In a 2016 interview with Scroll.in, writer Kausar Munir resisted being defined by a single job title. Asked whether she liked being bracketed as a lyricist, dialogue writer or screenwriter, she replied: “I don’t like to be bracketed, in life or in anything else.” Her account is of a writer moving among forms—and of the discipline that movement can demand.
“I write” is the answer she can give
When interviewer Akshay Manwani asked how she introduces herself, Munir said she takes a beat before answering. She had not found it easy to describe herself simply as a “writer” or “lyricist.” Instead, she says, “I write.”
She recalled an exchange with filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who asked what she did. When she answered that she wrote, he joked, “What? Letters?” Munir replied, “Yes, and sometimes diaries.” The anecdote captures her preference for an open-ended description: writing is the work, while the form can change.
What changes when she moves between forms?
Song lyrics and the familiar situation
Munir describes songwriting as something she “trapezed into,” rather than a planned effort to invent a new voice. Film songs often begin with familiar situations: a love song in a film that is not, at heart, a love story, or a song reflecting on life’s hardships. For her, the difficulty is finding fresh language for a setup audiences may already recognize.
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She names party and dance songs as particularly challenging for her, while making clear that she takes the challenge seriously. In the interview, she discusses songs including “Tu Jo Mila” from Bajrangi Bhaijaan, “Dil Ki Toh Lag Gayee” from Nautanki Saala and “Pareshaan” from Ishaqzaade. The interview’s introduction also points to her songwriting for Habib Faisal’s Ishaqzaade (2012).
Poetry outside film metre
Munir describes non-film poetry as a way to step outside the lyrical structures and metre that songs require. In poetry, she can move among English, Hindi and mixed metaphors. She also sees form as more than a container for an idea: changing the form can take a thought somewhere different.
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The interview discusses her collection Yeh Kavita Abhi Shuru Nahin Huyee and the poem “Sach Hai,” written for an evening with the arts collective Kommune. Munir calls this non-film poetry a newer voice for her and says she continued writing it when time allowed. The interview does not provide publication or edition details for the collection.
Dialogue and screenplays
Munir also describes dialogue writing and screenplays as part of the life she chose. At the time of the 2016 conversation, she says that taking on many assignments had made her recognize a need for a better plan, discipline and organization. She wanted to think about which forms she enjoyed most and where to put her energy. That is her reflection in that interview, not a claim about her current workload.
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The interview’s introduction says she was then writing the screenplay and dialogue for Begum Jaan, an adaptation of Srijit Mukherji’s Bengali film Rajkahini. It also mentions Meri Pyaari Bindu as a project then upcoming. Those descriptions belong to the interview’s 2016 context.
Language, inheritance and the work of holding two sides
The interview reports that Munir was born and raised in Mumbai and studied English literature at St Xavier’s College. It identifies her paternal grandmother as Urdu literary writer Salma Siddiqui and describes Munir’s exposure to the world of Urdu Progressive Writers. Munir connects her influences to her Mumbai upbringing, convent-school education, college and enjoyment of Urdu poetry.
That range of influences appears alongside her work in Hindi film and poetry that can move between languages. For the Zeal For Unity initiative, she wrote “It Takes Two” in Hindustani, using the English phrase as its hook. She says the starting point was a sher by Jigar Moradabadi that her maternal grandfather used to recite.
Munir explains that the poem treats both sides as affected; it does not cast one side only as victim and the other only as perpetrator. Scroll.in’s interview describes the project as involving 12 filmmakers, six from each country. That figure refers to the project as described in the 2016 article.
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Stories rooted in difference
Munir also discusses Baarish Aur Chowmein, which she says she wrote for director Tigmanshu Dhulia. She describes it as a love story between a Hindu-Marathi girl and a Muslim boy from Uttar Pradesh, set in a present-day, lower-income Mumbai colony. In her account, religion, class, region and language shape the story, which approaches those differences with a light touch.
Across the interview’s examples, Munir’s work is not presented as a choice between film writing and poetry. She speaks instead about the distinct demands of each form: the familiar song situation that needs new language, poetry’s freedom from song metre, and screenwriting’s place alongside dialogue and lyrics.
About the interview
This article reflects Akshay Manwani’s interview with Kausar Munir, published by Scroll.in on April 12, 2016. Its comments about her projects and plans describe that conversation’s time period; they should not be read as a current career update.
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