Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 13: Ninety-one year old Ved Rahi, an eminent litterateur who belongs to Jammu, was presented Sahitya Akademi’s highest honour at his residence in Thane district of Maharashtra.
Dr Madhav Kaushik (president, Sahitya Akademi), Dr K Sreenivasarao (secretary, Sahitya Akademi) and Dr Narendra B Pathak (member, General Council), presented the Akademi’s Fellowship for Rahi’s “eminence as Dogri writer and scholar”. The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is the highest honour conferred by the country’s topmost literary body on a living writer. The Sahitya Akademi fellows are described as the “Immortals of Indian literature”.
Rahi is the only surviving son of Lala Mulk Raj Saraf, father of journalism in Jammu and Kashmir. Besides Dogri, Rahi has made immense contributions to Hindi and Urdu literature, and written screenplay and directed for several Hindi films and television serials. He started writing at an early age of 12 or 13 years in Urdu and later in Hindi and Dogri languages. He has been continuously been into creative writing in Urdu, Dogri and Hindi for the last six decades.
After completing his education, Rahi served as a script writer from 1955 to 1958 with All India Radio Jammu which was in its early phase and then, he worked as Editor of Yojana (Hindi monthly) and he skillfully carried on the journalistic tradition of his father from 1958 to 1961. Along with Madan Mohan Sharma and Narendra Khajuria, Rahi wrote a story collection ‘Kale Hath’ and a novel “Had, Bedi Te Pattan’ which became popular. Some of his Urdu-Hindi stories were also published but he resigned from the job and left for Mumbai where he served as Assistant Film Writer and Director to Ramanand Sagar.
In an illustrious career spanning over six decades in films and literature, Ved Rahi has written with distinction scripts of 25 films such as Pavitra Papi, Paraya Dhan, Pehchan, Be-imaan, Sanyasi, Katputli, Unche Log, Charas and Mom Ki Gudiya. He had also directed films like Darar, Prem Parbat, Andhi Surang and Raat Aur Toofan. He also made a Dogri film ‘Bobo Kaddu Aug’. Kali Ghata, starring Rekha, Shashi Kapoor and Danny Denzongpa, among others, was the first film of Ved Rahi as a producer.
Rahi’s film ‘Veer Savarkar’ is a class by itself. His magnum opus ‘Gul, Gulshan, Gulfam’, which was the story of a Kashmiri family, telecast on Doordarshan with much glory in 1987 when terrorism was in its infancy in Kashmir valley. It ran for 45 episodes and for that he received Uptron’s Best Director Award in 1992.
He received Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his collection of Dogri short stories ‘Aale’ and J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages Award in 1971. He was also awarded several other honours including Maharashtra Gaurav Award and Best Screenplay Award.
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