Muzaffar Ali Spreads Rumi’s Wisdom

Hindustan Times, Chandigarh Live
Sunday, 9th November 2008

RENOWNED FILMMAKER Muzaffar Ali delivered a talk on the poetry in everyday life in a packed auditorium, with many even sitting on the floor, at Government Museum and Art Gallery, sector 10, today.

The event was organized by Chandigarh lalit Kala Akademi. Ali, who is also a musician, painter and dress designer, was here with his wife Meera, an architect and designer.

The evening began with the show of Ali’s documentary on the life of 12 Centaury Sufi poet Rumi titled Breathe Into Me.

This film dwelled upon Rumi’s verses and his relationship with his teacher shams. The film is part of a massive international film project Ali is planning with international artists.

After the show, he said that unless one had a poetic sense, one could not truly be an artist. “Poetry makes you question, leads you to certain direction. And today, we have to break through the artist’s limitations and see things the human way,” he added.

He also mocked at the present day youth, saying they hardly knew Rumi while in the west, Rumi was the most widely read poet. “We have to have a larger vision, of being Indian, of understanding other cultures, like knowing Rumi, the way we once used to do. Akbar used to cry while listening to Rumi.”

When asked by an audience member what Ali really wanted to do, he said he wanted to groom 100 children who would, in some years, bring in revolutionary change in the world. He then added, “Unless you have love in your heart and tears in your eyes, you cannot achieve anything.”

Later, art historian Dr. B.N. Goswami, Lalit Kala Akademi Chairman Diwan Manna along with Ali and his wife released a journal on Sufism by Ali’s Rumi Foundation.

Poetry Mother Of All Arts

Chandigarh Tribune
Sunday, 9th November 2008
By S.D. Sharma

“Blessed by Almighty, Sufi sages and visionaries are the omniscient whose cultivated ideals have influenced the life of the people of different sects and faiths across the centuries”, observed Muzaffar Ali, the acclaimed film maker, painter scholar poet and proponent of Sufi mysticism. In the city on the invitation of the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi, Muzaffar Ali gave a lecture on the topic “Art Binds Us All” at the Government Museum Auditorium after his short film “Breathe into me” was screened.

Such was the response to the event that more number of inquisitive listeners kept standing than those glued to their seats even to the disbelief of the organizers. However, the programme commenced with an adulatory introduction of the renowned maestro Muzaffar Ali and warm welcome of the guest Padmabhushan Dr. B. N. Goswami by akademi chairman Manna Diwan, an artist of international eminence.

Of all fine arts the “poetry” in all its manifestations in the most inspiring and mother of all arts, maintained Muzaffar Ali. The divine ideals of saint poets Jallaudin Rumi, Amir Khusro, Baba Farid, Bulleshah and other Sufimystics have expression in poetry which directly touch the soul even transcending the intellectual concept. Sharing his personal experiences based on his depth study, he said the Western world has shown ,more reverence to the Sufi saint Rumi by getting his philosophical works translated an propagated.

The ignoring of Persian and Urdu languages and the poets have distanced the general public from the rich Sufi treasures. However, in the Braj area, people grasp and follow the Hindu Sufi saints.

The chief guest, Dr. B. N. Goswami, complimented Muzaffar Ali for his endeavour of serving humanity through the medium of films, painting and other art forms. Akademi chairman Diwan Manna honored Muzaffar Ali and his wife Meera Ali.

Some Arty Fare To Reflect On

The Times of India
Monday, 10th November 2008
By Bhavneet Bhatti

It was time to reflect, rethink, absorb and learn as Muzaffar Ali spoke on “Art binds us all,’ drawing art admires from different age groups and different walks of life at the Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday evening. With an artist of Muzaffar Ali’s caliber speaking on the subject, a sea of art enthusiasts was expected. In the city on an invitation from the chairman Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi, Muzaffar Ali spokes about his works and the current status of art and culture in the country, besides interacting with the audience.

The event began with Muzaffar presenting his short film on the works of the 13th century poet, Rumi, which had the audience spell- bound with its powerful subject and screenplay. After introducing the poet to the audience, the filmmaker spoke about his works and his popularity in the West, which was followed by a discussion on various media of art, that Muzaffar Ali has worked in. “While paintings are more of a personal medium, films are a process of reaching out to the masses,” added Muzaffar. He also spoke about technical aspects of filmmaking including screenplay and music, which help add more impact to a production. The event ended with Diwan Manna, Chairman of the akademi, BN Goswami, chief guest on the occasion, and Muzaffar Ali releasing a journal on the Rumi Foundation.

Love For That Emptiness

HT City
Monday, 10th November 2008
By Saurabh Gupta

Filmmaker Muzaffar Ali is re-igniting the fire of Rumi’s enlightenment and calling the youth to bask in its glow.

