Lok Virsa screening ‘Bandish’ on August 26

Islamabad

Producer: Ahmad Shamsi

Director: Nazrul Islam

Screenplay: Bashir Niaz

Camera: Kamran Mirza

Music: Robin Ghosh

Cast: Nadeem, Shabnam, Talish, Alaudin, Talat Hussain, Diana Christina

  Lok Virsa Mandwa Film Club brings film ‘Bandish’ (1980) for screening on August 26 at 6 pm at its Media Centre.

1980 was extremely competitive year for Pakistani film makers. One of our most distinguished directors, Nazrul Islam was competing against himself with ‘Bandish’ and ‘Nahi Abhi Nahi’. And then there were Pervaiz Malik (‘Hum Dono’), Nazar Shabab (‘Badaltey Mausam’) and Javaid Fazil (‘Saima’). Nadeem, Mohammad Ali, Shabnam and Babra Sharif were the stars who glittered on the movie sky that year.

Producers Rauf Shamsi and his brother Ahmad Shamsi of Kashif Limited had earlier won the box office with ‘Aina’ and ‘Zindigi’.  They were extremely polished producers to offer  handsome production effects with big budgets. Their new venture ‘Bandish’ was based on American novelist James Hilton's book Random Harvest filmed in Hollywood in 1941. Screenwriter, Bashir Niaz, was hired to turn Random Harvest into ‘Bandish’. He came out with a pretty good job.

Apart from a strong screenplay, ‘Bandish’ must be commended for several other reasons. Partly film in Indonesia, it carried the colours and hues of co-production with Indonesian actress Diana Christina plying a brief but strong supporting role. Director Nazrul Islam being one of our most prestigious filmmakers (‘Ehsas’, ‘Aina’, ‘Zindigi’), came out with strong directorial command. Till 1980, Pakistan had made just a handful films in Cinemascope. Cinematographer Kamran Mirza's cinemascope photography could match the very best.

Nadeem as a man with forgotten past and Shabnam as his suffering wife, dazzled on screen for two hours. Allaudin as Diana Christina's father, in a tragic role, was superb. Diana Christina as second wife, had a brief role with no much to perform but she could have been signed in our other films. That was our loss.

And then comes Robin Ghosh who did a first -class job with his soothing melodies rendered by Mehdi Hassan, Mehnaz and Nayyar Noor: ‘Do pyasey dil’, ‘Sona na chandi’, and ‘Acha acha lagey rey’.

All in all, ‘Bandish’ would always remain a film to be cherished for its all cinematic feats.

— aijazzgul@gmail.com