Garam Hawa
Encyclopedia
Garm Hava is a 1973
Bollywood films of 1973
A list of films produced by the Bollywood film industry based in Mumbai in 1973:-Highest grossing:The top ten grossing films at the Indian Box Office in 1973:Box office verdict of last twelve films in the above list are flops.-1973:-External links:...

 Urdu film directed by M. S. Sathyu
M. S. Sathyu
Mysore Shrinivas Sathyu is a leading film director, stage designer and art director from India. His film Garam Hawa is a film on the partition of India. He is a recipient of the Padma Shri in 1975.-Early life:Sathyu conducted his schooling and higher education at Mysore and Bangalore...

, based on an unpublished Urdu short story by Ismat Chughtai
Ismat Chughtai
Ismat Chughtai 1 was an eminent Urdu writer, known for her indomitable spirit and a fierce feminist ideology. She was considered the grand dame of Urdu fiction, as one of the four pillars of modern Urdu short story, the other three being Saadat Hasan Manto, Krishan Chander, and Rajinder Singh Bedi...

 and adapted for screen by Kaifi Azmi
Kaifi Azmi
Kaifi Azmi was an Indian Urdu poet. He is considered to be one the greatest Urdu poets of 20th century. Together with Pirzada Qasim, Jon Eliya and many others he participated in many memorable mushairas of 20th century.-Early life:...

, who also wrote its lyrics.

The film deals with the plight of a North Indian Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 family, in the years post partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

 in 1947, as the film's protagonist, deals with the dilemma of whether to move to Pakistan or stay back. The film details the slow disintegration of his family, and is one of the most poignant films ever made on India's partition. It remains one of the only films that deal with the (immediate) plight of Muslims in post-Partition India, with Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal is a prolific Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur , Nishant Manthan and Bhumika he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India although he himself has expressed dislike in the term preferring his work to...

's Mammo
Mammo
Mammo is a film by Shyam Benegal released in 1994. The film stars Farida Jalal, Surekha Sikri and Rajit Kapur.The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi in 1995. Farida Jalal won Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance, while Surekha Sikri won the National Film Award...

(1994) being a notable exception.

It is often credited with pioneering a new wave of Art cinema movement in India, and alongside a film from another debutant film director, Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal is a prolific Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur , Nishant Manthan and Bhumika he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India although he himself has expressed dislike in the term preferring his work to...

, Ankur
Ankur (film)
Ankur is an Indian colour film of 1974. It was the first feature film directed by Shyam Benegal and the debut of Indian actors Shabana Azmi and Anant Nag...

(1973), are considered landmarks of Indian Parallel Cinema
Parallel Cinema
The Indian New Wave, commonly known in India as Art Cinema or Parallel Cinema as an alternative to the mainstream commercial cinema, is a specific movement in Indian cinema, known for its serious content, realism and naturalism, with a keen eye on the sociopolitical climate of the times...

. The movie also launched the career of actor, Farooq Shaikh
Farooq Shaikh
Farooq Sheikh or Farooque Sheikh is an Indian actor, philanthropist and a popular television presenter. He is best known for his films during the 1970s and 1980s. His major contribution was in Parallel Cinema or the New Indian Cinema...

. It was India's official entry to the Academy Award's Best Foreign Film category, nominated for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival
1974 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*René Clair *Jean-Loup Dabadie *Kenne Fant *Félix Labisse *Irwin Shaw *Michel Soutter *Monica Vitti *Alexander Walker *Rostislav Yurenev -Feature film competition:...

, won a National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards. In 2005, Indiatimes
Indiatimes
Indiatimes is the Internet subsidiary of The Times of India Group, under which, some of the largest websites in India - The Times of India, The Economic Times, Navbharat Times and Maharashtra Times operate....

 Movies
ranked the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.

Plot

Set in Agra
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...

, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 in late 1940s, Garm Hava is a socio-political drama about a Muslim family headed by an elderly shoe manufacturer, Salim Mirza. Salim (Balraj Sahni
Balraj Sahni
Balraj Sahni , born Yudhishthir Sahni , was a famous Hindi film actor. He belonged to a Punjabi Khatri family from Bhera now in Punjab, Pakistan...

) is struggling to come to terms with changed realities after many of his family and friends migrate to Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

.