At every instant and from every side, resounds the call of Love: we are going to sky, who wants to come with us?

This is Muzaffar Ali, in Rumi’s words, beckoning all who now care to listen. He too is almost there, the long-limbed 64 years –old Lakhnawi with broken thumb, almost ready to take off. Yet he says, “I’m khidmatgar (servent to Sufism). I can’t be a Sufi. I’m stuck in small things.” After a lecture on Saturday, he’s sitting on the floor of Government Art Gallery’s foyer. Where are the Sufis of today? He looks up, “the Sufi is in you.”

The small things Ali is stuck in are reinventing filmmaking, starting global cinema for peace, shooting a film on Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi the mystic born in Afganistan – with the finest artistes and technicians from across the globe. Or relentlessly sketching, despite the broken thumb, every scene of the film he wants to shoot, like the epic love story of Jehangir and Noorjahan,” I think with my pen. “In all this, he’s always figuring out how to connect with his audience, like he once did with his film Umrao Jaan, which he says, was a poetic journey. “Unless you are driven by poetry, it is difficult to make people feel things.”

Ali listens to everyone with the wide-eyed interest of a child. He nods; he smiles, he exclaims. Like a Sufi, Ali is light- hearted but sad.” That’s why I wear black perhaps, “he laughs. His pen’s ink is black too. To make a point, he recites urdu couplet: dil ka kya rang karoon khooon – e – jigar hone tak….and sees his wandering spirit flickering not in son Shaad Ali, also a filmmaker , but in Murad, the elder one. “He follows his heart,” says the father, rolling his hands in the air, like a mystic.

He confesses: “I’ve been fortunate to be moved by poetry and not be a poet; one falls victim to one’s own poetry. Nations are made in the hearts of poets and die at the hands of politicians.”

Ali adds: “I met a boy in an American university. He was a poet. He only wrote on sadness and death. I gave him a little book of Rumi. He reappeared after six days with seven poems dedicate to Rumi! This could happen only in the US. Indian youth today only want to get sold abroad; the MNCs are waiting to swoop on them. A child can bring revolution of the parents can hide him or her from the eyes of the buyers.”

Accompanying her husband was the demure and somber Meera Ali, an architect and dress designer. Like the shadow of her towering husband, you hardly notice her. Yet she is there, Rock-Solid, As a change-make, in terms of he unique grassroots designing, now famous as Dwar Pe Rozee, livelihood at the doorstep. The project takes the work of rural woman artisans of Ali’s ancestral village Kotwara in UP into the glitzy fashion world, internalizing folk dressing into haute couture. In this way, also preventing the artisans from abandoning their legacy. Her designs, rooted, as her husband’s works, have a big following. Even Ali helps her in the designing, in this continuous emancipation.

Poetic Ponderings

The Indian Express
Monday, 10th November 2008
By Parul

Poetry is mother art for Muzaffar Ali.

All I have done has sprung from poetry and I am fortunate to be driven by poetry and equally fortunate not to be a poet, for I can fly with poetry, “filmmaker, fashion designer, painter, revivalist, social –worker has poetry on his mind and in his heart. Here on the invitation of the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi to talk on Art Binds us All, the chock-a –block hall at the Government Museum also had the privilege to view his short film, Breathe into Me, on the Persian poet Rumi. Tracing his journey as an artist, smiles Ali is tough, for art is connected through the soul and life, and all that he a has done has sprung from poetry, for poetry becomes films, music, clothes, architecture for him. “Poetry is mother art and poets are blessed for their inspiration is human and sadly, we in India, especially the last three generations have been deprived of poetry and the sensitive awareness of life, relationship, and I feel that we as artists need to take poetry to people,” feels Muzaffar. The painter feels that artists in this global world have a fresh challenge of putting art into social, intellectual and human perspective and not be passive observers, and poetry an d films can be powerful, sacred mediums to purify hearts and make people one. “Our viraasat is incomparable and we have to have a larger vision, respect other cultures and make a difference to people’s life. Art should touch the heart of someone and address the feelings,”Ali is these days working on script of Rumi, to explore his soul, vision, poetry and life.

Ali’s album Paigham-e – Mohabbat, has lyrics by distinguished poets like Ali Sardar jaffery, Ahmad Faraz, Rahi Masoom Raza, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Qazi Nazrul Islam and he believes artists have the power to restore peace in the region. “I am not separate from my work. I’m sensitive to what is around me and it’s a constant journey of self discovery and quest to find solutions to pain and anguish and my films are reflections of my life, thoughts,” Ali refers to Awadh, Gaman and Umrao Jaan.

Having set up the Rumi Foundation and also a magazine on poetry, the next issue is on the poets of Punjabi; Ali says he is always learning, “don’t get bound by regulations, formalities or follow a school of thought. I always need to break open and see it from a human point of view,” the painter talks about the human touch..