Jan Nisar Akhtar

Jan Nisar Akhtar
Born	(1914-02-18)18 February 1914 Gwalior, Gwalior State, British India
Died	19 August 1976(1976-08-19) (aged 62) Bombay, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Poet, lyricist
Alma mater	Aligarh Muslim University
Genre	Ghazal
Literary movement	Progressive Writers' Movement
Notable works	"Khaak-e-dil" (The Ashes of Heart") (1973)
Spouse	Safiya Siraj-ul Haq Khadija Talat
Children	Javed Akhtar, Salman Akhtar, Uneza Akhtar, Albina Akhtar Sharma, Shahid Khursheed Akhtar
Parents	Muztar Khairabadi (father)
Relatives	Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi (great grandfather)

Jan Nisar Akhtar (18 February 1914 – 19 August 1976) was an Indian poet of Urdu ghazals and nazms, and a part of the Progressive Writers' Movement, who was also a lyricist for Bollywood.^[1]

He was the son of Muztar Khairabadi and great grandson of Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi his career spanned four decades during which he worked with music composers including C. Ramchandra, O.P. Nayyar, Datta Naik also credited as N. Datta and Khayyam and wrote 151 songs. Notable among them were songs from his breakthrough film, AR Kardar's Yasmin (1955), Aankhon hi Aankhon Mein in Guru Dutt's CID (1956), Yeh dil aur unki nigahon ke saaye in Prem Parbat (1974) and Aaja re in Noorie (1979) and his last song, Ae Dil-e-naadaan, in Kamal Amrohi's Razia Sultan (1983).^[2]

His poetry works include Nazr-e-Butaan, Salaasil, Javidaan, Pichali Pehar, Ghar Angan and Khaak-e-dil. The latter ("The Ashes of Heart") was a poetry collection for which he was awarded the 1976 Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu by Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.^[3]