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| Literary Personalities of India | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 1. Michael Madhusudan Dutt: Michael Madhusudan Dutt was a famous 19th century Bengali poet and dramatist. He was a pioneer in dramatic writing and wrote Meghnand Bodh Kavya, a grand heroic epic in nine cantos, which is quite unique in the body of bengali literature. He also wrote poems about the sorrows and hurts of love spoken by women. He was also the father of the Bangla Sonnet. He was a very learned personality and besides Bengali, Sanskrit and Tamil, he studied Greek, Latin, Italian and French.
His principal Bengali works are written mostly between 1858-62 and includes number of dramas written in prose, long narrative poems and many lyrics. His most important prose drama - Sharmishtha (1858) is based on an episode in Sanskrit from mahabharata. His poetic works include Tillottama Sambhava (1860) and a narrative poem on the story of Sunda and Upasunda. The Meghnand bodh Kavya (1861) on the Ramayana theme, Vrajangana (1861) a cycle of lyrics on Radha Krishna theme and Birangana (1862), a set of 21 epistolary poems on Ovid`s Heroides. 2. Kaifi Azmi: Kaifi, like most of the Urdu poets, began as a ghazal writer  cramming his poetry with the oft-repeated themes of love and romance in a style that was replete with cliched similes and metaphors. However, his association with the Progressive Writers` Movement and Communist Party made him embark on the path of socially conscious poetry. In his poems he highlights the exploitation of the subaltern masses and through them he conveys a message of the creation of a just social order by dismantling the existing one. Such poetry serves a social purpose and in this respect Kaifi can be called a successful Progressive poet.
The choice of his themes does not leave much scope for him to make rich his poetic creations aesthetically. In many of his poems his phonation is a bit louder, the style is direct and closer to rhetoric. Yet, Kaifi`s poetry cannot be called plain propaganda. It has its own merits; intensity of emotions, in particular, the spirit of sympathy and compassion towards the disadvantaged section of society are the hallmarks of his poems. Kaifi`s poems are also notable for their rich imagery and in this respect his contribution to Urdu poetry can hardly be overstated.  3. Josh Malihabadi: Josh is reputed to have had a masterful command over Urdu language and was quite strict about respecting the grammar and rules of the language. The first collection of his poetry was published in 1921. The collection of his poetries includes Shola-o-Shabnam, Junoon-o-Hikmat, Fikr-o-Nishaat, Sunbal-o-Salaasal, Harf-o-Hikaayat, Sarod-o-Kharosh (all Urdu titles). On the advice of film director W.Z.Ahmed, he also wrote songs for Shalimar Pictures. During this time, he was staying in Pune. His autobiography is titled Yaadon ki Baarat.
4. Amrita Pritam: Amrita Pritam is a rebel, recalcitrant and even a revolutionary.  Her works, especially the poetry, tempts the reader to break off the existential contrarieties and contradictions of life. Yet one is resisted from administering his/her thought-process to transform the society.
Like the mirror, her principal task was to reflect the society as it subsisted with stink and flavour; good and bad. In truth, it was her creative talent wrought up with the twinge of bereavement that came of age during the dark days of the Partition of Punjab. Small wonder then, that one of the most beautifully weird poems ever written by Amrita was the New Heer or Aankhaan Waris Shah Nul, which was addressed "to the author of the Punjabi romantic epic of immortal love". Equally astounding is her rich literary corpus - she had published 75 books -of, which three are 28 novels, 18 volumes of verse, five short stories and 16 miscellaneous prose. Besides, she also edited Punjabi literary journal Nagmani. Two of her novels Dharti Sagar te Sippiyan (1965) and Unah Di Kahani (1976) have been made into her films entitled "Kadambari" and "Daaku" for which she even composed songs. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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