KARACHI: The language of moving images opens a whole new world for us. Everyone has the urge to connect from inside to the outside [world] through the language of moving images. This was eloquently said by distinguished Indian film-maker Muzaffar Ali while answering a question put to him by Dr Asif Farrukhi about his film Gaman at an event titled ‘Picturing the Past’ held in the director’s honour at the Habib University on Wednesday evening.

Before the chitchat with the film-maker, clips from two of his films — Umrao Jaan and Gaman — were shown. This prompted Dr Farrukhi to initiate the conversation by asking him about the genesis of Gaman.

Mr Ali said what pulled him from the inside was human helplessness, the imbalance in the social situation. The story of Gaman emanated from that kind of contradiction (tazaad) at the centre of which was a young man migrating from a village to a big city, he said. He told Dr Farrukhi that he inherited such a sensibility from his father.

Mr Ali was all praise for Faiz Ahmed Faiz. He said in 1978 he showed Gaman to the poet who called it a “poem in visuals… of muted lyricism… a veritable tour de force,” which Mr Ali considered the biggest reward he had received. Coming back to his father, he said although he was steeped in feudal culture, he was a man of the village, a down-to-earth person who joined the Communist Party of Scotland. His mother too was compassionate about women, he said, claiming he had inherited the connection with the common man from his parents. This led the film-maker to remark, “Feudalism is a curse. The sooner we grow out of it, the better.”

Dean Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Habib University Dr Nauman Naqvi, who was also sitting next to the film-maker, touched upon that aspect of Mr Ali’s art, where he combined humanism and aesthetics. Dr Farrukhi steered back the discussion towards the issue of alienation that Gaman’s protagonist faced while moving from a village to a bustling city, and brought into the discussion the eminent poet Shahryar whose work was seamlessly woven into the film’s narrative. Mr Ali responded, “Poetry is the mother art. A poet’s freedom is very important.” Calling himself poetry-driven, he likened the absence of a poet’s freedom to the nonexistent of oxygen in the air. “Faiz is the true mirror of Pakistan and its society. You can understand Pakistan by sensing the way Faiz’s heart beats.” He said he had known Shahryar for a long time and by the time of making Gaman he had developed a certain degree of frankness with him. During the course of the film he “had to worship him”, he said.

Answering another question, Mr Ali said art was universal. He was of the view that we lived in a world without boundaries. Making poetry part of a film required the willingness to help mankind (jazba-i-khidmat, khidmat-i-khalq). He said without such willingness he’d be committing suicide.

Mr Ali said after the unsuccessful attempt at making the film Zooni he turned towards tassawwuf (spirituality) which he termed a “destination of submission”. At that point Dr Naqvi apprised the audience that Mr Ali had donated a book The Sufis of Punjab to the university. On the subject, Mr Ali said in the days gone by the faqir used to sit in his khanqah and convey his message to the people or travelled around for the same purpose. Today it’s a big challenge for us as to how to keep the pain and empathy (dard) in people alive. “The world is thirsty,” he remarked.

The focus was then shifted to Mr Ali’s iconic film Umrao Jaan. Dr Farrukhi asked him as to how he reacts when people associate the film with Rekha, the actress who did tremendously well as the main character in the story. The film-maker intelligently replied that if a tale touched people’s hearts then it did not matter who it was associated with. With reference to the “fidelity to the text” of the novel Umrao Jaan, he said until you were not connected with society and rooted to its soil, you could not be effective in telling a story. He narrated an interesting fact in that context. He said he transferred the entire book onto a cassette and had listened to the whole tale 50, 60 times, which enabled him to create the kind of ambience that the Oudh region at the time had. “It gave me a sense of ownership,” he maintained.

When Dr Naqvi inquired about a project ‘Jahan-i-Khusrau’ that the film-maker’s passionately involved with, Mr Ali talked about the art of music and how, while shooting a film in Kashmir, he felt the need for it in a tense atmosphere. He told Dr Naqvi how a person was able to gather 100 musicians for him who played instruments that he had never seen, bringing tears to his eyes. He asserted that a society which didn’t have music became rigid and callous (kathor).

After that the floor was opened for members of the audience to put questions to Mr Ali. Answering the first query, which required a detailed account of his creations that weren’t readily available, he gave a decent list of his works such as films Sama, Seena Ba Seena, Nisbat and TV series Paigham-i-Muhabbat, Jaan-i-Alam and Zaban-i-Ishq. On why Zooni, based on the life of Hubba Khatoon, couldn’t be finished, he said the situation [in Kashmir] had worsened so he had to leave everything half way. And he couldn’t complete it later on because (actress) Dimple Kapadia had grown old and (actor) Vinod Khanna had become portly.

Before the next round of questions and answers, clips from the film-maker’s latest offering Jaanisaar were shown.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2015