"Hansne ki chaah ne itna mujhe rulaya hai" (Film, Avishkaar, 1974), "Lag jaa gale ke phir ye haseen raat" (Woh Kaun thi, 1964), "Ik haseen shaam ko dil mera kho gaya" (Dulhan ek raat ki, 1967), "Dil ki aawaaz bhi sun mere fasane pe na jaa" (Hum Saya, 1968)… the list is endless.

I can bet all readers have listened to the aforementioned popular numbers a number of times, and they may be humming them at the moment as well! But are they aware of the lyricists who penned these gems? Do we remember Kapil Kumar, Shamsul Huda Bihari or SH Bihari, Yogesh, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Qamar Jalalabadi, Shevan Rizvi, Naqsh Laylapuri, GS Nepali, MG Hashmat, Sajan Dehlvi, Shiv Kumar Saroj, Aah Sitapuri, Nyaya Sharma, Santosh Anand, or Gulshan Kumar Mehta, better known as Gulshan 'Bawra'?

Even a prolific lyricist like Indeevar, who wrote Chandan-sa badan (Saraswati Chandra) and 'Paas baitho tabeea't bahal jayegi' (Punar Milan, 1964) and penned more than 1600 songs, is almost a forgotten name today. All these lyricists, despite their talents and skills, got snowed under the avalanche of the established poet-lyricists, viz., Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Azmi, Shakeel Badayuni, Majrooh Sultanpuri,........

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