The entire Antarang Hall was packed with the movie buffs on Friday afternoon as they enjoyed watching one of the classics of Bollywood. Hindi movie Sparsh was screened at Bharat Bhavan on Friday.
The film screening received a great response by the Bhopalites and a huge crowd was seen at the hall.
The 1980 Indian Hindi feature film directed by Sai Paranjpye stars Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi playing the characters of a visually impaired principal and a sighted teacher in a school for the blind, where they fall in love though soon their complexes tag along and they struggle to get past them to reconnect with the touch of love.
Sparsh is a wonderfully made movie. The acting is one of the best made in many years. Most movies featuring physically challenged people end up in showing sympathy and depict what normal people can do for them.
Anirudh Parmar (Naseeruddin) is blind, but he does not let this impairment bind him down. He runs a school for the blind as a Principal. He meets with social worker, Kavita (Shabana). Kavita is attracted to him, and he slowly also gets attracted to her. When marriage is proposed, both agree to marry each other. Then Anirudh starts having doubts whether this marriage is going to succeed, as he feels he is being patronized, and pitied
Notably, the film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. The film won numerous awards including National Film Award - Best Actor for Naseeruddin Shah, while Sai Paranjpye got the Best Screenplay.
The film remains most memorable for the subtle acting of its leads, plus the handling of the issue of relationships with the visually handicapped, revealing the emotional and perception divide between the world, the blind and the sighted, epitomized by the characters.