ABSTRACT
In this article we shall appreciate the very rich and outstanding contribution of Punjabi songwriters or lyricists, as they are also known, some of who have also been celebrated poets. I consulted two distinguished poets, who are very close friends of mine, in Stockholm before writing this article. Ahmed Faqih’s book, Badshah Nanga Hai was awarded the Ahmed Nadeem Qasimi Award 2006-07 and Masood Qamar in collaboration with Hussain Abid had come out with Kaghaz Pey Bani Dhoop, which has in recent months been receiving rave reviews in Pakistan, including one by the Vice-Chancellor of Karachi University, for making the provocative point that while Lahore still conforms to the classical tradition of writing ghazals (comprising a number of two-line verses, independent of one another, but all about love of a woman, requited and unrequited), Karachi on the other hand, represents the modern, innovative nazm (several interconnected verses focusing on one subject). Both are also keen students of music and fully familiar with the Punjabi genre of poetry as well. I wanted to know what position the geet (verses meant to be sung) used in films occupied in the different classes of poetry. I learnt that geet and nazm are closely related and that the geet is simply poetry which can easily be expressed in melody. Film songs can be geets, nazms and ghazals. However, geets are specially written for a song.
