Hasrat Jaipuri

Hasrat Jaipuri (April 15, 1922 - September 17, 1999) was an Indian Hindi and Urdu poet and film lyricist.

Hasrat was born Iqbal Husain in Jaipur, where he studied English till medium level, and then acquired his taalim (learning) in Urdu and Persian from his grandfather Fida Husain. He began writing verse, when he was around 20 years old. Around same time, he fell in love with a neighborhood Hindu girl called Radha. He wrote a poem for her, Yeh mera prem patra padh kar, ke tum naaraaz na hona (Don't be angry when you read this love letter from me). Later, the poem was used as a song in Raj Kapoor's movie Sangam (1964).

In 1940, Hasrat came to Bombay (now Mumbai), and worked as a bus conductor, earning a monthly salary of 11 rupees.  He used to participate in mushairas. At a mushaira, Prithviraj Kapoor noticed Hasrat and recommended him to his son Raj Kapoor. Raj Kapoor was planning a musical love story movie Barsaat with Shankar-Jaikishan. Hasrat wrote his first recorded song Jiya beqaraar hai for the movie. It was composed by Shankar. His second song (and first duet) was Chhod gaye baalam, which was composed by Jaikishan.

Along with Shailendra, Hasrat wrote lyrics for all Raj Kapoor movies till 1971. But after death of Jaikishan, and failures of Mera Naam Joker and Kal Aaj Aur Kal, Raj Kapoor turned to other lyricists and music directors. Kapoor initially wanted to call him back for Prem Rog, but later, settled for another lyricist, Amir Qazalbash. Kapoor finally asked him to write lyrics for the movie Ram Teri Ganga Maili. Later, he also invited him to write three songs for the movie Henna. Hasrat alleges that after Raj Kapoor's death, the music director Ravindra Jain "conspired" to "scrap" his lyrics and replace them with his own lyrics.

When fellow lyricist Shailendra turned producer with Teesri Kasam, he invited Hasrat to write lyrics for the movie. He also wrote screenplay for the movie Hulchul (1951). His last film as a lyricist was Hatya: The Murder (2004).

Hasrat Jaipuri invested his earnings in property, on his wife's advice. Thanks to earnings from these properties, his financial condition was sound, and therefore he was not much active as a lyricist.  He was survived by two sons and a daughter.