Love and God (1986)

This often-filmed Arab love legend of Laila and her lover, released in 1986, could have been Asif’s most formally ambitious film had it been completed during his lifetime. As with his Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and in keeping with his grandiose film style, it was in the making for over a decade. When Guru Dutt, who played the lead, died in 1964, the film had to be reshot with Sanjeev Kumar in the lead. When the director died as well, the film was abandoned, then revived by his widow, Akhtar Asif, and finally released in incomplete form. The composer Naushad contributes songs such as Hame kuch raahein khuda de de, Yeh nadanon ki duniya hai yeh diwanon ki mehfil hai. Cameraman R.D. Mathur, formerly of Bombay Talkies, developed his baroque style almost exclusively for Asif’s period epics: his camera moves over elaborate desert vistas and complicated sets, including a bravura tracking crane shot lasting almost ten minutes when Qais is rejected by Laila and leaves, the whole town turning out to witness his departure.