Govind Nihalani made some of the finest films of the 20th century: Aakrosh, Ardh Satya, Party, Aaghat and, of course, the Partition epic television series Tamas.
On his 84th birthday on December 19, a tribute.
Govindaji was born in Karachi in 1940 and grew up in Udaipur after his family migrated to India during Partition.
Before he became a director Govindaji worked as a cinematographer. He worked with Shyam Benegal on as many as eight films, including Ankur, Manthan, Bhumika and Junoon.
Govindji made his directorial debut with Aakrosh in 1980, arguably the most impressive first film by a director since Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali and Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Swayamvaram.
Govindji counts four people as his mentors: Shyam Benegal, Theatre Legend Satyadev Dubey, Cinematographer V K Murthy and Producer Manmohan Shetty. He worked as an assistant to Murthy before he became an independent cinematographer.
Ardh Satya, his 1983 film starring Amrish Puri, Om Puri and Sadashiv Amrapurkar, was a box office success. Govindji shot two different endings for the film as he was not convinced with the original ending by writer Vijay Tendulkar, the legendary playwright.
While he received several offers to make commercial films, Govindji chose to film the rather esoteric and cerebral Party.
Tamas, Govindji's Partition epic, was telecast on Doordarshan in six episodes in 1987.
According to Wikipedia: 'Upon release, the film stirred a lot of controversies as it was set in the backdrop of religious violence. The Hyderabad office of Doordarshan was attacked. Nihalani received threats and was placed under police protection for eight weeks. On 21 January 1988, the Bombay high court issued a stay to prevent further screening of the series after hearing a petition from businessman Javed Siddiqui who in his plea stated that the serial "would poison the minds of the people". Two days later, the court overruled the stay in favour of the series stating that it treated the "fundamentalists" in both communities equally. The court further added "The message is loud and clear [...] directed as it is against the sickness of communalism, the extremists stand exposed when realisation dawns on both communities who ultimately unite as brothers".'
When Govindji expressed his desire to work in cinema, his father refused him outright. Papa changed his mind after seeking the advice of their family guru, Shri Brahamanand.
He was one of the cinematographers on Richard Attenborough's Gandhi.
Three of Govindji's films in the late 1990s and early 2000s featured major movie stars: Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Ma (1998) marked Jaya Bachchan's return to cinema, Thakshak (1999) featured Ajay Devgan and Tabu while Dev (2004) had Amitabh Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor in major roles.
Govindji has won 6 National Awards and 5 Filmfare Awards, and we believe it is time he was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest honour for achievements in cinema.
2004's Dev was Govindji's swan song. He has made one more film after the Amitabh Bachchan-Om Puri-Kareena Kapoor starrer -- the Marathi film Ti Ani Itar in 2017.
His film Drohkaal was one of India's first films that probed terrorism. It featured Govindji's favourite actors -- Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri, and a stunning array of younger performers (Ashish Vidyarthi, Mita Vashisht, Manoj Bajpayee) and was remade in Tamil as Kuruthipunl, starring Kamal Haasan.