One step at a time. Dr Irshad Kamil was in no rush. He took it slow, as per the plan and strategy. It had to have a military precision to it - it had to be foolproof. For someone who belongs to the poetic ranks of the society, this organised attention to life’s progression came as a bit of surprise. “The thing is that when a person knows he’s gifted, or he can do something, he needs to find out what he’s good at. I chose the route of writing because this is the only way I could express myself, and this was my plan of action,” and as per the plans, Dr Kamil, a PhD in Hindi on contemporary poetry and a journalist with Jansatta for some time, started with the basic - television. “Lekh Tandon’s Kahan Se Kahan Tak,” he rewinds. The four parts to the whole began - story to screenplay to dialogues and now, a celebrated lyricist. His resume today is poetry in motion - Chameli, Shabd, Karam. Devaki, Socha Na Tha (his first film as a song writer), Neal ‘n’ Nikki, Ahista Ahista, Dhol and the latest, Jab We Met, Dr Kamil has sure come a long way.

“When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true,” he quotes from The Alchemist, giving us a glimpse into his life’s labour and passion, sweat and toil that’s gone into the making of his dreams. “It’s not easy, writing day-in day-out...the blank paper scares the hell out of many writers for it’s very difficult to get into a routine, to get that perfect line...but once you get that first word, the first sentence, everything follows,” the writer in him shares a mindspace, one that’s constantly focusing on quality and consistency. “Because unlike an actor who is a star after one hit, writers are not. They need to be consistent, they need to prove themselves again and again, be professional and deliver what’s required, and then, when their work speaks for itself, that they shine. It’s then that they can bargain and have contracts drawn out.” It was the general perception that film music is purely commercial and is more of nonsense value that Dr Kamil got into spinning his own wheel of change. “I wanted to give people back the sense and sensibility cinema has always stood for,” says Dr Kamil, drawing his lines when it comes to item numbers and samosa-aloo lyrics. “Nobody like vulgarity, but everyone enjoys sensuality...it’s always the way you say it, the word you choose to get across.”

Every poet is a romantic at heart, there’s music in every piece of poetry. “All you have to do is explore it, have a range so vast that you can write anything and everything,” Dr Kamil is now penning a script for his own film. There’s Tansen and Abba too. As for TV, it’s all about twists, turns and weekly freeze. “There’s no scope for creativity here,” he laughs. But when it comes to films, Kamil feels that every writer offers shades of his life in it. “Like in Shabd, I could completely relate to Sanjay Dutt’s character, a poet, a writer, and hence, the lyrics ran like conversations to the self, in the Mukt Chhand poetry format.” Whereras on TV, on serials like

Dhadkan, he has Nanawati doctors on call!