Gulzar's 'objectionable' Libaas to be premiered in India after 26 years
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 22 November 2014 11:43 IST
Libaas, yet another master piece by India’s veteran filmmaker Gulzar, will be screened in India for the first time, after 26 long years, at International Film Festival of India in Goa.
IFFI is screening eight best films of Gulzar in its “Retrospective” section for Gulzar being conferred with India’s highest honour – Dadasaheb Falke Award.
Libaas, produced by Vikas Mohan and directed by Gulzar, was not cleared by the Censor Board of India, stating that the subject was “bold in its time and was objectionable to be shown publicly.”
It will be screened today evening at 5.30 pm.
The film is about married couples of urban India having extramarital relations and adultery.
Based on Gulzar’s own story “Seema”, the film portrays the relationship between a theatre director, Sudhir, who neglects everything but his work and is struggling to establish his theatre group. His wife Seema is also the leading lady in the theatre group but is left alone as Sudhir is involved in his work. Things take a turn when Sudhir’s friend TK turns up and woos Seema.
The lead roles are played by Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Raj Babbar and Utpal Dutt, the stars of parallel cinema in ‘80s.
Libaas received acclaims when it was screened at several International Film Festivals abroad but was never screened in India till date.
“Even I have not seen its final print till date. I myself am quite excited about it”, said Gulzar, while talking to goanews.com.
Almost 40 personalities from film industry from all over the country are reportedly flying down to Goa only to watch Libaas, considered to be Gulzar’s one of the master pieces.
With R D Burman’s music, the lyrics written by Gulzar are sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Suresh Wadkar.
Why cant the film be released now?
I know, there wont be many watchers and distributors to this film. Nevertheless, it should be undertaken.
Abhijit