Sagar Sarhadi, who wrote Yash Chopra’s sumptuous ode to romance, ‘Kabhi Kabhie’, and also directed ‘Bazaar’, a heart-breaking document on the ugly linkage between poverty, marriage and market, passed away at his residence in Mumbai on Sunday night. He was 87. “He wasn’t keeping well for some time and had even stopped eating,” his nephew, filmmaker Ramesh Talwar (‘Doosara Aadmi’, ‘Baseraa’), told PTI.

The writer formed an enduring association with Chopra, authoring the screenplay of the much talked-about flop (‘Silsila’) and penning blockbusters such as ‘Noorie’ and ‘Chandni’ (dialogue). The relationship was formed after Chopra saw ‘Mirza Sahiban’, a Sarhadi play on the Indo-Pak war. He was invited to watch it by Talwar, then an assistant to Chopra. ‘Kabhi Kabhie’ followed. ‘Tanhaii’, ‘Bhagat Singh Di Wapsi’ and ‘Bhookha Bhajan Na Hoye Gopala’ are some of his acclaimed works as a playwright.

Originally named Ganga Sagar Talwar, Sarhadi was born in Baffa, in undivided India. He took on the surname Sarhadi, from director Zia Sarhadi who had impressed him with his progressive social films (‘Footpath’, ‘Hum Log’), and because he himself came from the frontiers. Uprooted by Partition, his family came to Delhi via Srinagar. As refugees, they lived in tents before finding a home in the capital’s Mori Gate area. “There is anger in me. I want to know about those in power who make you leave your own village and make refugees out of people,” he said in the same interview. Later he moved to Bombay, graduated in English from St Xavier’s and worked as an Urdu translator in a British firm. He quit to become a professional writer.

Sarhadi had strong Left leanings, loved reading Karl Marx and was associated with the Progressive Writers Association. ‘Bazaar’ (1982), which he wrote and directed, was markedly different from the romances that had earned him fame and fortune. “I was becoming repetitive and mechanical. What else can you do in a fantasy factory?...I made a film I believed in,” he told TOI back in 1986. The film was a critical and commercial success. Pirated video cassettes even found their way to Pakistan. Sarhadi also directed ‘Tere Shaher Mein’ which linked justice to privilege, ‘Agla Mausam,’ which showed how feudalism lurks, and, more recently, ‘Chausar’ (2018). These movies were either not released or sparsely viewed.

Among those who paid tribute to him on social media were writer Javed Akhtar, lyricist Manoj Muntashir, director Anubhav Sinha and actor Hrithik Roshan. Sarhadi wrote the dialogues of ‘Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai’, Roshan’s debut film, and of ‘Deewana’, Shah Rukh Khan’s first box-office smash.

Actor Shabana Azmi tweeted, “He will be remembered by his work both in theatre n films notable amongst them #Tanhaii n #Bazaar. He drew his inspiration from life, travelled by bus n train bcoz he was a writer of d masses. We at IPTA have lost a family member.”