As head of the family, Mirza is facing a crucial choice to make, whether to continue the ancestral business and stay on in India or to migrate to the newly-formed state of Pakistan. Salim's brother Halim and his family migrate to Pakistan. Halim's son Kazim tries to return to India across the border to marry Salim's daughter but gets arrested.

As the refugees from Pakistan start competing with Salim's business, the moneylenders refuse to invest in his business, as he might emigrate to Pakistan. In face of discrimination, will Salim Mirza finally decide to leave the country?

Adaptation

The film was an adaptation of Ismat Chughtai
Ismat Chughtai
Ismat Chughtai 1 was an eminent Urdu writer, known for her indomitable spirit and a fierce feminist ideology. She was considered the grand dame of Urdu fiction, as one of the four pillars of modern Urdu short story, the other three being Saadat Hasan Manto, Krishan Chander, and Rajinder Singh Bedi...

’s story by noted Urdu poet and lyricist, Kaifi Azmi
Kaifi Azmi
Kaifi Azmi was an Indian Urdu poet. He is considered to be one the greatest Urdu poets of 20th century. Together with Pirzada Qasim, Jon Eliya and many others he participated in many memorable mushairas of 20th century.-Early life:...

. While the original story centred on a station master
Station master
The station master was the person in charge of railway stations, in the United Kingdom and some other countries, before the modern age. He would manage the other station employees and would have responsibility for safety and the efficient running of the station...

, stuck in the throes of Partition, Kaifi Azmi brought in his own experiences as a union leader, for the workers of a shoe manufacturing factory, to the film. He not just changed the profession of the film’s protagonist, but also placed him right in the middle of film’s emotional cauldron, as he watches his livelihood (shoe manufacturing) and family disintegrating rapidly, immediately making the trauma of the Partition
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

 personal, compared to the original story, where the protagonist is a mere observer, watching his friends and family migrate. This fulfilled the main object of the film, to show the human consequences, not social and economic consequences of a large political decision, like the Partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

, to which none of its suffers, the people, were party, as in the words of film director, M.S. Sathyu, “What I really wanted to expose in Garm Hava was the games these politicians play...How many of us in India really wanted the partition. Look at the suffering it caused."

The screenplay was written jointly by Kaifi Azmi, and Satyu’s wife, Shama Zaidi
Shama Zaidi
Shama Zaidi is an Indian screenwriter, costume designer, art director, theatre person, art critic, and documentary filmmaker.-Biography:...

, with Kaifi Azmi, adding the dialogues to the film.

The movie ends with a poem/shairi by Kaifi Azmi "Jo door se toofan ka karte hai nazara, unke liye toofan vahan bhi hai yahan bhi

Daare me jo mil jaoge ban jaoge daara, yeh waqt ka ailaan vahan bhi hai yahan bhi" - Kaifi Azmi

Production

The film was shot in location in the city of Agra
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...

, with scenes of Fatehpur Sikri
Fatehpur Sikri
Fatehpur Sikri is a city and a municipal board in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Built near the much older Sikri, the historical city of Fatehabad, as it was first named, was constructed by Mughal emperor Akbar beginning in 1570...

 as well. Due to repeated local protests owing to its controversial theme
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

, a fake second unit with unloaded cameras were sent to various locations to divert attention from film's actual locations. As the film's commercial producers had early on backed out fearing public and governmental backlash, and ‘Film Finance Corporation’ (FFC), now National Film Development Corporation
National Film Development Corporation
National Film Development Corporation may refer to any of the following agencies:* India: National Film Development Corporation of India* Malaysia: National Film Development Corporation Malaysia...

 (NFDC
NFDC
The National Film Development Corporation of India is the central agency established in 1975, to encourage good cinema in India based in Mumbai...

), stepped in later, the film was made on a shoe-string budget of eight lakhs.

Most actors in the film, barring a few new ones like Farooq Shaikh
Farooq Shaikh
Farooq Sheikh or Farooque Sheikh is an Indian actor, philanthropist and a popular television presenter. He is best known for his films during the 1970s and 1980s. His major contribution was in Parallel Cinema or the New Indian Cinema...

 (who was making his film debut), were stage actors from Indian People's Theatre Association
Indian People's Theatre Association
Indian People’s Theatre Association was an association of leftist theatre-artists and others mostly based in Kolkata, West Bengal, Mumbai and Assam, India. Its goal was to bring cultural awakening among the people of India. It was the cultural wing of the Communist Party of India...

