TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Though Maachis was Gulzar’s most successful box office hit, Libaas, his most controversial and “ahead of its time” movie was screened after a gap of 22 years, at the 45th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. However, it has still not been released for public viewing in India.
The film dwells on love, work and adultery, themes that were not spoken aloud, let alone screened for the general public. The film, based on short story “Seema” published in collected stories in Raavi Paar, has won critical acclaim at international film festivals.
The IFFI is screening eight films of the legendary Gulzar in its “Retrospective” section. He was conferred with Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2014 after getting the Filmfare awards 18 times, the National awards 7 times, the Sahitya Akademi award in 2003 and the Padma Bushan in 2004.
Libaas, produced by Vikas Mohan, directed by Gulzar, and starring Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Raj Babbar and Utpal Dutt was not cleared by the Censor Board of India, as the subject was “bold in its time and was objectionable to be shown publicly”.
Based on Gulzar’s own story “Seema”, the film portrays the relationship between a theatre director, Sudhir, who is totally engrossed in his work of setting up a theatre group and neglects everything else, including his wife Seema the leading lady in the same theatre group. Due to his preoccupation with his work Seema feels neglected and things get ‘interesting’ when Sudhir’s friend TK turns up and begins to woo Seema.
R D Burman provided the music for the film, the lyrics of the songs are penned by Gulzar and the songs are sung by Lata Mangueshkar and Suresh Wadkar.
