At the recently concluded literature festival at the NCPA, poet, lyricist and filmmaker Gulzar saab took the audience on a poetic journey through Mumbai, a city that has shaped his writing as much as he has chronicled its many moods. In a conversation titled Ek Shayar Iss Sheher Mein: A Poet’s Love Letter to His City, with translator Dr Rakhshanda Jalil and screenwriter-lyricist Kausar Munir as chair, Gulzar read from, ‘Aamchi Mumbai: My City in Stories and Poems’. Written in Urdu and translated into English by Jalil, the book captures his enduring relationship with the city through its changing identity, people, seasons and the realities of migrant life. The session offered a Mumbai darshan through the words of a poet who has made the city an inseparable part of his creative journey.
The Mumbai LitFest 2026, Rakhshanda Jalil said, “Two distinct features of Gulzar Saab’s work are imagery and the way he talks through images and his voice.
His voice is very distinctive. ” Talking about the city that emerges from Gulzar Saab’s writing, Kausar Munir said, “Socialism, realism, political consciousness, environmental concerns, all of this comes through in Gulzar Saab’s work. On the challenge of translating Gulzar Saab’s voice, at the 17th edition of Godrej Literature Live! He has a childlike quality, a whimsicality of his own. For a translator, capturing this essence is very challenging. It is not just about craft or vocabulary. This new work isn’t just a romantic love letter to the city. There is a truth to it, there is a lived reality to it rather than a romanticised version of Mumbai. Gulzar saab doesn’t see the city only through rose-tinted glasses. ”