Review by Vinoo
Language : Hindi
Director : Saeed Akthar Mirza
Naseem. ‘Subah ki hawa ko kehte hai. Jo bahut khoobsurat hoti hai. Tumhari tarah. Naseem : subah ki hawa’ (‘Naseem. The morning breeze. The breeze that is beautiful, like you’) Says Kaifi Azmi in his unmistakable voice. The film begins with a dedication : For my mother ‘Iffat Ara Mirza’ and my friend ‘Micky Patel’. Followed by the lines ‘In India, on December 6,1992, a medieval mosque was brought down by some people who believed it was erected on the exact same spot where Lord Rama was born. The riots, slaughter, savagery and hate-filled months that followed, no Indian will ever forget. That one act of demolition wrote the epitaph of an age that had passed… perhaps never to return.’ The film documents the life of a Muslim family and specifically looks at it from the eyes of Naseem (Mayuri Kango in her best role) and her grandfather (Kaifi Azmi) who represents the era of communal harmony between Muslims and Hindus. It follows the changes in the life of a Naseem in the face of communal tension and documents the period from December 1991 and then July through December. It culminates with the bringing down of the mosque coinciding with the death of Naseem’s grandfather on 06 December 1992.
Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Surekha Sikri play Naseem’s parents and Salim Shah her brother, Mushtaq. Kahaan jaaye bhai? Ham to yahin ke hai (Where will we go to? We are from / belong here) summarizes the predicament of thousands of Muslims in post-independence India.
Kay kay menon plays a bit role as Zafar but pulls off a powerful performance. Check this link
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Kaifi Azmi and Mayuri Kango and their relationship works magic for the film and the most beautiful moments are Kaifi’s shayri and his moments with Naseem where he is reminiscing good old days when we, as a country, lived as one large family. The film, interestingly, ends on the music of ‘Dekhi zamane ki yaari. Bichde sabhi baari baari…’ which is a Kaifi number from ‘Kaagaz ke phool’ followed by Naseem thinking of the good times spent with her grandfather and him tell her ‘Asmaan neela ho ya peela ho koi farak nahin padta. Tum muskurayi na. Muskurana bahut zaroori hai’ (Doesn’t really matter if the sky is blue or green in colour. My comment made you smile. And that, to keep smiling, is important’. Ends with a sad smile on Naseem’s face.
For those interested ‘Salim Langde pe mat ro’ and ‘Naseem’ are available on flipcart.com
Here is a link to ‘Albert Pinto ko gussa kyon aata hai’
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Mohan Joshi haazir ho
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Salim langde pe mat ro
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And, here is a representation of the buffoons of our media industry. One of them out there thought Saeed Mirza directed ‘Yes Boss’. Haha!
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I remember chatting up with Saeed Mirza after the screening of his last film ‘Ek tho chance’ at IFFK. He asked me what I thought of the film. I said I liked it but I am still a much bigger fan of your earlier films ‘Albert Pinto…’, ‘Salim Langde…’, ‘Naseem’ (which I think is his best film) etc. He replied with ‘that is another era’. Indeed. I was hoping ‘Ek tho chance’ would at least get a release.
Useless trivia : The screenplay of ‘Naseem’ is jointly written by Saeed Akthar Mirza and Ashok Mishra (of ‘Bharat ek khoj’, ‘Well done Abba’, ‘Bawandar’, ‘Welcome to sajjanpur’ fame). Saeed Mirza has also directed one of the most popular Doordarshan serial of its time, ‘Nukkad’. He has also written a book ‘Ammi, letter to a democratic mother’.
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