Garm Hawa is a tormented film on the partition o fIndia. How the muslims who chose India as their motherland had to face severe atrocity in their own birth land. The film is directed by M S Sathyu and based on the unpublished novel of the great poet Ismat Chugtai. The film deals with the post partition plight of muslims in India.
The film is centered during the grim days of Mahatma Gandhi’s assasination and Mallick(Balraj Sahni) ’s family like many other muslim families deals with the chocie to move to Pakistan or not. While his own brother who is a party leader too leaves for Pakistan forever, Mallick faces more doubts of his decision to stay in Agra. He is not trusted by his own good friends to lend him money to revive the business. His muslim identity is now a majotr cause of concern.
In adverse situations, he still keeps his head high and walks around the town until his daughter commits suicide and they find no good reason to stay .
As the Tanga goes towards the Railway Station, a massive protest for equal rights, jobs opportunities by the youth of the country takes the power and Mallick decides to join the protest to fight for his rights.
MS Sathyu’s Garm Hawa became a pioneering new wave of art cinema movement in Hindi Cinema. It became India’s official entry to the Academy Awards Best Foreign Film category, and also nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It later won National film Awards and three filmfare awards as well. This film also marked the end of Balraj Sahni’s career in film as he died before the release of the film.