Saeed Akhtar Mirza
| Saeed Akhtar Mirza | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
30 June 1943 Mumbai, Maharashtra |
| Occupation | Film director, screenwriter |
| Awards | National Film Award for Best Direction: Naseem (1986) |
Saeed Akhtar Mirza (born 30 June 1943) is an Indian screenwriter and director in Hindi films and television. He is the maker of important Parallel cinema films like Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! (1984), Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai (1980), Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro (1989) and Naseem (1995), which won two National Film Awards in 1996.
He is director of the popular TV serials Nukkad (Street Corner) (1986) and Intezaar (Wait) (1988), along with various documentary films on social welfare and cultural activism. He is also a trustee of ANHAD, a Delhi-based NGO working for communal harmony.
Saeed was born in 1943, in Mumbai, Maharashtra to Akhtar Mirza, noted screenwriter himself, who won the Filmfare Best Story Award for Waqt (1965).
After working in advertising for some time, Mirza joined the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, India, from where he graduated in 1976. Subsequently, later in his career, he also taught at the institute, going on to become chairman of the premier institute.
Saeed Akhtar Mirza started his career as a documentary film maker in 1976, graduating to films with the acclaimed Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan (1978), about the frustrations of an idealistic youth caught in the trap of a feudal money culture. It won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie for the year. This was followed by Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai (1980), about an angry youth, in search of his class and ethnic identifications. This too won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie. Next in this series of his based on the urban middle class, came his satire on the Indian judicial system, Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! (1984), an old couple which struggles for years in their legal case that runs for years under a corrupt judiciary, in nexus with real-estate developer. Set in the urban ‘middle class’, his film chronicled their struggles and search of identity in a rapidly changing landscape and economic conditions. Then finally in his angst-ridden movies came, Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro (1989), starring Pawan Malhotra, an archetypal Muslim youth caught in the circle of crime and recrimination, and their collective state amidst growing communalism, ghetto mentality, and a search for an ethnic identity which does not clash with a national identity.
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