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Amrita Preetam and Imroz, Amrita Preetam - Imroz and Amrita Preetam Imroz, all the three above mentioned nomenclatures are different. While first method tells names of two persons, second tells names of two people separated by a hyphen and these two methods don’t represent lovers like Amrita and Imroz and they can only be represented by Amrita Preetam Imroz or Imroz Amreeta Preetam. If there is a gap between two consecutive words then it’s a gap for the ease of reading only else they formed a united personality, different in characteristics and yet living a common loving life till the very end of Amrita’s life and perhaps afterwards also.

Amrita Preetam Imroz, were the lovers who never said “I love You” to each other. What was the need? How could they say this when every moment of their life was giving witness to the fact that they loved each other in a most civilized way where one does not impose himself/herself on the lover and respect and love his/her self-dependent existence.

Some people know Amrita Preetam as the author of the book Pinjar on which Dr Chandra Prakash Dwivedi has made the film. But her literary work is expanded vastly.

Amrita writes in her autobiography Raseedi Ticket (Revenue Stamp).

„ Baap Veer Dost te khavind
Kise lafj da koi nahin rishta
Uj jadon mein tainu takkiyan
Saare akkhar gurhe ho gaye „

[ Father, brother, friends and husband
Nobody had any relation with the writing
But when I saw you
Words became meaningful ]

She was given Jnanpeeth Award for her book “Kaghaz te kanvas (From Paper to Canvas)” which can be said as combination of her creative work with the creative work of Imroz so that way this award was given to the collective vision of a big entity called “Amrita Preetam Imroz”.

She writes in a poem Kumari (Virgin) in Kaghaz Te Kanvas:

When I moved into your bed
I was not alone— there were
two of us
A married woman and a virgin
To sleep with you
I had to offer the virgin in
me
I did so
This slaughter is permissible
in law
Not the indignity of it
And I bore the onslaught of
the insult
The next morning
I looked at my blood stained
hands
I washed my hands
But the moment I stood
before the mirror
I found her standing there
The one whom I thought I
had slaughtered last night
Oh God!
Was it too dark in your bed
I had to kill one and I killed
the other ?

If we have to search the real Amrita then we will have to explore her poetry. Her character can not be made based on her real life stories known to others because that will be a physical kind of description of a character and it will be too robotic without less or no liveliness. Her liveliness can come from her poetry as there lies her romanticism and her romance with the life is the secret behind her creative and lively nature. Her characterization has to be constructed on the basis of her poetry. Her autobiography is also not a straight life story presented in black and white prose rather its quite poetic in its language and expressions.

There was a grief I smoked
in silence, like a cigarette

only a few poems fell
out of the ash I flicked from it

How to describe better the platonic nature of love and need of union of souls than the union of bodies in a relationship than the following verse?

Meri sez hajir hai
Par jute aur kameej kee tarah
Tu apna badan bhee utar de
Udhar mudhe par rakh de
Koi khas baat nahin
Yeh apne apne desh ka rivaj hai
[ I am ready
But keep aside your body and keep it on the chair there
Like you have put off your shirt and the shoes
This is nothing serious
This is just different custom of different countries/people]

But her poetry is not confined to love poems only. Revolution looks related with masses but its always individual. If one has got revolution inside then only its fruitful as it changes the man completely while mass base revolution may be just for the sake of going along with the crowd because one has not got power to resist what everybody else is doing.

She has written

Ambar kee ek paak Surahee
Baadal ka ek jam uthakar
Ghoont chandani pee hai humne
Baat kufra kee kee hai humne!

Kaise iska karz chukayen,
Mang ke apnee maut ke hathon
Yeh jo zindagi lee hai humne
Baat kufra kee kee hai humne!

Apna isme kuch bhee nahin hai
Roje-ajal se uskee amanat
Usko wahi to dee hai humne
Baat kufra kee kee hai humne!

Her creativity was for all human beings, no matter which cast, colour or nation they belonged to.

Aaj meine apne ghar ka nambar hatya hai
Aur gali ke mathe par laga
Gali ka naam hataya hai
Aur jar sadak kee
Disha ka naam ponch diya hai
Par agar apko mujhe jarur pana hai
To har desh ke har shahr kee
Har gali ka dwar khatkhatao
Ye ek shaap hai, yeh ek var hai
Aur jahan bhee azad ruh kee jhalak parhe
Samjhna wahee mera ghar hai

[ Today I have effaced number from my home
And I have rubbed off also the name of my street also
And I have wiped off the directions indicating the roads
But If you necessarily have to search me
Then you have to knock the doors in every street in every city of every country
And wherever you get the clue of a free soul
You must know that it is my home]

Amrita writes in the respect of poet, saint Waris Shah/Bulle Shah, the creator of love saga Heer Ranjha.

