PROJEKT iVIEW : Libaas – an Unseen Experience
iVIEW AUTHOR:
Pavan Jha (Jaipur, India)
email: pavanjha[at]gmail.com
Language: English
Libaas remains one of the most special Gulzar movie for me… Its an
Unseen film for me, still I can feel the film like any other films
that I have seen.. I have read the film [It is based on a short story
of Gulzar titled "Seema" published in Ravi Paar] and I have also
“heard” the film [thru the songs and dialouges on cassettes].. It was
almost as good as seeing the film…
The intensity of script and characters can be felt in the dialouges…
Three main characters Sudhir [played by Naseeruddin Shah.. brilliant
again as a Theater Director who puts work at the top priority and
treat relations as secondary], Seema [Shabana Azmi, the rebel wife of
Naseer, She is more a character for his director husband than a wife]
and TK [Raj Babbar, as an old friend of Naseer, [total contrast to
Naseer's character] who visits Naseer after long.. woos Shabana…. he
is more of a bubbly and charming character].
The story starts with a theater group which Naseer is struggling to setup.
Shabana is Naseer’s wife and also leading lady in his production.. The
film starts on a lighter mood and a few funny moments with Utpal dutt
(dubbed by Johnny Lever after his death), Anu Kapoor and Naseer…
Utpal Dutt introduces the leading characters in the opening scene…
“Drame me bhi miyaan-biwi ke role karate hain aur ghar pe bhi wahi..
bore nahin ho jaate ek hi role karte karte”…
For Naseer, Theatre is life… much more than anything..
“Khana banana bhool jaaogi to bardasht kar loonga par apni line bhool
jaaogi to kabhi maaf nahin karoonga..”..
Though Shabana behaves like a subordinate all the time, she has other
demands too from the life.. One of the most important scene of the
film speaks all….
Shabana (at home) : “Main baal katwa loon.. chhote karwa loon, achhi
lagoongi”..
Naseer : “to hayvadan ki padmini ka kya hoga, aur khamosh adalat ki
leela bainare ka?”
Shabana : “Matlab Padmini aur Bainare mujh se jyada important hain..
Mujh mein hamesha apne characters hi dekhte ho.. Kabhi mujhe bhi dekha
hai?”
Naseer : “Are tumhare andar to saara jahaan dekhta hoon”
Shabana : “Dialogue mat bola karo har waqt.. tumhare liye to mujh se
jyada theater important hai na.. I know if you have to choose between
theater and me.. you would choose theater”
Naseer : “Seema, theater sirf tumse hi nahin, mujhse bhi jyada
important hai.. ham dono baad me aate hain, aur theater pahle”
an introduction to the characters completes with the entry of Raj
Babbar, a businessman and an old friend of Naseer…
Shabana : “Bada hi betakalluf dost tha aapka, is tarah to pahale kisi
ko nahin dekha aapke saath…theater me to sab subordinates ki tarah
behave karte hain”
The story develops and restricts to the three main characters, their
egos, the bondage and the break in relationships. The focus is on the
character of Shabana.
Naseer : “Ghar me rahti to ghar bore karta tha, theater me ho to
theater bore karta hai.. Hamesha wahaan rahna chahti ho jahaan nahin
ho, aur jahaan ho usase kabhi khush nahin ho.. You always want to be
somewhere else, not where you are.. and you even don’t know where you
want to be”
Shabana stops doing theater and starts spending time with Raj Babbar..
Gulzar saab like a master craftsman draws parallels between the
characters of his film and Mohan Rakesh’s Adhe Adhure using the play
being prepared by Naseer and his theater group..
Also the scene where Naseer comes to know about the affair between
Shabana and Raj Babbar, and he talks about it with Raj-Shabana is
brilliantly handled.. (atleast it “sounds” so).. What happens next
should be left undiscussed, hoping the film would release some day..
Music makes Libaas more special film.. It was the last film that
Pancham da did with Gulzar saab… Also it was only the second and the
last time Pancham da sang with Lata [for kya bura hai kya bhala]…
Music of libaas is a kind of a sequel to Ijaazat… The album contains
only 4 songs, all top class… including a superb Pancham composition
“Sili Hawa Choo Gayee”, a typical gulzarish song, beautifully rendered
by Lata… “Khamosh sa afsana” a duet by Suresh and Lata… “Phir kisi
shaakh” is the next version of “Khali haath shaam aayee hai” in the
mood and rendering… and “Kya bura hai kya bhala” is a lively group
number [a bit of qawwali touch]…
Libaas was never released in theaters though it was shown in a couple
of film festivals around 94-95….
