One would assume that there wouldn’t be anyone better suited than Shabana Azmi to work on a biographical offering on Javed Akhtar, her husband of almost four decades. But, Azmi believes that her knowledge of Akhtar’s “geographical journey” is limited. “I was born in Hyderabad, and subsequently brought to Bombay when I was four months old. And that was it; thereafter, my journey commenced. But, his has been [a complex journey], traversing across several locations,” she says of her husband, who was born in Uttar Pradesh, and travelled to Gwalior, Lucknow and Bhopal, before arriving in Mumbai.

While Azmi would be hesitant to showcase his story, Akhtar’s journey will be available for people to consume in Jadunama, a coffee table book that will be unveiled today. “There are bits from his speeches that even I have not heard, stories from his days of struggle, and his faith in himself, even in the darkest of times. Arvind Mandloi has meticulously collected facts about him over the years. It’s a compilation of extracts from his public speeches, interviews and quotes.”