Pandit Narendra Sharma was an illustrious poet and lyricist, writer and intellectual as well as a journalist who has penned unforgettable poems, literature, and lyrics in films. A Hindi Urdu scholar, he combined the tradition of Kabir and Meera with the lyricism of ghazals and Urdu poetry to provide Indian cinema with the Hindi language that was rich in the literature of Allahabad and Ganga. He was the man who evolved the face of All India Radio during its drowning stage by establishing popular Radio channel Vividh Bharati and generated listeners that went up to an amount of almost 35 crores.
Pandit Narendra Sharma had worked with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as his Hindi Secretary during the independence movement. It is said that Jawaharlal Nehru who was the Prime Minister, personally requested Pandit Narendra Sharma to chalk out a plan for setting up an entertainment radio channel within Aakashvani. After a lot of labour put in by the team led by him, the new entertainment channel named as 'Vividh Bharati' by Pandit Narendra Sharma himself, took shape and was inaugurated on October 3, 1957 at Bombay (Mumbai).
The first song which was broadcasted on the inaugural day of Vividh Bharati was 'naach re mayuraa' (1957)which was sung by Manna Dey. The song was penned by Pandit Narendra Sharma especially for the occasion and set to music by Anil Biswas. The poetry is symbolic of the successful culmination of a dream becoming a reality and it is compared in the song with the happiness of a dancing peacock during the arrival of the rainy season. The song became very popular on Vividh Bharati and later HMV included this song in their album on rainy season.
He wrote some memorable songs for hindi films like "Jyoti Kalash Chhalke" (Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan — 1961) ,"Yashomati maiya se bole nandlala" (Satyam Shivam Sundaram — 1979) and the title song "Satyam Shivam Sundaram" (Satyam Shivam Sundaram — 1979).