Pakeezah
Pakeezah is a 1972 Indian musical romantic drama written, directed, and produced by Kamal Amrohi. The film stars Meena Kumari as the eponymous lead, alongside Ashok Kumar and Raaj Kumar. It tells the story of Sahibjaan, a Lucknow-based tawaif. While asleep on a train, Sahibjaan receives a note from a stranger praising her beauty. Later, evacuating from a broken boat, she takes shelter in a tent and finds out its owner, a forest ranger named Salim, wrote the letter. Sahibjaan and Salim plan to get married, causing conflicts with Sahibjaan's professional background.
Amrohi, to whom Kumari was married, wanted to make a film dedicated to his wife; he began conceiving the story after the release of their collaborative film Daaera. Production of the film lasted 15 years. Pakeezahs principal photography commenced in 1956 under the German cinematographer Josef Wirsching. The film faced many obstacles, particularly Kumari and Amrohi's separation in 1964 and Kumari's addiction to alcohol, which often made her unable to perform. After being postponed for many years, filming resumed in 1969 and finished in November 1971. The film's soundtrack, which became one of the highest-selling Bollywood soundtracks of the 1970s, was composed by Ghulam Mohammed and finished by Naushad, who also composed the background score.
Pakeezah, which was made on a budget of to, premiered on 4 February 1972 and garnered a mixed response from critics. It was criticised for its extravagance and plot. Nevertheless, it emerged as the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year, grossing after a theatrical run of over 50 weeks. Trade analysts said its popularity might have been due to Kumari's death a month after its release. The film earned her a then record-setting nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress and won a Special Award at the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards; the film also received nominations for Best Film and Best Director, and won N. B. Kulkarni the Filmfare Award for Best Art Direction.
The film is known for its lengthy production time and is considered to be a milestone of the Muslim social genre. Although initial critical reception to the film was unfavourable, it greatly improved in the years after its release. The film earned widespread praise for its luxurious, sophisticated sets and costumes. Pakeezah is also known for being Meena Kumari's last film to be released during her lifetime; her performance in it has been regarded as one of the best of her career. Pakeezah has often been included in listings of the best works of Indian cinema, including a poll conducted by the British Film Institute in 2007.
Plot
Nargis is a tawaif based in the Muslim quarter of Lucknow. She dreams of marrying Shahbuddin, the man she loves, but his family's patriarch Hakim Saab strongly opposes their relationship because he finds it unacceptable to welcome a tawaif as a daughter-in-law into his respected family. Dejected, Nargis flees to a nearby qabristan and lives there, giving birth to a daughter before dying. On her deathbed, Nargis writes Shahbuddin a letter asking him to come for his newborn daughter. Nargis' sister Nawabjaan is buying jewellery when she finds a piece that is similar to one owned by Nargis. She asks the jeweller its origin and is led to the cemetery. She finds Nargis' body and her daughter, whom she takes back to her kotha.When Nargis' belongings are sold several years later, a man finds Nargis' letter and delivers it to Shahbuddin. Shahbuddin tracks down Nargis' now-adult daughter Sahibjaan and finds her working as tawaif at Nawabjaan's brothel. Nawabjaan, however, does not want him to take Sahibjaan away, and flees with her niece to another town. While travelling by train, a young man enters Sahibjaan's compartment and sees her sleeping. Struck by her beauty, he leaves her a note. After arriving at her destination, Sahibjaan wakes up and finds the note. She reads it and falls in love with the note's author.
A brothel patron named Nawab wishes to own Sahibjaan and takes her to his boat for a night. The boat, however, is attacked by elephants and Sahibjaan is carried away by the fast-flowing river. She is taken to the riverside tent of Salim, a forest ranger. Sahibjaan reads Salim's diary and learns it was him who had left her a note on the train. Sahibjaan feigns amnesia to avoid telling him of her profession.
Before sunset, Nawabjaan finds Sahibjaan and takes her back to the brothel. Sahibjaan keeps thinking about Salim and runs away from the brothel. She runs along the railway line and gets her gharara stuck there. Upon seeing an approaching train, Sahibjaan panics, stumbles and faints. The train stops before in time and people come to help her. One of them is Salim, who takes her to his home.
Salim and Sahibjaan plan to elope to live peacefully but her profession makes her doubtful of the plan. When Salim anoints her to marry her, she refuses and decides to return to the brothel. Salim, who is heartbroken, eventually decides to marry someone else at his family's insistence and invites Sahibjaan to perform a mujra at his wedding. During the recital, Nawabjaan recognises Shahbuddin, Salim's paternal uncle, and calls him to witness the irony of the situation: his own daughter dancing and entertaining his family. Shahbuddin's father tries to shoot Nawabjaan to silence her but instead kills Shahbuddin who was trying to protect her. With his dying breath, Shahbuddin asks Salim to marry Sahibjaan. Salim's doli defies convention and arrives at Sahibjaan's brothel, fulfilling Shahbuddin's dying wish.
