Sparsh (film)

Sparsh (film)

Sparsh (Devnagari: स्पर्श, in English: Touch) is a 1980 Bollywood feature film directed by Sai Paranjpye. It stars Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi playing the characters of a visually impaired principal and a sighted teacher in a school for the blind, where they fall in love though soon their complexes tag along and they struggle to get past them to reconnect with the "touch" of love. The film remains most memorable for the subtle acting of its leads, plus the handling of the issue of relationships with the visually handicapped, revealing the emotional and perception divide between the world, the "blind" and the "sighted", epitomized by the characters.

The film won numerous awards including National Film Award - Best Actor for Naseeruddin Shah, while Sai Paranjpye got the Best Screenplay. At the Filmfare Awards, it won the top two: that of Best Movie and Filmfare Award - Best Director, plus a Best Dialogue Award for Sai Paranjpye. Further, Shabana Azmi was nominated for Best Actress, which she eventually won for the film Bhavna, while Naseeruddin Shah was nominated for Best Actor lost out to Anupam Kher in Saaransh.