Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 3, 2015)

When Basu Bhattacharya confided in Sangeeth Sivan's father that his son, Aditya, wanted to direct a film, cinematographer-director Sivan immediately offered to loan him his equipment, which included lights and a Mitchell camera, and his sons, Santosh and Sangeeth. Sangeeth was a capable production guy with contacts at Prasad Lab in Chennai which got him rolls of high speed Agfa film for free which Santosh, a talented cinematographer, put to good use, reeling off one brilliant four-minutes, 400-feet shots after another. He even did the dissolves and superimpositions in camera, having experimented on this earlier with his brother on the documentaries they had worked on.

"Babla (Aditya) and Nusrat (Aamir Khan's sister) would write the script all day and we would shoot through the night. The last shot would be taken as day was breaking and the last Rs 200 would be spent on chai, samosas and jalebis," recalls Sangeeth, adding that one day, Pankaj Kapur wanted a packet of cigarettes. "The money was over so I scrounged around and managed to put together the Rs 80 needed. The next day, he returned the money to me, saying I could pay back what I owned to everyone in tens and twenties having watched me beg and borrow."

He recalls shooting at Bandra with Pankaj waiting on a bike under a lamp post. He had to strike a match which cast a glow on his face. "He gave us take after perfect take without the match blowing out despite a strong wind from the sea. It was only later that he revealed that he'd strike three-four matches together knowing he wouldn't be caught out in a long shot," says Sangeeth.

Aamir was shooting for Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak simultaneously and would turn up whenever he had an evening free and the rest of the team who had bunked out at Basu's bungalow for two months, would spring into action. Even though they could only shoot when co-producer Asif Noor who had a shop in Bandra sold a pant or a shirt, the shoot went off smoothly. None of the crew got paid and even Aamir used his remuneration for the promotions. Raakh was ready before QSQT but as they had promised, they waited for Aamir's uncle, Nasir Hussain's film to release first. It was a blockbuster and they were rewarded with a steady stream of distributors. But many of them got scared off when they discovered that it was a dark, three-hour plus film with no masala. The ones who stayed insisted on its length being trimmed down. "Babla who was out of the country, warned that not a single frame should be cut," reveals Sangeeth. "But Asif managed to convince him."

Then, Sangeeth and the film's editor, A Sreekar Prasad, sat down to re-edit the married print which had already been mixed, ensuring there was no sound jerks. Aamir, who knew the script well was consulted on the cuts. "On one occasion he told us to edit a scene that had him crying without glycerine. But on second thought, he felt the high-performance shot should be retained. So we had to put back what had been cut twice over," he laughs.

Sreekar won the National Award for editing, Pankaj for best supporting actor and Aamir got a special jury mention.

Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; April 17, 2014)

Aamir Khan-starrer, Raakh, will be re- released in June this year as part of PVR Director’s Rare. Asif Noor, the film’s now Dubai-based producer, tells hitlist, “We had initially planned to release the film in April May, but then decided to push it ahead due to elections.” Asif is also planning a reunion dinner with the film’s cast and crew. He says, “We are working around their availability. Things should be finalised in a couple of days.” It maybe pointed out here there were plans to re-release the film after its prints were digitally restored in 2009.

Directed by Aditya Bhattacharya, the film had Santosh Sivan as its cinematographer while Aamir Khan, Pankaj Kapur and Supriya Pathak acted in it.

The film was a revenge-thriller about a young man who takes on the system after his friend is raped.” Shiladitya Bora of PVR Directors Rare says, “This year marks the 25th anniversary of Raakh and we are excited to bring it show it again on the big screen under our banner. The entire film has been reframed as per Santosh Sivan’s vision. The film has also been re-edited by Sreekar Prasad and Chandan Arora. We are looking forward to a release in select theatres.” Speaking about the rerelease, Santosh Sivan says, “It was my first film and I loved working on it. With Pankaj, Supriya, Aamir and others for company, it was a great experience and I remember being really excited to do something different.”

When this film released in the year 1989, it didn’t do well at the box office. However, Raakh did win critical acclaim. Pankaj Kapur won the National Award in the Best Supporting Actor category for this film.