged to a zamindar family in Barabanki district and his schooling was completed in Lucknow, where his father was posted as an officer in the state judicial services.
Because of his close association with the city and its culture, he is also known as 'Majaz Lakhnavi'.
For his higher education, he went to study at Saint John's College, Agra, and later to AMU, where his revolutionary poems attracted the attention of freedom fighters like Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, and later, Sarojini Naidu and Jawaharlal Nehru.
The film can be described as a musical biopic for which Talat Aziz, the famous Urdu ghazal singer, has provided the music, the producers say.
It includes nine songs with revolutionary lyrics penned by Majaz during the freedom struggle. They represent a rich blend of romantic and revolutionary poetry.
According to Shakeel and the other producer of 'Majaz', Madihur Rahman Shirwani, the work, made under the banner of Dream Merchant Films, seeks to recreate an era when Leftist ideologues drew close to the likes of the Nehru in the United Provinces and Urdu poetry became the flavor of the freedom struggle in that part of the country.