 (IPTA
Ipta
IPTA can refer to:* Indian People's Theatre Association* International Pulsar Timing Array...

), to which film’s lead, Balraj Sahni
Balraj Sahni
Balraj Sahni , born Yudhishthir Sahni , was a famous Hindi film actor. He belonged to a Punjabi Khatri family from Bhera now in Punjab, Pakistan...

, had long been associated, and for whom this was his last important film role, and according to many his finest performance. Badar Begum, who played his mother in this film, was in fact discovered in the locality where the film shot, in an old haveli
Haveli
Haveli is the term used for a private mansion in India and Pakistan. The word haveli is derived from the Persian word hawli, meaning "an enclosed place"...

 of Mr. R S Lal Mathur in Peepal Mandi who helped the whole unit through out the shooting.

Performance

Prior to its release the film was held by Central Board of India
Central Board of Film Certification
The Central Board of Film Certification is a Government of India regulatory body and censorship board of India controlled by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It reviews, rates and censors motion pictures, television shows, television ads, and promotional material...

, for eight months, fearing communal unrest, but film’s director persisted and showed it to government officials, leaders and journalists. Finally the film was released to both critical and commercial success.

Today it is noted for its sensitive handling of the controversial issue
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

, dealt with in only a few Indian films, like Kartar Singh (1959) (Pakistani film), Manmohan Desai
Manmohan Desai
Manmohan Desai was a producer and director of Indian movies.- Background :His father, Kikubhai Desai, was an Indian film producer and owner of Paramount Studios from 1931 to 1941. His productions, mainly stunt films, included Circus Queen, Golden Gang, and Sheikh Challi...

's Chhalia
Chhalia
Chhalia is a 1960 Hindi film. Directed by Manmohan Desai it stars Raj Kapoor, Nutan, Pran, Rehman and Shobhna Samarth. Raj Kapoor plays his stereotyped "simple guy with a heart of gold" role yet again in this film....

(1960), Yash Chopra
Yash Chopra
Yash Raj Chopra is an Indian filmmaker, film director, screenwriter, and a highly successful Bollywood producer. Waqt, Deewar, Kabhi Kabhie, Silsila, Lamhe, Chandni, Darr, Dil To Pagal Hai, and Veer-Zaara are some of his highly popular movies...

's Dharamputra (1961), Govind Nihalani
Govind Nihalani
Govind Nihalani is an Indian director, cinematographer, and also a screenwriter and film producer. He has been directing Hindi films since the late seventies, and worked in the television medium.- Biography :...

's Tamas (1986), Pamela Rooks
Pamela Rooks
Pamela Rooks was an Indian film director and screenwriter, most known for the film, Train to Pakistan set in Partition of India and based on Khushwant Singh’s novel, it was screened at several international film festivals...

' Train to Pakistan
Train to Pakistan
Train To Pakistan is a historical novel by Khushwant Singh, published in 1956. It recounts the Partition of India in August 1947.Instead of depicting the Partition in terms of only the political events surrounding it, Singh digs into a deep local focus, providing a human dimension which brings to...

(1998), Manoj Punj's Shaheed-e-Mohabbat Boota Singh (1999) and Chandra Prakash Dwivedi's Pinjar
Pinjar
Pinjar may refer to:* Pinjar, Western Australia, suburb of Perth, Western Australia* Pinjar , novel by Amrita Pritam* Pinjar , 2003 Bollywood film...

(2003).

Ironically, in the subsequent National Film Awards
National Film Awards
The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it is administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate of Film Festivals since 1973.Every year, a national panel...

, it was awarded the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration
Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration
The Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration is a National Film Award - Silver Lotus, given to an Indian feature film director, for the best film relating to National Integration in India.The winners of the Award:-References:...

.

Cast

  • Balraj Sahni
    Balraj Sahni
    Balraj Sahni , born Yudhishthir Sahni , was a famous Hindi film actor. He belonged to a Punjabi Khatri family from Bhera now in Punjab, Pakistan...

     - Salim Mirza
  • Geeta Siddharth - Amina Mirza
  • Farooq Shaikh
    Farooq Shaikh
    Farooq Sheikh or Farooque Sheikh is an Indian actor, philanthropist and a popular television presenter. He is best known for his films during the 1970s and 1980s. His major contribution was in Parallel Cinema or the New Indian Cinema...

