Career
After receiving a Master of Arts in Urdu Literature from Delhi University, he worked in the Civil Supplies Department and All India Radio in Delhi. From 1945 after he moved to Mumbai (then Bombay), he started working for Hindi cinema as a script writer.
His poetry is highly individualistic and innovative. He stands apart from other poets of his time in his themes, style, language. He preferred nazm over more popular ghazal as a mean of poetic expression. Akhtar ul Iman's language is "coarse and unpoetic". He uses "coarse" and mundane poetic expressions to make his message effective and realistic. His poetry strives to find out a balance between the conflicting or extreme choices faced by man. He chose free verse for his nazms to make his conversational style of expression more realistic.
He was strongly influenced by Meeraji and N. M. Rashid and is more similar to them than other poets of his era. He was close friend of Meeraji, who lived with him until his death. Together they formed the Halqa-e-Arbab-e-Adab ("Circle of friends of Poetry"). Poets who belong to this circle wrote independently of the ideology and standards set by the Progressive Writers' Movement. Although they were few in numbers they contributed significantly and had a major influence on later generations of poets. It was also a starting point of Modernisnm in Urdu.
He left behind a substantial legacy for new generation of poets to follow which explores new trends and themes in modern Urdu poetry giving a new direction to the modern and contemporary Urdu nazm with emphasis on philosophical humanism.
He was the father-in-law of actor Amjad Khan.
Read more about this topic: Akhtar Ul Iman
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