Garam Hawa
Made in 1973, it is easily among the best films produced in post-Independence India. So much pain, so much waiting, each exchange rendered with enormous delicacy, as if one more harsh word or gesture would make everything absolutely unbearable.
When I posted the above note on this blog about Garam Hawa (1973), I got several messages asking me whether I knew where one might get a copy of the film. I don’t know. But today I chanced upon the qawwali from that film. What joy!
On my last visit to Delhi I went crazy looking for a DVD/VCD of Garam Hawa. Apparently the master copy of the movie has been destroyed, I hope that that is not true for it would be a terrible, terrible loss. At any rate, there’s no copy of the film available in the market as of now.
Comment by Szerelem — April 27, 2008 @ 11:35 pm
Amitava, I met MS Sathyu, Garam Hawa’s director, many times during the Chadigarh Film Festival in March 2008. He was standing outisde the goverment museum auditorium and wondering how they would screen his film without a projector. “I have only brought the master copy from Bangalore,” he said softly, exhaling. Then looking distraught, the man with silvery hair and beard murmured: “Are they going to screen it on a DVD?” So he called up the orgainser from my phone and asked the same question. The organsier said he would do something about it. In the evening, people of Chandigarh watched Garam Hawa with the film’s director in an auditorium designed by Le Corbuier on a DVD. But they did use the original film rolls to screen the movie later that night at a nearby multiplex.
The next evening I met him again at dinner at a hotel. He said he seemed tired of meeting journalists. With disdain, he said he not read anymore what they wrote about him.
Comment by sourabh — May 4, 2008 @ 10:44 am
If you wish to order a DVD copy of Garm Hawa - please contact M S Sathyu at mssathyu@gmail.com
Comment by Shaili Sathyu — May 5, 2008 @ 3:22 am