Details

Release year: 1972

Storyline

In Lucknow at the turn of the century, a dancer and courtesan believes that her pure soul and body will enable her to find true love and honor.

Top credits

Directors

Kamal Amrohi

Writers

Cast

Ashok Kumar — Shahabuddin
Meena Kumari — Nargis, Sahibjaan
Raaj Kumar — Salim Ahmed Khan
Veena — Nawabjaan

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Did you know

• It took 14 years for this film to be completed. To begin with, the film was launched in 1958, jointly planned by Kamal Amrohi and 'Meena Kumari'. It was launched in black-and-white, but when colour came in vogue, Amrohi scrapped those portions already shot and decided to start again. Later, Cinemascope came into vogue, and Amrohi acquired a Cinemascope lens from MGM and scrapped the plain colour portions too. Then Amrohi and Kumari separated in 1964, bringing filming to an indefinite halt. Finally, the film was resumed in 1968, and though by then Kumari was suffering from alcoholism and was in critical condition, she was still Amrohi's only choice and she agreed to complete the film.

• Kamal Amrohi acquired a Cinemascope lens from MGM on a royalty basis for shooting the film. However, he detected a focusing error in the rush prints that had been missed by the cameraman and even the UK lab team that processed the film. On hearing of this, MGM instructed its Indian subsidiary chief not to collect any more royalty and gave the lens to Amrohi as a gift.

• In 1972, veteran actor Pran Sikand turned down his Filmfare Award for Be-Imaan (1972), because while the Filmfare Best Music Award had gone to Shankar-Jaikishen for his own film Be-Imaan (1972), he felt that Pakeezah (1972) had not been awarded on merit and that the late 'Ghulam Mohammed' was more deserving of that award.