Poet, Lyricist, Jnanpith Winner

After Firaq, Ali Sardar Jafri, and Qurratulain Hyder, Akhlaq Khan 'Shahryar' becomes the fourth Jnanpith winner in Urdu. While Firaq's ghazals have been sung by such eminences as Begum Akhtar et al, and Ali Sardar Zafri's film output is very limited and not well-known, Shahryar perhaps thus becomes the first Jnanpith winner whose poetry is widely known through popular film music, having been used in such films as Muzaffar Ali's Umrao Jaan and Gaman.

Given that such recent greats as Sahir, Kaifi, Majrooh, Shailendra etc were not considered for Jnanpith, Shahryar's oeuvre should definitely be worth checking out. Would his standing as a scholar and academician have also helped? There is more about him here.

(Talking of Gaman, of course, one is also reminded of the far more famous Makhdoom as well).

There is a compilation here (not sure how reliable).