National award-winning film 'Hamid' completes two years

Two years ago, a film made the audiences fall in love with a little Kashmiri boy and made them process a vast human tragedy through his child-like gaze. The film was the Aijaz Khan directorial 'Hamid'. Produced by Yoodlee Films, 'Hamid' went on to win the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Urdu in August 2019. The film's youngest star Talha Arshad Resh also won the National Award for best child actor.

Remembering the shooting of the movie, Director Aijaz Khan says, "There are myriad memorable memories of the shoot, the journey, the fulfilment it gave me. The entire village of Buddercote, where we shot, rallied around and made this happen."

The story of young Hamid, played with disarming innocence by the gifted Talha as he tries to make sense of his father's disappearance and his mother's grief, remains one of the few authentic, cinematic narratives about Kashmir.

Siddharth Anand Kumar, Vice President of Films & TV and Head of Yoodlee Films, Saregama India, thinks it was the film's universality that was the reason behind its success. He says, "The premise of a little boy trying to dial god's number to connect with his father moved every single person who watched the film. This is what drew us to the story in the first place. The fact that it is about human emotions that connect us all regardless of how different our social, economic or political realities may be from one another."

Rasika whose portrayal of a grieving wife won much acclaim says, "It is not often that one gets to play characters like Ishrat and I felt privileged to be able to make her visible and to embody her story." The film also starred Vikas Kumar.