‘Saheli’ screened

Islamabad

Director, Co-Producer: S. M. Yousaf

Script: Hasrat Lakhnavi

Music: A. Hameed

Cast: Nayyar Sultana, Shamim Ara, Darpan, Bahar, Aslam Pervaiz

After somewhat challenging screening of a Balochi film last week, Lok Virsa's Film Club Mandwa brought ‘Saheli’ on screen recently.

The year 1960 was a productive and fruitful season for film trade. Studios were doing well and new air conditioned cinemas were coming up in metropolitan. Sabiha, Yasmin, Santosh Kumar, Kamal, Ejaz, Neelo and others were shining stars. Luqman (Ayaz), Ashfaq Malik (Salma), Masood Pervaiz (Manzil) and M.J. Rana (Rani Khan) were the major directors. And during this razzle dazzle, came director S.M. Yousaf who had just migrated from Mumbai (Bombay) after a fruitful career with hits like ‘Gumashta’, ‘Aina’, ‘Gharhasti’, ‘Deewar’ and ‘Mehndi’.

S.M. Yousaf directed ‘Saheli’ as his first film here in 1960. He also co-produced it with F.M Sardar. This team later went on to shine brilliantly with ‘Aulad’, ‘Ashiana’, ‘Suhagan’ and ‘Eid Mubarak’. However, nothing could beat ‘Saheli’.

S.M. Yousaf brought Nayyar Sultana, Shamim Ara and Darpan in leads with Bahar, Aslam Pervaiz, Talish and Salma Mumtaz in supporting roles. ‘Saheli’ came out as first-class production with extremely popular score by A. Hameed.

‘Saheli’ has gone down in our film history as classic smash hit which turned Nayyar Sultana, Shamim Ara and Darpan as superstars throughout the sixties. The film minted gold at the box office nationwide and celebrated Silver Jubilee in major metropolitan.

Screenwriter Hasrat Lakhnavi, who also migrated from Mumbai, came out with powerful screenplay full of suspense, conflict and tension. All this was wrapped up with two girlfriends in a family triage.

The film won numerous awards, including President Award for Best Director, Actor, Actress and Supporting Actress. It also won several Nigar Awards (most popular during the sixties). Nayyar Sultana was declared Best Actress and Shamim Ara Best Supporting Actress. The later however, refused to come to award ceremony, let alone accept her trophy. According to Shamim Ara, she was leading lady of ‘Saheli’. It is now for the audience at Mandwa to give their verdict.

Nayyar Sultana, Shamim Ara, Darpan, Bahar and vicious villain Aslam Pervaiz performed well. Apart from powerful direction and strong screenplay, it was film's outstanding score by A. Hameed (Lyrics by Fazzaz Hashmi) which partly contributed in turning ‘Saheli’ into the biggest film from 1960. Naseem Begum and Saleem Raza created magic with "Hum ney jo phool chuney", "Kaheen do dil jo mil jatey" and "Hum bhool gaey har baat magar tera pyar nahi bholey". The later was also re-mixed with major changes for Indian film Sautan Ki Beti, rendered by Lata Mangeshkar.

The author can be reached at aijazzgul@gmail.com