Imroz and Amrita: Even death could not do them part

The film Imroz: A Walk Down Memory Lane by Harjit Singh releases at the Kolkata Film Festival in December

The film, Imroz: A Walk Down Memory Lane, is love’s labour of well-known TV producer and filmmaker Harjit Singh, a close friend of Amrita Pritam and her painter partner Imroz, the stars of one the greatest love-legends of our times.

The film begins after Pritam’s passing away, but celebrates their love, through the picturisation of Imroz, for whom even death could not do them part. (HT Photo)

It begins after Pritam’s passing away, but celebrates their love, through the picturisation of Imroz, for whom even death could not do them part.

It is Amrita’s last poem to her lover ‘Main Tainu phir milangi’ (I will meet you yet again), which sets the mood of a rare togetherness. It is sung hauntingly in the voice of Danish singer Anita Lerche, and is recurrent through the one-hour ode to love.

Talking of the film, Jalandhar-based Harjit says: “For 96-year-old Imroz, it is the continuation of love from life to art. The past 17 years without Amrita have not meant that she is gone.”

Imroz says: “I do not like it when people talk of Amrita in the past tense. She is with me always and with the readers of her writings.”

So, how did the film come about? “Recovering from the shock of losing Amrita, Imroz visited me in Jalandhar in 2005 and said let’s do some work together as it is what Amrita would have wanted. So, I just started shooting him not knowing what I would make of it,” says Harjit.

Imroz painted his way into the heart of the most precious jewel of Punjabi literature: our Amrita. (HT Photo)

Slowly it all came together and from the footage shot over several years, Harjit put together the film in the last three years. It may be recalled that Harjit’s association with Amrita and Imroz goes back to the 70s when he was a producer at Doordarshan, Delhi, and produced the popular programme ‘Shauk Surahi’, in which Amrita interviewed the who’s who of literature, including the famous Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz.

Embellished with beautiful frames, both indoors and outdoors, the film has rare interviews of writers such as Dalip Kaur Tiwana and Surjit Patar and filmmaker Ved Rahi.

Imroz himself tells in a matter-of-fact manner of their first meeting: “Amrita approached me to design one of her book covers. I did so and she liked it and I dare say she liked me too!”

It may be recalled that Harjit’s association with Amrita and Imroz goes back to the 70s when he was a producer at Doordarshan, Delhi, and produced the popular programme ‘Shauk Surahi’, in which Amrita interviewed the who’s who of literature, including the famous Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz. (HT Photo)

Harjit adds that Imroz indeed painted his way into the heart of the most precious jewel of Punjabi literature: our Amrita. After being released at Kolkata, the film will be screened in Chandigarh and different places in Punjab.