‘If you can listen to the young, you will remain relevant,’ says Javed Akhtar

There are many words to say about Javed Akhtar and almost certainly, all of them have been said, but few seem to do justice to his stature. Apart from the feathers of writer, lyricist and poet in his cap, Javed’s enduring legacy has also had to do with the grace with which he carries himself. At a recent session at the fourth edition of Alliance Literary Festival, in Alliance University, Anekal, the audience got to witness Javed at his best, where he let himself flow in his characteristic wit and wisdom.

Javed’s grasp as a scriptwriter in Bollywood is unparalleled; for decades, his characters have lived beyond the screen in the hearts of many. What sets him apart, amongst other elements, is his ability to immerse himself into a character regardless of gender. The result is female characters who are fully formed, unlike many misogynistic representations that Bollywood often imposes. Javed does not recognise a gender binary, saying, “Men and women are similar in many matters; historically, women have been oppressed to believe that it is not in their rights to display emotion. But it is a lie that is now exposed. I’m happy that with every generation, women are increasingly getting into art, demanding, snatching and getting their rights,” he says.

Bollywood, as an institution, has for long been the source of many expressions carried on in reality; a great example of it would be the ‘angry young man’ on the silver screen shaping Indian masculinity through ages. Javed’s response to this phenomenon is piercing, drawing a scathing indictment of what the Indian ‘angry young man’ truly is. “If at all you’re angry, the question is, towards whom? Anyone who is angry with the weak or the vulnerable, the less powerful, is not angry. That person is a bully,” he says. Much of this indictment isdirected towards the domestic space where such violence is enacted.

True to his poetic intent, he uses the metaphor of Gabbar Singh from Sholay — a movie he was the screenwriter of — and underlines that he is never deemed to be an ‘angry young man’ because he has no ethical anger, towards the state for instance. He is singular and flat in his violence.

Even standing at the precipice of a life lived so enormously, Javed strives for more: he wishes he had ‘picked up an instrument, read more and learnt another language’. His secret to relevance is one that advises against consciously trying to be relevant, and for immersing oneself in their work. “You remain or you become relevant if you are humble enough to know, understand or accept that the world is changing. If you can listen to the young, if you are willing to learn from them and understand them, then you will remain relevant. At this moment, the youth are better than us; how long they remain so, that is to be seen,” he comments.

Written by: Anubhab Roy