The troubled production of a classic
Directed by Kamal Amrohi and starring Meena Kumari alongside Raaj Kumar, Pakeezah follows Sahibjaan, a celebrated courtesan born in a graveyard who longs for love and respectability. Conceived in the mid-1950s, filming began in 1956 and endured numerous delays. The production stalled in 1964 following the separation of Amrohi and Kumari, and Kumari’s health declined sharply in the years that followed.
The shoot also suffered other losses, including the death of German cinematographer Josef Wirsching and composer Ghulam Mohammed, who died in 1968 before completing the score. Despite severe financial strain that left Amrohi deep in debt, the director refused to abandon the project or change its music. The film finally opened on Feb. 3, 1972, at Bombay’s Maratha Mandir cinema, weeks before Kumari died on March 31, 1972.
A demanding 4K restoration
More than five decades later, the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) partnered with the Amrohi family to carry out a 4K restoration of the film. The two-year project presented significant challenges, as the foundation discovered that the original camera negative had melted and lacked usable images.
To rebuild the film, the team relied on an interpositive, a CinemaScope print, and a color reversal internegative preserved at the National Film Archive of India. The restoration work was completed at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, featuring a remixed 5.1 soundtrack. Due to faded source materials and missing color references, the foundation consulted Rukhsar Amrohi, the director’s daughter, to verify costume details—such as confirming a deep magenta hue for a key scene based on lyric references.
International screenings and future projects
The restored version of Pakeezah received its world premiere at the Festival Lumière in Lyon, presented by Thierry Frémaux, followed by a sold-out gala screening at the BFI London Film Festival’s BFI Imax introduced by family members and FHF director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.
The film is scheduled for further screenings at the Smithsonian and the Academy Museum, alongside a planned wide release in India. FHF’s ongoing preservation efforts include upcoming restorations of works by directors such as Shyam Benegal, John Abraham, Bimal Roy, and Satyajit Ray.