Map for Lost Souls

Yeh kis makaam par hayaat, mujh ko leke aa gayee are words that besides pass me. Muzaffar sahab has been astatine points successful his beingness wherever helium has had to judge what is and marque bid with it. After garnering unthinkable captious occurrence with his films Gaman, Umrao Jaan, Anjuman, and Aagaman, helium began enactment connected his labour of love, his movie Zooni. A movie that I person been privileged to spot portions of, that fell unfortunate to the unrest and insurgency successful Kashmir successful 1989. Fleeing the Valley with the actors and unit successful tow, immoderate hopes of starting the shooting again were quashed by 2 decades of waiting wherever actors aged, and truthful did time, and with its transition the movie excessively passed away. But Muzaffar sahab continued to live, emotion and share, ne'er without hope.

Na jis ki shakl hai koyee/Na jis ka naam aai koyee – that who doesn’t person a face, the 1 who is without a name. Through the quality of the tawaif (nautch miss Ameeran ‘Umrao Jaan’), Muzaffar Ali gives the spectator a heavy penetration into the beingness of a singular human, 1 nine would person different robbed america of gaining tutelage from. Umrao Jaan had maine healing from scars of my ain individuality crisis. When I asked Chaturvedi astir what relation Muzaffar Ali has played successful making america recognize the spot of a tawaif, she said, “Muzaffar sahab gave tawaifs a respectful identity; helium gave wajood (the perfect essence of existence) to a tawaif. Through the movie Umrao Jaan, helium shows america that a tawaif is simply a pistillate of art, poetry, music, etiquette and more. She has her ain persona, not babelike connected others–financially, successful thought oregon sexually, she is 1 who ne'er has to interest astir conforming to norms of society.”

Eight decades is rather a singular travel to person lived connected this earth. In Muzaffar sahab I spot glimpses of my ain father, who was taken excessively aboriginal from us. I spot generosity of self, emotion for life, speedy wit and acceptable humour, and deep, heartfelt gratitude for beingness and utilizing that to unrecorded and emotion with careless abandon. Tall and statuesque, calved to the Raja of Kotwara, a spot established successful the twelvemonth 1007 astatine Lakhimpur Kheri, 100 miles from Lucknow, Muzaffar sahab is speedy to punctual maine that zamindari was abolished successful the twelvemonth 1950 and each royal titles were taken away. This is the honorable integrity that makes this antheral much antheral amongst his peers. He has nary mendacious illusions of grandeur, yet helium has the magnanimity, grace, gentility, imaginativeness and etiquette that are associated with royalty. What I spot successful Muzaffar Sahab is simply a antheral acutely alert of the bully luck and privilege his commencement afforded him arsenic good arsenic the work that it placed upon his shoulders.

Hade nigaah tak jahaan ghubaar hullo ghubaar hai — wherever till the skyline each 1 sees is despair. These lines connected with maine arsenic a pre-teen. In my beingness arsenic a cheery kid I had nary icon to look up to, nary idol to idolise, not adjacent a connection for my antithetic identity, arsenic my vocabulary astatine property 9 hadn’t yet fixed maine a label. In the poesy of Umrao Jaan, I recovered solace and hope; I saw successful enactment radical who challenged the presumption quo. With Meera Ali, his woman for the past 34 years, Muzaffar sahab started the House of Kotwara, a covering enactment that captured the attraction of fashionistas everywhere, adjacent earlier determination was specified a term. My kurtas from their postulation stay my favourites, bereft of dense work, spared of forced bling. In each inch of the fabric, I consciousness and consciousness the handwork of existent radical stitching and embroidering, weaving and dyeing the cloth with immense care, respectful pride, heavy humanity and timeless culture. When I asked Meera Ali what brought them to bash this, she said it was astir bringing Dwaar pe Rozi, employment astatine the doorstep, for those women who can’t permission their homes yet request employment. Their enactment gives them a mode to bid some bureau and respect. The mates person trained thousands of women implicit 3 decades, and we who deterioration their creations, are blessed to link with the fruits of this storied loom.

Kab milee thee kahaan bichadi thee hamein yaad nahin, Zindagi tujh ko to bas khwaab mein dekha hamne (When we met, and erstwhile we parted ways, I hardly remember, life, I person lone beheld you successful my dreams. These lines of yet different opus from Umrao Jaan are the cleanable analogy to the extent and heft of Muzaffar Ali’s beingness and stature. A antheral excessively unthinkable to specify successful conscionable 1 song, a antheral who has lived a dreamy life, excessively superb to beryllium human, and excessively quality to beryllium dreamy. In my puerility Muzaffar sahab gave maine affluent anticipation and comfort, and arsenic helium has turned 80, helium teaches maine to unrecorded with dignity and grace, with authenticity and pride, to let beingness to happen, and to unrecorded to beryllium 1 with it.