“Jitne bhi tay karte gaye, Badhte gaye ye faasle
Meelon se din chhod aaye, saalon si raat leke chale”
[very appropriate in reference to its release also!]
We all hope it will see the light of the day.. some day… amen!
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
@Admin Guys/Mods, just 1 thing… not sure if it is legal to post a song online for listening and downloading(it shows 9 downloads but the link to it has been probably removed now) for copyright issues…i think it isn’t legal…not 100% sure though…
it wld probably be better if someone could just post a link of where 1 can listen to it online on one of those ‘legal’ sites in the comment section…
rbehemoth, thanks for letting us know. removed link.
Pavan – wow !!!!
Never knew Libaas was Seema. Seema is a fantastic short story by Gulzar. I have read the book ravi paar.. and Seema is a classic tale of mentor-protege, ideology-practicality, passion for theater-craving for domestic life.
Thanks a LOT for this… and yes “Silli Hava choo gayi” and “Khamosh sa Afsaana” are my personal Gulzar-Pancham favs …..
why didnt this movie release?????
another censorship issue or wat????doesnt seem to be a case of skin or violence…..
and with such huge names to be associated with it, it wud hav definitely got the required support and backing in the industry….
kaafir- no i dnt think it was a censorship issue. (the only time Gulzar might have had troubles with censorship must’ve been Aandhi).
I think because of distributor/producer issues
:-(
Guess who suffers ?? Gulzar fans like me and u
Pavan:
Welcome and thanks for this nice post and more thanks for elaborated infos abt Libaas. Hope we people get to see this film one day. In this DVD era, it shd not be a problem to release Some Gulzar’s collective works and then we can see Libaas and Lekin kind of films.
Seldom a male singer can make that kind of entry in a Lata Mangeshkar’s song in the way as Suresh Wadekar makes with his soft singing of the lines.
Kitne saahil dhoonde, koi na saamne aaya
Jab majdhaar mein doobe, saahil thaamne aaya
Tumne saahil, oh, pehle bichhaaya hota
Khaamosh sa afsaana ……
all 4 Songs are good for their respective chracteristics
Hope to see more on Gulzar saab from you.
Pavan…warm welcome n thnx for this nice piece. Loveeee the song….sili hawa choo gaye and khamosh sa afsana. hav seen the video of sili hawa also..simpel n nice. dont know excatly why the film never got released. must be ditsributor problem only. somebody please come forward n do thsi favour to us!!! release it on dvd.
Libaas was put on hold due to Producer-Distributor issue.. There were different attempts made in 89, 91,94, 97 (post maachis) to for its release to no avail.. Its still on hold and we @ gulzarfans community are trying to get it released on Video.. will keep you updated on this..
2. Libaas was recently recreated on stage by Javed Siddique and Salim Arif in the form of a play called “Kachche Lamhe”.. Javed Siddique saab did the fresh screenplay for the drama
3. Libaas’s script was released last year on Rajkamal Prakashan in a series of gulzar saab’s scripts titled ‘Manzarnaama’
4. As for Sili Hawa Picturisation is concerned, I have seen song in chitrahaar (early 90s) and can interpret it as below..
Raj Babbar runs a fishing company.. On one of the business trips to mid sea, Shabana accompanies him on the steamer.. She finds a lone admirer of her singing talent in Raj Babbar. She sings this song on her mid sea experience of Seeli si hawaa (badan pe chubhati hai)… samundar is referenced as Neeli nadi..
She is talking about two marriages 1. the old one with naseer (jitney bhi tay karate gaye badhate gaye ye faasle and she has already left it behind ) and the recent one with Raj Babbar (tumse mili jo zindagi hamne abhi boI nahin)
Aaaing!! This is a pleasant surprise. Sili hawa choo gayi is one of my favourite songs and i so didnt know about Libaas not being released commercially. If Kachhe Lamhe can be staged then why cant Libaas be released, as both of them are based on Seema. Aaaing! I hope i get to see both, the play and the film.
Must say I loved the expression by Stuti – Aaaing!!
I once saw ‘Sili Hawa’ on BBC(??? Same Here… I also wondered while watching it on BBC). Somehow, I got a feeling that the song was about reminicsing a passionate episode. Don’t know why…?
I have seen the songs and i guess this is Gulzar Sir’s very best. Pls see tht it gets released I do not mind the dvd or vcd versions. Goodluck on releasing d film n God bless.
If the movie was not released in India, was it released somewhere else? Can we a copy of the movie in US?
Hi Pawan, amazing fan of gulzar. can v get a dvd/vcd for this movie. I am dying to watch each of gulzar’s creation on this earth.
thanks