     - Sikander Mirza
  • Dinanath Zutshi - Halim
  • Badar Begum - Salim's mother
  • Shaukat Azmi (Kaifi)
  • A. K. Hangal
    A. K. Hangal
    Avtar Kishan Hangal , popularly known as A. K. Hangal, is a well known Indian character actor in Hindi language films. His most notable roles are as the Inder Sen in Shaukeen, as Rahim Chacha in Sholay and as Ram Shastri in Aaina...

     - Ajmani Sahab
  • Abu Siwani - Baqar Mirza
  • Jalal Agha
    Jalal Agha
    Jalal Agha was an Indian actor and director in Bollywood films. Son of the popular comedian Agha, Jalal studied acting at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.-Career:...

     - Shamshad
  • Jamal Hashmi - Kazim
  • Rajendra Raghuvanshi - As Salim Mirza's Driver

Academy Awards

  • 1974: Indian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Cannes Film Festival

  • 1974: Cannes Film Festival
    1974 Cannes Film Festival
    - Jury :*René Clair *Jean-Loup Dabadie *Kenne Fant *Félix Labisse *Irwin Shaw *Michel Soutter *Monica Vitti *Alexander Walker *Rostislav Yurenev -Feature film competition:...

    : Golden Palm - Nominated.

National Film Awards

  • 1974: Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration
    Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration
    The Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration is a National Film Award - Silver Lotus, given to an Indian feature film director, for the best film relating to National Integration in India.The winners of the Award:-References:...


Filmfare Awards

  • 1975: Filmfare Best Dialogue Award
    Filmfare Best Dialogue Award
    The Filmfare Best Dialogue Award is given by the Filmfare as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films. Here is a list of the award winners since 1958 and the films for which they won.-Superlatives:Most AwardsGulzar - 4...

    - Kaifi Azmi
    Kaifi Azmi
    Kaifi Azmi was an Indian Urdu poet. He is considered to be one the greatest Urdu poets of 20th century. Together with Pirzada Qasim, Jon Eliya and many others he participated in many memorable mushairas of 20th century.-Early life:...

  • 1975: Filmfare Best Screenplay Award
    Filmfare Best Screenplay Award
    The Filmfare Best Screenplay Award is given by the Filmfare magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films.-Superlatives:Most AwardsSalim-Javed - 3Basu Chatterjee - 2Mani Ratnam - 2Vijay Tendulkar - 2Rajkumar Hirani - 2...

    - Shama Zaidi
    Shama Zaidi
    Shama Zaidi is an Indian screenwriter, costume designer, art director, theatre person, art critic, and documentary filmmaker.-Biography:...

    , Kaifi Azmi
    Kaifi Azmi
    Kaifi Azmi was an Indian Urdu poet. He is considered to be one the greatest Urdu poets of 20th century. Together with Pirzada Qasim, Jon Eliya and many others he participated in many memorable mushairas of 20th century.-Early life:...

  • 1975: Filmfare Best Story Award
    Filmfare Best Story Award
    The Filmfare Award for Best Story is an given by Filmfare as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise a writer who wrote a film's story.-1950s:* 1955 Mukhram Sharma - Aulad...

    - Ismat Chughtai
    Ismat Chughtai
    Ismat Chughtai 1 was an eminent Urdu writer, known for her indomitable spirit and a fierce feminist ideology. She was considered the grand dame of Urdu fiction, as one of the four pillars of modern Urdu short story, the other three being Saadat Hasan Manto, Krishan Chander, and Rajinder Singh Bedi...

    , Kaifi Azmi
    Kaifi Azmi
    Kaifi Azmi was an Indian Urdu poet. He is considered to be one the greatest Urdu poets of 20th century. Together with Pirzada Qasim, Jon Eliya and many others he participated in many memorable mushairas of 20th century.-Early life:...


Further reading

  • Three Hindi Film Scripts, by Kafi Azmi and Shama Zaidi, 1974.
  • Four and a Quarter Our Films, Their Films, by Satyajit Ray
    Satyajit Ray
    Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...

    , Orient Longman, 2005. ISBN 8125015655.Page 100-102.
  • Garam Hawa (Hot Winds) 1973 Limiting Secularism: The Ethics of Coexistence in Indian Literature and Film, by Priya Kumar, University of Minnesota
    University of Minnesota
    The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

     Press, 2008. ISBN 0816650721. Page 186-187.

External links

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