The Day Shall Dawn

Cast

Production

The Day Shall Dawn was very much a co-production between the two halves of what was then a geographically divided Pakistani state (now independent Pakistan and Bangladesh). The film was shot in Dhaka, East Pakistan (contemporary Bangladesh) by the East Pakistan Film Development Corporation by a director from Lahore (in West Pakistan) and scripted in the Urdu language, which is native to the West. He selected Zahir Raihan as assistant director of the film. The film's music was provided by prominent Indian composer Timir Baran.

The depicts about the daily lives of East Pakistani fishermen in the village of Saitnol (near Dhaka) and their struggles with loan sharks. The script was inspired by an original story by Bengali author Manik Bandopadhyay. According to Indian film critic Saibal Chatterjee, it is the only known neo-realist film produced in Pakistan at that time.

Release

Just days before the film was to premier, the new government of Pakistan (under Ayub Khan) asked the film's producer, Nauman Taseer not to release the film. The writer, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, was later imprisoned by the government for his communist beliefs. Actress Tripti Mitra and her husband Sombhu Mitra were also politically left-leaning, and members of the leftist Indian People's Theatre Association in the 1940s. When the film did premier in London, members of Pakistan's High Commission to the United Kingdom disobeyed instructions from the Pakistani government not to attend.

The film won a major award at the Moscow International Film Festival.

Restoration

The film was rediscovered by Western film critics when two Philippe and Alain Jalladeau organized a screen a retrospective of Pakistani films at the 2007 Three Continents Film Festival in Nantes, France. Pakistani filmmaker and professor Shireen Pasha insisted that Jago Hua Zavera should be included as an important piece of Pakistani film history. Anjum Taseer, son of the producer, searched for remaining original copies of the film, and put them together for a version that could be screened. After the film festival, Taseer had the film fully restored, with the work completed in 2010.

The film was screened at the 2008 New York Film Festival, to celebrate its 50th anniversary. It was selected for screening as part of the Cannes Classics section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.