The film survived a studio fire, a separation and two deaths along the way. Pakeezah, a film that Kamal Amrohi began shooting in 1956 as a tribute to the beauty of his wife, Meena Kumari — then a rising star, saw its fair share of hurdles in its journey till release. When the film finally arrived in 1972, Meena, who had become a huge star by then, passed away within weeks of its release.

This week, Pakeezah begins another chapter in its long journey. The Film Heritage Foundation’s new 4K restoration of Pakeezah will premiere at Festival Lumière in Lyon, France, before heading to the 70th BFI London Film Festival, scheduled from October 7 to 18. The London festival announced its lineup on Wednesday. The fest describes it as “one of the last great classical musicals of Indian cinema, the visually opulent and emotionally tragic Pakeezah is a Byzantine story of star-crossed lovers.”

FHF director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, who restored the film, tells us, “The restoration of Pakeezah took two years. It has been one of the most exciting yet one of the most challenging restorations I have worked on." Even cinema experts consider it one of the most moving and most extravagant productions in Indian film history. We take a look at the iconic film's arduous journey to restoration.

In an interview to Star and Style just a few days after the release of the film, Meena Kumari said, "Pakeezah is the beloved, which has been born of this filmmaker’s imagination nearly two decades ago. ‘Pakeezah’ is the vision which has haunted his soul for as long as I can remember. . . I have lived with ‘Pakeezah’ almost as long as I have lived with its creator . . . For Kamal Saheb, the filmmaker, it was to be his life’s work, his raison d’etre... But both of us went back eventually, and we finished this film together – he as its creator and I as its physical, spiritual and visual embodiment.”

Meena Kumari will remain the greatest artiste the Indian screen has ever known: Ashok Kumar

In an interview to the same magazine, Ashok Kumar, who played the role of Nawab Shahabuddin, said, "Pakeezah kept me in touch with two of the biggest talents which the Indian screen will ever know – the poet-director Kamal Amrohi, and Meena Kumari, my co-star in Pakeezah and so many earlier films. She is, and will remain, probably the greatest artiste the Indian screen has ever known."

Pakeezah took fifteen agonising years to make, from 1956 to its release on February 4, 1972 - plagued by a switch to colour, a studio fire, casting delays, and went over budget due to Kamal Amrohi's determination for perfectionism in each frame. The star Meena Kumari and Kamal Amrohi separated in 1964, leaving it abandoned as she struggled with alcoholism and cirrhosis. When her friends Sunil Dutt and Nargis saw the rushes, they convinced her to finish it in 1969. Along the way, German cinematographer Josef Wirsching and composer Ghulam Mohammed both died before seeing it completed.

It was released to critical acclaim; the film became a box office hit, but Meena Kumari died just weeks later. Cinema experts say that the film was released at a moment when cinema was moving away from the refined, Urdu-inflected literary style and studio aesthetic of the 1950s and 1960s toward more modern, urban, and action-oriented storytelling.

Late British film critic and historian Derek Malcolm described Pakeezah as one of the most extraordinary musical melodramas ever made.

The restoration team found that Pakeezah’s original negative was almost melted and unusable, but recovered an interpositive, a CinemaScope print and a colour reversal internegative (CRI) from archival sources. With no surviving original camera negative or principal crew to consult, the team used original shooting stills and memories of Kamal Amrohi’s children, Tajdar and Rukhsaar Amrohi, to help recreate the film’s colours.

The surviving elements had scratches, mould, fading, grain, halos, vinegar syndrome and colour inconsistencies, requiring extensive digital restoration and colour correction.

The sound was restored in 5.1 using the film’s sound negative and a release print, while the restoration sought to maintain consistency across the different surviving picture elements.

Pakeezah was restored in 4K by Film Heritage Foundation at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with Bilal Amrohi of Lionheart Cinema.

Ever since I forayed into the world of film restoration, it has been my dream to restore Pakeezah. I first watched the film as a child, with my grandmother, in a cinema in Dumraon, Bihar, and it has stayed with me since.

The restoration took two years and was among the hardest I've worked on. When I went to inspect the original camera negative and saw that it had almost melted, my heart sank. In my mind, I could see each frame like a painting saturated with colours, the opulent sets and the luminous beauty of Meena Kumari and the songs of Ghulam Mohammed were ringing in my ears as if it was yesterday, but not a single cast or crew member survived from the film and I wondered how I would be able to restore Kamal Amrohi’s original vision with what I had to work with.

We couldn’t have asked for a better showcase for the restored Pakeezah than the Festival Lumiere in Lyon, the birthplace of cinema, which is helmed by Thierry Frémaux, Director of the Festival Lumière and the Cannes Film Festival.

The screening in France will be followed by the UK premiere at the London Film Festival at a gala screening at the BFI IMAX.

"Pakeezah was my father’s obsession, his dream, his oxygen that gave meaning to his life. He nurtured the film for over fifteen years like a child till it was fully matured and ready to be presented to the world. As a thirteen year-old, I witnessed the countless sacrifices my father made and the relentless dedication and perfectionism in the face of almost insurmountable challenges to make his vision a reality. I have preserved every bit of his legacy that remains in Amroha, but for years, I felt that my father’s legacy as a great master of cinema had been forgotten.

I only wish my father were alive to see his creation restored and reborn for the world to see fifty four years after it released. I cannot wait to see the restored film back on the big screen and I will be travelling to London to present the film.

I was at the grand premiere of Pakeezah in 1972 with my father and Choti Ammi (Meena Kumari) and the film cans arrived at Maratha Mandir in a palanquin. I never imagined that I would be presenting the restored film with my family at the gala premiere in London fifty fouryears later.

I would like to thank Shivendra Singh Dungarpur and Film Heritage Foundation for restoring the film with so much passion and meticulous care and for bringing my father and his greatest work back to life so that new generations will see the unforgettable Meena Kumari and enjoy the beauty of the film.

I remember when I was a child, my father was deep into the making of Pakeezah. Everything in our lives revolved around Pakeezah. My father had put in everything he had in the film and whenever we asked him for anything as children, his response would always be, “After Pakeezah.” Pakeezah was his life’s mission. I have so many memories of the film as I would regularly visit the sets on Floor No. 3 at Filmistan where much of the film was shot. The film has influenced generations of filmmakers and even today I am sometimes asked how did he achieve some of the shots.