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Habba Khatoon enthralls audience

SANA ALTAF. Dated: 12/15/2013 11:38:19 PM

SRINAGAR, Dec 15: Dressed in traditional Kashmiri outfit, wildly walking through the meadows as Reeta Razdan sings, ‘Gah Chon Pewan Gati’. The audiences get lost in time, as legendary music of Kashmir’s most popular telefilm, Habba Khatoon, echoes on the concluding day international film festival.
It was after nearly two decades that the film was screened after it was lost in official records. The film not only presented the life of Kashmir’s famous poetess of 16 century, Habba Khatoon, but only depicted the life of ancient Kashmir. Actress Reeta Razdan posed as Habba Khatoon in the film while Ghani Khan played the character of Yousuf Shah Chak,
The black and white movie shot in 1970’s is at par with any award winning telefilm. The songs of the film continue to be popular till date. The film is directed by Bashir Budgami. For complete 123 minutes duration of the film, the audiences at SKICC remained hooked to their seats.
“It feels lovely to watch this film. I had heard a lot about this film and always wanted to watch it. My dream if fulfilled today,” said Abeer, a student.
Munaza, another student said she watched her first Kashmiri films at the festival.
“I had not watched any Kashmiri film. I watched my first local movie yesterday and today was the second one. I am awed.”
Even as a number of other short films from other countries were screened during the two day festival which began on December 14, the major attractions have been two old Kashmiri films-Manziraat and Habba Khatoon. Most of the crowd attending the festival had come only to watch Kashmiri movies.
On its concluding day today, thirteen other short films from across the globe were screened.
A film on Kashmiri Pandith migrants, ‘The last day’ by Siddartha Gigoo was screened at the festival. A 12 minutes film is set in 1994 in a camp for Kashmiri Pandith migrant. It portrays four frayed lives in a scrawny 8X10 tent. An old patriarch is battling dementia on his deathbed. His wife has lost the will to live. His son and daughter-in-law struggle for personal space.
Siddhartha is the author of novel ‘The garden of solitude.’ His debut short film ‘ the last day’ was selected for several international film festivals and won the best debutant director award at the lake city international short film festival.
‘Sama’- Muslim mystic music of India explores the Islamic music, tradition in India and portrays how the two have borrowed and taken inspiration from each other in both forum and content to become a truly magnificent sound. It is as much a story of music as it is of the process of making music with a country people and its culture of polarity, multiplicity and tolerance.
Shazia Khan was born in Srinagar. She directed over 50 documentary films. Fourty six minutes short film ‘Quran contemporary connections’ uncovers shocking facts, astonishing revelation and intriguing results about Islam. The finding raise as many questioned as they answer. Farooq Masudi, the director of the film has more than two thousands of TV serials and shows to his credit as a producer, director and writer.
Eighteen minutes short film ‘Dili’ brings out a stark comparison of the rampant progress and development of the megalopolis vis-a-vis thousands who are left homeless while the whole city modernized and revamped. Dilli was declared the 1st place winner in short documentary section at Los Angeles Movies Award. The film also won the best cinematography award in the short documentary section. It won the best documentary award at 2012 Norwich Film Festival.
‘Mother and I’, a film by three women from Afghanistan-Zainab Jafri, Fariba Baqeri and Heleema Hashemi was also screened.
The eight minute film is a story about a seven year old girl who lost her mother at birth but meets her in the world of her drama. The film won third prize in the street children film festival
Other films screened included Global Warming, Khair, The story of change, life on wheels, Train in Kashmir, Dal Lake and Social Networking. At the end of the event awards were presented to the three best films.
Besides, 4th annual contemporary art show-quest for the finest artist of Kashmir-season IV was also held together with the festival.