In the opening credits of MS Sathyu’s Garm Hava, you hear Kaifi Azmi’s lament, “Taksim hua mulk toh dil ho gaye tukde; Har seene mein toofan, wahan bhi tha yahan bhi Har ghar mein chita jalti thi, lahraate the sholay; har shahar mein shamshan, wahan bhi tha yahan bhi Gita ki koi na sunta, na koi Quran ki sunta; […]
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Tag: Shama zaidi
Garm Hava Blows Once Again
Forty one years after its theatrical release, Garm Hava, M S Sathyu’s seminal work on a country suffering the aftershocks of Partition will grace cinema screens again on November 14.PVR group’s limited release arm, Director’s Rare, will release the movie (digitally restored by Indikino Edutainment) in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad. Those who […]
Begum Qudsia Zaidi:Theatre’s Brave Pioneer
Shama Zaidi does not want to talk about her mother Qudsia Zaidi nee Umt-ul-qudoos Abdullah because you do not talk about a lifetime of love and loss over a telephone wire. 2014 is the centenary year of Begum Zaidi, writer, social worker, theatre producer and founder of the Hindustani Theatre in Delhi in 1954. […]
Seema Sathyu: Sufi Artist Who Paints Poetry
In Muzaffar Ali’s 1981 master-piece Umrao Jaan, one of the opening scenes featured Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan’s voice as it wove sublime magic with a raagmala, Pratham Dhar Dhyan. And there is a young Umrao in the frame, singing along, wrapped coyly in a white silk dupatta and the poetry, or nafasat (delicacy) of […]
Painting A Dream
She reminds me of Umrao because she really was. The young Umrao in Muzaffar Ali’s 1981 classic film, I mean. Years later I met her as an artist in her own right, not just as the daughter of MS Sathyu and writer Shama Zaidi. ** Recently, I met her again at the Sathyu home […]
Longing For Manto
I am fishing for the right quote by Manto to begin this write-up. As I unearth some old books from my college days, I realise that Manto is not someone, who can be put away between the pages of history forever. It was hard to ignore the man when he lived and it is hard […]
Shama Zaidi-Burning Bright
Memories are like films. Some fade away and some are revisited again and again. Like my interview with Shama Zaidi. Years later, I can still remember her voice pulsing across a long-distance telephone line. As full of character as her writing. Zaidi’s body of work speaks for itself and she is one of the few authentic […]