Mumbai: Here is good news for all Gulzar fans on his 83rd birthday, his unreleased film Libaas is all set to hit the big screen this year. The unreleased title, made in 1988, was fading away in the archives of the Directorate of Film Festivals.
An entertainment channel with its brand proposition Woh Zamaana Kare Deewana on Friday announced the theatrical release of the movie.
The plot of the film, which features veteran actors such Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi, is based on Gulzar’s own short story Seema from his Raavi Paar collection.
The story revolves around theatre director Sudhir (Shah) and his actor wife Seema (Azmi). Their life appears picture perfect, but appearances are often deceptive in the world of showbiz.
The movie also features Raj Babbar, Sushma Seth, Utpal Dutt, Annu Kapoor and Savita Bajaj. The music has been composed by one of Gulzar’s frequent collaborators, RD Burman.
Libaas was produced by Vikas Mohan, whose dream will apprehend by his sons Amul Vikas Mohan and Anshul Vikas Mohan.
Amul told media, “I’m lucky to be a part of this project. It couldn’t be released at that time for some reason. This was my father’s life-long dream and I’m happy it’s finally coming true.
Listen to this RD Burman melody sung by Lata Mangeshkar from Libaas here, “The film will be in theaters by the end of this year. We will announce the release date in a few weeks, after further discussion.”
The film will be distributed by an entertainment channel in India. Libaas was shown at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa after a gap of 22 years on November 22, 2014. It was also screened at the International Film Festival at Bangalore in January, 1992.
Gulzar, who is celebrates his 83rd birthday on Friday, is one of the most prominent and prolific names in Hindi cinema. Besides being a successful poet and lyricist, he had an active career as a director that began with ‘Mere Apne’ in 1971.
He later went on to direct classics such as Parichay, Aandhi, Mausam, Angoor, Ijaazat, Lekin…, Maachis and Hu Tu Tu. He stopped directing films to concentrate on his writing and translating Rabindranath Tagore’s work but he is still very active as a lyricist and won the Oscar for Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire.
