Exploring the uni-verse

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For years Amit Khanna wrote poetry as a form of private expression. He would occasionally quote his own work but the most public of his poems was through songwriting for films and television shows.

The multi-faceted mediaman only recently released a collection of his Hindi poems Anant Raag with an English translation that he has done himself. “Writing poetry, around the world, today may not be looked at as a financially viable career option but the written word will always remain. The format has been changing and so has the medium of communication. Fewer people may be writing poetry but the purity of this form of expression will keep it alive despite the advent of all other forms of media,” says Khanna.
Structured poetry across languages demands adherence to a specific kind of grammar and syntax; Khanna, of course, has no intention of following that. “The purists tend to frown upon any kind of deviation. People have not come to terms with free verse. They feel it is just good-looking prose masquerading as poetry. Form cannot be rigid. Grammarians have developed a structure for poetry over the years. But when I write in English, I may opt for anything from an iambic pentameter to a limerick, depending on what I want to say and how. Similarly, when I’m writing a ghazal, sometimes I do like to resort to the play of radif and qaafiyaa (radif is the repetition of a word; qaafiyaa is a pattern of using rhyming words). How does one challenge the borders of aesthetics? By trying to develop new forms.”
The quest to chalk out new paths and embrace newer forms of media has been a common thread right through his career. He began his career as a producer for Navketan Films and produced movies like Shareef Budmaash and Des Pardes. He has also lent his expertise to television shows like Mirch Masala, Mere Saath Chal, Zameen Aasman and Business Baaten, while producing India’s first English-language series A Mouthful of Sky. Having dabbled in almost every media format, Khanna is of the opinion that television, much like the Bollywood of today, is in a state of transition. “We are now an attention seeking economy. But we’re moving on from just grabbing attention; we’re trying to monetise the attention we seek. In order to monetise this, it is important that we engage with the audience in an effective way. Artists and the media need to engage… business will drive creative people to do so.” Until then, Khanna feels, we will have to live with largely dismal content being inflicted upon us.