Pakeezah

Meghnad Desai tracks the film's tortuous journey and reveals fascinating little-known aspects of it. He foregrounds the craftsmanship perseverance and perfectionism of its maker Kamal Amrohi who would wait weeks for the perfect sunset. Desai sees the film as a 'Muslim social' set in a 'Lucknow of the Muslim imagination' as a woman-centric film with a dancing heroine at a time when they were a rarity and above all as a film that harkes back to an era of 'nawabi culture with its exquisite tehzeeb' a world that is lost forever. Pakeezah: An Ode to a Bygone World is a fitting tribute to a film that Meghnad Desai calls 'a monument to the golden age of Hindustani films'.