Documentary on Imroz and Amrita Pritam’s lives competes in Kolkata film fest

Kolkata: Trapped in a loveless marriage at a young age, author Amrita Pritam had initially fallen in love with poet and lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi and then artist Imroz. While her relationship with Sahir remained unfulfilled, she spent the rest of her life living in with Imroz. For the first time, a documentary has been made on Imroz where the artist himself has come on camera speaking about his relationship. Harjit Singh’s ‘Imroz — A Walk Down Memory Lane’ is in competition at KIFF and had its first screening on Friday.
One of the film’s most poignant moments goes back to May 1958 when Pritam’s marriage was “withering away like a lifeless tree and her heart was pining for Sahil who lived in Mumbai”. “Amrita’s drifting hardship was seeking an anchor to steady her. She just demanded three days from Imroz. They spent those three walking and sitting in silence under the flaming laburnum trees with their flowers in full bloom,” said Singh. What makes the recollection beautiful is Singh’s supporting visual of an elderly Imroz sitting under flaming laburnum trees while a voiceover mentions that “somewhere in that silent spaces of knowing, a decision of spending their lives together was taken”.
Imroz in a still from the documentary
Pritam passed away in 2005. Imroz will be turning 96 soon. “He has watched the film. He just said ‘changi hai’ (great). He lives with Amrita’s granddaughter and grandson. Imroz is a very self-contained person. He is very active and still paints,” said Singh, who is also a television producer.
Singh’s association with the stars of one the greatest love-legends of our times began in the 1970s. Pritam had agreed to anchor a television show. “For ‘Shauk Surahi’, she did a one-hour-long interview with Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Imroz is like an elder brother to me. Some eight to nine years ago, my wife urged me to make a film on Imroz,” Singh said. With no financial resources, Singh couldn’t even afford a cinematographer and did the job himself.
Yet, the documentary is rich in aesthetics with bright colours flowing on screen as effortlessly as Imroz’s emotions. When Imroz first read Pritam’s novel titled ‘Doctor Dev’, he felt that the protagonist – Krishnalal - was his own reflection. “That Imroz met Amrita in person five years later was a different matter,” the director said. Pritam has confessed in her personal diary that she has “written Imroz for the longest time. He is that character of my stories, poems and novels I have lost myself writing. He is Kumar in ‘Chak Number Chhatti’, Iqbal in ‘Ik Si Anita’, Jagdip in ‘Ek Sawaal’, Sumer in ‘Bandh Darwaja’ and Naseer in ‘Dilli ki Galiyan’”.
The docu also has rare interviews of writers such as Dalip Kaur Tiwana and Surjit Patar and filmmaker Ved Rahi. Another memorable moment is when quite matter-of-factly Imroz speaks about their first meeting. Pritam approached him to design a book cover. “I did so and she liked it and I dare say she liked me too!” On another lighter note, he recounts how sitting in her room, Pritam had tried to dissuade him saying that she was 40, already married and had borne children while he hadn’t yet seen the world. “I got up, paced the room five-six times and went up to her and said: ‘I have seen the world’. Amrita replied: ‘What does one do with a man like you?’” Imroz said.
Yet, the documentary doesn’t elaborate on Imroz’s take on Pritam’s relationship with Sahir. What happens to the ego of a man madly in a love with his partner if he is aware that she is also in love with someone else? “In case of Sahir, I think it was a one-sided love from Amrita’s end. Amrita was married to a shopkeeper Pritam Singh. Although the couple lived together, they were in different zones. Amrita’s husband died in her house. Imroz was also there. I have not touched this zone but am very keen to ask him that when I meet him now,” he added.