Production of Pakeezah
Production of the 1972 Indian film Pakeezah / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pakeezah (transl.āThe Pure One) is a 1972 Indian Hindustani-language musical romantic drama film written, directed, and produced by Kamal Amrohi. The film focuses on a dejected courtesan (Meena Kumari), who seeks a solution to her grief by attempting to run away from her kotha. The rest of the film follows the romance story between her and a forest ranger (Raaj Kumar), and her marriage which is rejected by his family because of her professional background.
Amrohi wanted to make a film that was dedicated to his wife, Kumari, so he began conceiving the story based on the legend of Anarkali after the release of their poorly received collaborative film, Daaera. When his contemporary K. Asif started the development of Mughal-e-Azam, whose plot is on the same subject, Amrohi started to write an original story of a nautch girl. The screenplay was started in 1956 in Mahabaleshwar with help from Akhtar ul Iman and Madhusudan, whom he asked to expand it. Advertisements for the film were first published in 1958, and the film faced several changes in title.
Principal photography started in 1956 and was handled by the German cinematographer Josef Wirsching. The original plan was to film Pakeezah in black and white but Amrohi decided doing so entirely in colour on Kumari's recommendation. Impacted by Kumari's stardom, the process was sluggish, for which the film became known for its lengthy production time. After her and Amrohi's separation, Pakeezah was left abandoned before being revived in 1969 and completely finished, along with its editing, in 1971; many cinematographers replaced Wirsching's position as he died in 1967.