Cast
The cast is listed below:- Meena Kumari as Nargis/Sahibjaan
- Ashok Kumar as Shahbuddin
- Raaj Kumar as Salim Ahmed Khan
- Veena as Nawabjaan
- Nadira as Gauharjaan
- D. K. Sapru as Hakim Saab
- Kamal Kapoor as Nawab Zafar Ali Khan
- Vijayalakshmi as Rashidan
Production
Charging only, Kumari played the roles of Nargis and her daughter Sahibjaan, the central characters of the film. She was also involved as the costume designer and helped with casting. Since the film was dedicated to his wife, Amrohi focused the film's story entirely on her characters. In 1958, Amrohi stated he would play Salim because he could not find a suitable actor for the role, but he abandoned the idea because he found it difficult to act and direct at the same time. Ashok Kumar was cast in 1958 for the role but the plan was abandoned after several days of filming, and he got the role of Shahbuddin when filming was resumed. After considering a number of actors, Raaj Kumar became the final choice for the part; Pakeezah was his second collaboration with Amrohi after the medical romantic drama Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai. He joined the cast in 1968 but it was only announced a year later.
Principal photography was started by the German cinematographer Josef Wirsching on 16 July 1956. Pakeezah used CinemaScope. On Kumari's recommendation, Amrohi changed his plans to make the film in black-and-white, and in 1958, he started to make it entirely in colour with Eastmancolor. Filming progressed intermittently, largely determined by Kumari's availability during the 1950s. By early 1964, had been spent on the film, with particular focus on the sets. Also that year, Amrohi and Kumari separated due to personal differences but never actually divorced. In 1969, Kumari agreed to resume work on the film, and shooting restarted on 16 March. Amrohi invited the press to witness Kumari's return and made a documentary on it. Filming was completed in November 1971, and the editing, finished a month later, was done by D. N. Pai. From a reel of film, he retained. The background score was composed by Naushad and arranged by Kersi Lord.
Ghulam Mohammed composed the soundtrack of Pakeezah, except for the alap sequence, which Naushad himself composed. Amrohi, Kaifi Azmi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, and Kaif Bhopali served as the lyricists. Mohammed did not have a successful career, but Amrohi had seen and appreciated his work on the biographical drama Mirza Ghalib. Recording started in December 1955, but was interrupted when Mohammed suffered a heart attack; nevertheless, he finished the soundtrack the same year. The 1960s marked the rise of the rock and roll genre in Bollywood films; after Mohammed's death in 1963, distributors suggested Amrohi replace him with a more commercial composer, but Amrohi refused to do so, insisting on keeping Mohammed's work. What remained uncomposed were the music for the alap and background score, and by the time production restarted, Amrohi chose Naushad to finish both because distributors persisted with their recommendation.
Release
Indian journalist Vinod Mehta and the author Bunny Reuben state that Pakeezah generated considerable pre-release anticipation; contrarily, authors Mohan Deep and Meghnad Desai say because of the lengthy production time, anticipation decreased up to the film's theatrical release. On 30 January 1972, The Illustrated Weekly of India carried an article by Kamal Amrohi, saying that he doubted Kumari could deliver a good performance at the age of almost 40. Filmfare published a promotional blurb of the film. A preview of Pakeezah was held for critics; Desai reported Amrohi was depressed because the film attracted more criticism than appreciation, which led him to go home drunk that night.Amrohi originally set the film's release for 1971 but it was postponed due to the India–Pakistan war. Pakeezah premiered at Maratha Mandir, Bombay, on 4 February 1972; Kumari attended the opening with Amrohi, his son Tajdar, and Raaj Kumar. The composer Mohammed Zahur Khayyam called the film "priceless". According to an estimate by Box Office India, it was the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year, grossing. Mint estimated its net profit to be. Pakeezah initially opened to mediocre box-office returns but the film emerged as a sleeper hit and ran for over 50 weeks, in 33 of which it was fully booked. Film observers credited these boosts to the audience's sympathy, given Kumari's death a month later. Amrohi said two weeks after its release, trade analysts called the film a major commercial success and added that the pre-release advertisements led it its success.
In late 1973, Pakeezah became the first film to be aired on Amritsar TV Centre, a television channel established in September 1973 in Amritsar, India, for broadcasting to Lahore, Pakistan. The film unexpectedly received an highly enthusiastic response from Pakistani viewers and people from other parts of India went to Lahore to watch it. According to Desai, public arrangements using big-screen televisions at traffic intersections were made for screening the film. Consequently, Amritsar TV started airing more films with similar themes. Due to the success of the televising of Pakeezah, few people visited cinemas on that day, leading the owners, who faced financial failure, to demand a ban on airing the film. Since then, Pakeezah has frequently been broadcast on television. In 2005, Tajdar informed a Stardust interviewer its rights had been sold for the next 50 years.