Maachis at 30: Gulzar on truth, Tabu and cinema’s limits

Thirty years after its release, Gulzar’s Maachis is still remembered as one of Hindi cinema’s most unflinching looks at Punjab’s years of militancy. The film’s principal cast includes Chandrachur Singh, Tabu and Jimmy Shergill. The story follows a young man—played by Chandrachur Singh—who is pulled into extremism and loses everything. Tabu plays the woman he leaves behind, with Lata Mangeshkar’s “Paani Paani Re” carrying her longing.

Not a political film, but the truth of its time

In an interview with Variety India, Gulzar said Maachis remains one of his most important films, but he stops short of calling it political. “It reflected the truth of those times,” he said, arguing that cinema can only go so far. He added that we overestimate a film’s power to change lives.

What made the film feel rooted in politics, he said, was its subject: separatism and the families it destroys. “So many lives, so many families get destroyed in the violence of separatism,” he recalled. Maachis, he noted, made a wide impact.

Tabu’s small role, lasting mark

Gulzar was generous about Tabu’s relatively brief part. He compared her arrival to Jaya Bhaduri’s, saying Tabu “ushered an era of acting.” She was, in his words, unique, intelligent and sensitive—and he went further: “I would say she is the best actress I’ve worked with.”

That praise carries weight because Gulzar has directed many celebrated performers across very different registers.

Why Maachis still lands at 30

• The plot uses one man’s descent into extremism to show the human cost of separatism.
• Lata Mangeshkar’s “Paani Paani Re” gives Tabu’s character her longing and voice.
• Gulzar’s own frame: the film reflected its time instead of preaching a solution.

Part of what keeps the film alive is that it refuses to explain away the violence. It shows a young man’s choices against a larger political backdrop, but it keeps the loss personal.

Hu Tu Tu, and the film Gulzar never made

Asked whether Hu Tu Tu repeated the tone of Maachis, Gulzar said the question would not have come up if he had made the film he originally planned next for producer R. V. Pandit, based on Krishan Chander’s novel. He located Hu Tu Tu in the same tone, but called it the more political film of the two.

For Hindi film fans, the anniversary is a chance to revisit a film that trusted its audience to sit with an uncomfortable truth. It works as memory rather than manifesto—and that may be exactly why it still resonates.

Source: The Times of India