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Cine lovers of Hindi Cinema has something to celebrate as script of Basu Da’s debut film Sara Akash, has been published.

Sara Akash is an important film in the sense that many people made their debut through this film and this film paved the way for new styled off beat films in Hindi cinema.

(1) The book,

Sara Akash was the debut novel of famous Hindi author Rajendra Yadav. This book was first published with the title “Pret Bolte hain” (Ghosts speak) in early years of 1950s and later in 1960s it was again published with a new title “Sara Akash“.

Rajendra ji had written the novel during the period when either he was doing his graduation or just after finishing the graduation. Book explored the transition period of youngsters when they are filled with lot of dreams of doing something and they think they can do a lot of things which others are not doing and their family members (parents and elders) want them to lead normal traditional life and want them to marry the person they have chosen. Novel’s hero also is filled with lot of ambitions and he does not want to get married as he thinks married life will hinder his progress. Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were exploring marriage and live-in relationship in Europe through their writings, and experiments in real life and almost at same time Rajendra Ji was also exploring the similar fields through his writings. Book was taken as something revolutionary at that time.

Years later Rajendra Ji revealed that hero in his book was modelled on the basis of his childhood friend, who later migrated to Canada and who perhaps died last year.

(2) The film,

It was first film of Basu Chaterjee . More about the film

Through this film actor Rakesh Pande made his debut. This could be the only film where director Mani Kaul has acted. Late Arun Kaul who recently died, was a key person in bringing two creative people together Rajendra Yadav from literary world and Basu Chaterjee from cinematic world. Not sure but writer Late Kamleshwar should also be associated with this project. Perhaps he wrote the dialogues for the film. Film explored deeply the psychology of the characters and did not remain on surface only. Events, subsequent behaviour of characters were explored properly and film brought new dimension in the hindi cinema.

Film had seen debut of cinematographer KK Mahajan also.

Now, Rajkamal Publication , New Delhi has published the book “Sara Akash, Patkatha, (Script)”.

Former Director of Doordarshan Kendra (Prasar Bharti) Mr Prabhu Jhingran has reviwed the book in a daily newspaper Dainik Jagran. His review !

Thanks to Mr Jhingran who informed PFC about the book. He writes to PFC,

I want to share, with the members of PFC, this book which gives you the opportunity to go through the original story along with the film script in a single book, so you can compare both at a time & have a feel that how the most complicated story was converted into a great film script. At the same time reading the statements of Basu Chaterjee & Rajendra Yadav about the making of Sara Aakash could be of great interest for any film lover/scholar.

This is the first book published in India in this form, as I have suggested in the review, we should have more such books on other great films.

[Mr Jhingran has recently published his book "THE PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATED MEDIA HAND BOOK - FILM & CINEMATOGRAPHY" (PART - 1) The details of the book are available on the website www.pilgrimsbooks.com ]

From the mere title, Book looks very useful for the readers who have interest in cinema and cinematography.

Scripts of Basu Da’s some other films and scripts of most of the Gulzar Saab’s films have also been published and such books have opened a new gate before the hindi cine lovers to read the detailed descritption of the making the films.

To know, how some of the great films were made or what was the basic raw material in print medium which ultimately was transformed in to the films and came to us in the visual format, should be an interesting learning experience.

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