|
 Govind
Nihalani is yet another Sindhi
personality whose life went under the
painful experience of 1947 partition,
though Govind was at tender age of
seven years, being born on 19th August
1940, but still this painful and very
strong uprooting of Sindhis craved
into his mind and got expression with
his famous television serial "Tamas".
This is
the fact that beside the business
talent God has blessed the Sindhis
with unique intellectual talent for
the language, literature and
performing art. Govind Nihalani is one
of best illustrations for this. He
completed his graduation in
cinematography from the "Shree Jaya
Chamarajendra Polytechnic Bangalore"
in the year 1962 and started working
at Bombay [Mumbai] the dream city of
Indian youth.
First
major breakthrough of his professional
career was "Shantata! Court Chalo Aahe"
[ silence! Court in the Session] a
Marathi feature film, in which he
worked not only behind the camera eye
but also was co-producer with famous
director and play writer Satyadev
Dubey.
Govind's
association with director Shyam
Benegal can be said historic for
Indian film Industry as this duo went
to work in tandem for several
documentaries including one long one
on legendry "Satya Jit Ray" and more
than ten feature films out of which "Junoon"
brought most fame and "Best
Cinematography" National Award for the
Govind Nihalani in the year 1979.
Another significant evidence for the
unmatched talent Govind have for
working behind the camera was
illustrated when for Girish Karand he
photographed Kannada film "Kadu" [The
Forest].
His work was expanding wings and he
came with "Aakrosh" for which he was
cinematographer director. This film
brought a double glory for him as at
the International Film Festival of
India held in the Delhi he was honored
to share "Golden Peacock Award" ,
people started to look upon him as a
serious film maker, his work was being
noticed and appreciated on World
level, Legendry Richard Attenborough
approached him for working as the
cinematographer director [Second Unit]
for his dream project "Gandhi".
Those were the days of very high
influence of angry young man image of
Amitabh Bachan and under going the
need for the parallel or art cinema.
Govind with his off beat topics for
his films was the front runner. In the
year 1982 he came with "Vijeta" [The
Victor] a film having back ground with
Indian Air Force and in 1983 with "Ardh
Satya" [Half Truth], which went on to
prove a huge commercial success also,
critics were also highly impressed
with this film which went to be
adjudged as the "Best Hindi Film" by
the selection committee for the
National Film Awards.
At the International film
festival of India 1984, Govind's
"Party" was the official Indian entry
for the festival and Rohini Hattangadi
went on to win the National Award for
"Best Supporting Actress". For the
same Film Vijaya Mehta won the "Best
Actress" at Asia Pacific Film
Festival in the year 1985.
Beside working behind the
camera as the director and
photographer Govind has also played a
vital role in pre production of many
films in the capacity of Story and
screen play writer. "Takshak" released
in 1999 [Story and screen play] and
1998 released "Hazar Chourasi Ki Maa"
[screen play] are the best
illustration for this unique talent of
Govind Nihalani.
During the long career in
Indian Cinema Govind has won many
National and international awards. He
is among rare class of Hindi Film
Directors who were honored twice at
Filmfare awards with award for "Best
Director". Till date he won in all
five filmfare awards as listed below.
|
