Gopaldas Saxena 'Neeraj was a doyen of Hindi poetry. A familiar face of Hindi Kavi sammelan, he wrote under the pen name "Neeraj". Recipient of Padma awards, he penned many popular Bollywood songs and attained a unique position as a songwriter who had equal facility in both Hindi and Urdu.
Born on 4 January 1925 in Purvali village of Uttar Pradesh's Etawa district, Gopaldas Saxena 'Neeraj' before gaining name and fame as a lyricist, worked as a Professor of Hindi Literature in Dharma Samaj College, Aligarh. He joined the college after resigning from Meerut college.
Neeraj stint with Bollywood started with R Chandra’s film, Nayi Umr ki Nayi Fasal, for which he wrote lyrics. He was perfect in both Hindi and Urdu and brought in fresh vocabulary into Hindi cinema, then replete with heavier words. Dev Anand, mesmerised after watching him recite kaarwaan guzar gaya at a mushaira, brought him to Mumbai to compose songs for Prem Pujari. He wrote songs for many prominent Music Directors of the Hindi Film Industry including Shankar-Jaikishan, S.D.Burman etc. His famous works include: 'Kaarwan guzar gaya, ghubaar dekhte rahe', 'Dard Diya Hai', 'Asawari' 'Likh Likh Bhejat Pati' and more. Gopaldas Neeraj left Bollywood at the peak of his popularity. He returned to resume his teaching career. He was until a few years ago, the Chancellor of Mangalayatan University in Aligarh.
Neeraj was awarded Padma Shri in 1991 and Padma Bhushan in 2007.
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