I feel sorry Mumbai will be deprived, says Faiz's daughter Salima Hashmi

Salima Hashmi; (inset) Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Salima Hashmi; (inset) Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Barely two days after a local NGO threatened disruption of an Oscar-nominated Pakistani film at the upcoming Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) Film Festival, the organisers yesterday announced that the screening stands cancelled, given the current Indo-Pak tension.

Jago Hua Savera (The Day Shall Dawn), a 1958 Urdu-Bengali semi documentary, was to be shown as part of the 'restored classics' section of the annual film festival.

Directed by AJ Kardar and written by revolutionary Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

A still from Jago Hua Savera

Reacting to the organisers' decision to cancel the screening at the last minute, Faiz's Lahore-based daughter, writer-artist Salima Hashmi remarked rather sarcastically, "The news just made me smile. This film was released in 1958. My father never attended the film's premiere, because he was in jail at the time."

Due to his opposition to the government and military dictatorship, Faiz had spent several years in prison and was forced into exile at different points in his career.

Hashmi, 74, added, "Most of Jago Hua Savera's cast was Pakistani, except the leading lady, Tripti Mitra, who was from Kolkata. This film was revolutionary, since it brought together people from three countries of the sub-continent. That, in itself, bears testimony to what the film stands for.

"Banning Faiz's film now doesn't make much of a difference anymore. It is a story of present-day Bangladesh and the region has changed a lot since; new countries have flourished. We forget that art is forever and there can be no boundaries to it. I am not disheartened. The film has lived its fate, but I feel sorry Mumbai will be deprived
of it."

Anjum Taseer, son of the film's producer Nauman Taseer, had incidentally worked hard to get the film restored.

During an interview at the Cannes screening last May, Anjum had said, "It was Pakistan's first neo-realist film and one of its kind. I found its original prints in London and Paris, and it could only be restored in 2010, 14 years after my father passed away. This film is about hope and that's all we humans have."

The film was set against the backdrop of a small fishing village in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) where everyone dreams of just one thing - owning a boat.

Despite repeated attempts, MAMI chairperson Kiran Rao remained unavailable for comment.