[Today I ask Waris Shah to speak up from his grave,
And in his book of love add another page.
Once a daughter of Punjab wept and he wrote tirelessly for her,
Today thousands of daughters weep all calling Waris Shah.
O soother of the stricken, arise and see your Punjab!
Corpses are everywhere, the blood is flowing in Chenab!
Where once they heard love songs, the flute is now lost,
To all Ranjha’s brothers, the art of playing flute is lost ]

Amrita Preetam says her poem on Warish Shah

Gulzar Saab also has rendered this poem

Wadali Brothers have also sung this poem

And no, Life is not easy even for romantic people rather it can be very difficult for them because they are not well versed in the management and they turn out as impractical fools in an otherwise practical world filled with calculative people.

O mere dost mere ajnabi in the voice of Amrita Preetam

Amrita, being a woman and one of the first women, who started writing on full time basis, she also faced difficulties in the life. She was a pretty woman and in a world controlled majorly by men and that too 50-60 years ago, it was not easy for a woman to make her place in the creative literary world. She surely might have faced the allegations that behind her success, her beauty was the main reason.

When Amrita was going to write her autobiography and famous author Khushwant Singh had commented in sarcasm that there was nothing in her life which could be written and she could have written all her life story on the back of a stamp.

She had sense of humour also and she kept the name of her autobiography as Raseedi Ticket (Revenue Stamp) only.

Amrita got married at the young age of 16 but her marriage did not survive for long. Perhaps before her divorce only she had fallen in love with Sahir Ludhianavi but they could not marry. She took her children with her and started living on her own in Delhi.

And We have to consider that though she was separated from her husband Preetam Singh but till death she used Preetam as her surname.

Love was the area of Amrita Preetam and she understood the life through digging deeply the territories of love only.

She writes in her poem Roshni

Tere ishq ki ek boond isme mil gayee thee
Isliye maine umra ki saaree kadwahat pee daali
[ Your love has fulfilled me
And that’s why I have easily swallowed all the bitterness life has brought to me]

So love has been the prime factor in the life of Amrita Pritam. Her life can be divided in to 2-3 phases.

First phase belongs to a dreamy young woman who wanted to do experiments in the life and whose creativity was full of fantasies. In this phase she searched the phases of love. She got pain also but she explored different facets of love. She faced wriggling inside in this phase.

In her second phase she understood love and became calm inside as far as search of love was concerned. Her inclination turned towards spirituality after she developed her interest in Osho Rajneesh and his teachings. Her writings started getting spiritual touches here after.

Imroz, a painter, younger than her, came in to her life and soon he migrated to her home.

Amrita loved Sahir but their love could not be materialised. She got a great love companion in the form of Imroz. She lived most beautiful years of her life with Imroz. She supported his creativity and he motivated her creativity.

They lived together but never married. When Amrita was nominated as Member of Parliament in the upper house of Indian parliament then Imroz used to drive her there and whole day he used to wait in the car while she was fulfilling her parliamentary duties. He used to carry her canvases, paints and brushes there to convert that waiting period in to a creative period.

Many people including late Balwant Gargi have written many memoirs on the relationship of Amrita Imroz. Their love, fights, actions and reactions are seen by people and registered but they are observations of the outsiders and there was no room for outsiders as far as their mutual relationship was concerned.

Imroz has to be found in her poetry and Amrita has to be found in the paintings of Imroz.

Amrita was terminally ill during last few years of her life and finally she died. Its very difficult to see the lover in pain and when some writer had tried to console Imroz that he should not be sad he had said that there was nothing to be sad, Nature helped him in taking her life as she was living in a great pain and only her physical body has gone away and she is always with him.

Amrita has written herself.

I will meet you yet again
How and Where?
I know not Perhaps
I will become a
figment of your imagination and
spreading myself
in a mysterious line
on your canvas
I will keep gazing at you
Perhaps I will become a ray
of sunshine to be
embraced by your colours
I will paint myself on your canvas
I know not how and where
but I will meet you for sure
Maybe I will turn into a spring
and rub the foaming
drops of water on your body
and rest my coolness on
your burning chestI know nothing else
but that this life
will walk along with me
When the body perishes
all perishes
but the threads of memory
are woven with enduring specs
I will pick these particles
weave the threads
and I will meet you yet again

Gulzar saab has given his rich voice to render this poem

Sufficient material is available on the lives of the lovers Amrita Imroz and a beautiful Bio Pic can be made on the life of Amrita Preetam.

Film will be a period film and its better to start it when Imroz comes in to her life and her youthful days can be shown through flashbacks.

Rekha and Naseeruddin Shah are two perfect choices to play Amrita and Imroz respectively. Both have got that sensitivity and acting skills which are required to play such artist characters. Film will get authentic look with the presence of such fine actors. For younger Amrita, Neetu Chandra can fill the gap and not only for Amrita but Rekha too.

What if Gulzar Saab makes the film as he understands, better than others, her and her work.

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