MUMBAI: Kaifi Azmi, a pioneering poet to introduce Urdu Shayari to motion pictures. His work, however, transcends beyond the realm of movies. Sayyid Akhtar Hussein Rizvi, who was later and popularly known as Kaifi Azmi was born exactly a century ago in 1919. The celebrations kick-started with a magical evening as a bevy of celebrities came together to mark the beginning of the yearlong celebrations of centenary year.

Present on the occasion were family members Shabana Azmi, Baba Azmi, Tanvi Azmi, Javed Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar along with eminent personalities like Vidya Balan, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Poonam Dhillon, Madhu Chopra, Divya Dutta, Kanwaljit Singh, Neena Gupta, Tannishtha Chatterji and Aditi Rao Hydari.

A yearlong celebration with mushairas, plays, seminars, pen festival, and three book releases has been planned in India and abroad in honour of poet and activist, Kaifi Azmi starting from the 13th of January 2019 at NCPA, Mumbai with a special event called, Raag Shayari. 

Raag Shayari will be a special occasion of music and Kaifi Sahab’s poetry conceived by Javed Akhtar and starring Ustad Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Javed Akhtar, and Shabana Azmi and directed by Feroz Abbas Khan with Production Design by Anuradha Parikh. Raag Shayari will be performed on the 13th at the NCPA and 14th at St. Andrews Auditorium.

Kaifi Azmi, who is recognized as one of the finest poets of our times has borne witness to an entire era of social changes. His first ghazal was Itna toh zindagi mein kisi ki khalal pade that got him instant recognition. As a lyricist his most popular songs are from Kaagaz Ke Phool, Haqeeqat, Arth and Heer Ranjha. 'Heer Ranjha' and his other film songs were written entirely in verse. Kaifi Azmi has also received the greatest number of literary and poetry awards for his works.