A new book giving a rare glimpse into the life of celebrated lyricist, Javed Akhtar's life was launched in Mumbai recently. Aptly titled 'Jadunama', the book is an account of Javed Akhtar’s extraordinary journey as a prolific writer, poet, lyricist, and activist – which has made him the humanist that he is today.
'Jadunama' was launched by Gulzar sahab and Javed Akhtar, along with author Arvind Mandloi and translator Dr Rakhshanda Jalil. The book was originally written in Hindi and later translated by Dr Jalil, bringing it to a wider audience.
For those who don't know, the book is titled 'Jadunama' as Javed sahab was named Jadu at birth. It was his father, Jan Nisar Akhtar’s poem, ‘Lamha, lamha kisi jadoo ka fasana hoga (Every moment will be the story of a certain magic)’, which was the inspiration for this unique name. However, in Javed sahab's childhood, everyone realised that the name Jadu wasn't a serious name. And so, he was renamed as Javed (which means ‘eternal’), Akhtar (which means ‘star’) – a name which was close to Jadu. The new book features many such interesting anecdotes from Javed sahab's life, which is lesser-known to the audience. It also features interviews of famous celebrities from the film industry including Amitabh Bachchan, Salim Khan, Yash Chopra, Ramesh Sippy, Asha Bhosle, Shah Rukh Khan, Anil Kapoor among others, as they share their experiences of working with Javed sahab.
The book is a wonderful read for fans of Javed sahab and those interested in knowing more about Indian cinema.
'Jadunama' is published by Amaryllis, an imprint of Manjul Publishing House.
