Google celebrates noted poet and reformer Kaifi Azmi’s 101 birthday with a Doodle

The late Urdu poet and lyricist, Kaifi Azmi is noted for bringing Urdu literature into the film industry. January 14 marks his birth anniversary.

Marking renowned Indian Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi’s 101st birth anniversary, Google on Tuesday released a serene doodle.

A Sahitya Akademi and National Film Award winner, Azmi graced the Indian film industry for decades with his lyrics and songs.

The late Urdu poet and lyricist, Kaifi Azmi is noted for bringing Urdu literature into the film industry.

His legendary works such as Pakeezah’s soundtrack Chalte Chalte, Koi Yeh Kaise Bataye from Arth, Heer Ranjha’s Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil and poem Aurat have gone down as notable contributions to Urdu and Hindi languages.

Azmi was born Sayyid Athar Hussein Rizvi on January 14, 1919, in the United British province Mizwaan, which is now Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh.

Son of an affluent zamindar in Azamgarh’s Mijwan village, Kaifi rebelled against the hierarchal and in-equal social system he grew up in and his poetry highlighted the exploitation of the masses and the need for a new and just social order.

An avowed communist, Kaifi’s association with the Progressive Writers’ Movement and the Communist Party lent a distinctive social consciousness to all his works.

(With inputs from PTI)