Tuesday Jun 30 3:15 PM
Director MS Sathyu's Garam Hawa created a stir when it was released in 1973. This post partition drama, which dealt with the plight of Muslims in India after partition, has been given a new lease of life.
Garam Hawa, which had been relegated to the archives, is being readied for a second release. A team of 15 technicians are working on restoring the film, frame by frame, in Pune. The film is expected to get it second release in August. The current generation which has been untouched by the trauma of the Partition, will finally be able to witness this movie, which has been immortalized as much for the protagonist Salim Mirza played by the late Balraj Sahni as for the manner in which it managed to capture the conflicting emotions of Muslims who stayed back in India. Pune's Cameo Studio, was also behind the restoring Chetan Anand's Haqueeqat as well. It is sad but true that most of the film's actors will not be present on the occasion of its second release. Balraj Sahni is no more and neither is Jalal Agha. But for all those who will have an opportunity to watch the movie, Garam Hawa is a moving testimony of one of the most turbulent phases in the history of the Indian subcontinent.