Daily Times

Mira Hashmi’s book titled Gulzar’s Ijazat – Insights into the Film was launched on Friday at Faiz Ghar, in an hour-long ceremony starting at 5:30pm and ending at 6:30pm.

The guests, after crossing a green lawn, were made to enter a neat and clean, tiled room through a classy wooden door. Chairs as well as floor cushions were arranged, catering to varying levels of comfort.

When film-admirers, book-lovers, Hashmi family’s friends and relatives and a few people from media filled the room, a starting note of two minutes was given by Muneeza Hashmi, after which the mic was handed over to Sarmad Khoosat and Mira Hashmi, both of whom were seated on the stage in order to have a conversation on the book.

Khoosat, who was moderating the session started off with a discussion on the poetic style of writing pervading Mira Hashmi’s book, and after reading two to three passages from the beautiful book having a glossy red and plain orange cover, commenced interviewing the author regarding her experience of writing the book.

Quite an intriguing conversation ensued, filled with anecdotes from the author’s personal life as a film-lover and film-instructor, as well as her experience of visiting Mumbai for extracting the primary data for her work through the most reliable and authentic of sources such as Gulzar, Rekha, Anuradha Patel and Naseeruddin Shah themselves.

Khoosat, who was moderating the session, started off with a discussion on the poetic style of writing pervading Mira Hashmi’s book and after reading two to three passages from the beautiful book having a glossy red and plain orange cover, commenced interviewing the author regarding her experience of writing the book

The guests, on a projected screen, were then made to taste a piece of the cinematic work, confined to the most popular song of the film, “Mera Kuch Samaan”, following which an interesting piece of information about the song’s composition was given. After the song, a discussion on the characters of the film took place, which according to the author, are flexible, and more human, for they can neither be always sided with, nor be permanently turned against, as happens in commercial, hero/villain films.

Mira Hashmi, throughout the event, kept on giving the suggestion to the guests to re-watch the film, which she told that she did herself as well in order to have a better and profound understanding of “Ijazat” and its characters.

On the whole, the discussion on the film and the book related to it was fun-filled, owing to Hashmi’s gripping tales about her encounters with Gulzar and Rekha and Sarmad Khoosat’s witty remarks and gestures, particular to his personality.

The guests were also given a chance to put questions before the author, after which, as promised, the event came to an end at exact 6:30, and the moment came to buy the book itself, the copies of which have made way to Pakistan after a lot of hurdles, occurring as a result of Pakistan and India’s never-ending conflicts, and which at one point, had also made the author afraid that her book, published by Harper Collins India, might never be able to reach Pakistan.

However, there were multiple copies of the book available at discount at the event, which people bought and got signed by Mira Hashmi. It was also told that more copies of the book are present at Readings and The Last Word, two important bookstores of Lahore, from where the people who have not been able to attend the launching ceremony can buy it.

The writer is a freelance journalist and can be reached at m.ali_aquarius85@yahoo.com