Seeking a Sufi in Bollywood
You
have a sacred task of taking a sacred idea into sacred space — you have to be
cleansed of impurities to do so. You need writers burning with the desire to put
spirituality, humanity and aesthetics in an intriguing and dramatic format. Then
you need poets fired by love to create lyrics that will rock the soul. You need
composers who can compose with the same ecstatic abandon as such poetry may
demand. Singing Sufiana means singing Sufiana and for this you have to see the
Sufiana in every form of singing and in every relationship in life. You cannot
sing Sufiana if you are ungrateful, if you are petty and jealous, competitive
and aggressive. Some can make the connect and in some cases their ego
interferes. The audience is not coming to you directly. It is taking the same
route as the singer... the divine route. Few understand this as commerce and
intellect often comes in between. First you have to receive light from that
divine connection to pour out your soul. ...
And in such a journey you
find tassawuf (Sufism) in everything and everything in tassawuf. The power of
music on the big screen is still untapped. The power of the voice has to rise to
meet the challenge of a harsh changing world. Sufi films and music that is
waiting to be born on Indian soil very soon, in these music will become the
reality of the subject. You can’t pay lip service to tassawuf in cinema. It has
be the ethos the film, it has be the ethos of the reality the country is steeped
in.
Thus this journey
has taken me to a realm when poetry and music, soul and reality, singer and the
listener have become one. However, it is here where the challenge lies and needs
to be addressed. -- Muzaffar Ali
By Muzaffar Ali
May 11 2010
Spiritual and cultural maturity of its people makes a nation
invincible and influential. After 1947 we should have used the language of
moving images to its best and highest use, to keep the country abreast of the
world, and mature and educated enough to understand the dialectics of history to
man a powerful democracy like ours.
Over the last six decades our narrow commercial sense has continued
to underestimate our people and this is evident in our films. There is a huge
disconnect between the large philosophical outlook of our people and a mentally
sub-standard product which not only embarrasses the intelligent child of today
but also makes us hang our heads in shame.
The child of today is extremely exacting and demanding. S/he expects
a lot from what is made to sensitise him/her. They expect authentic feelings,
authentic sources, even when they are served illusions.
First of all the right creative energies have to gravitate towards
Hindi cinema. Sufiana concepts and characters have to find their rightful
context.
You have a sacred task of taking a sacred idea into sacred space —
you have to be cleansed of impurities to do so. You need writers burning with
the desire to put spirituality, humanity and aesthetics in an intriguing and
dramatic format. Then you need poets fired by love to create lyrics that will
rock the soul. You need composers who can compose with the same ecstatic abandon
as such poetry may demand. Singing Sufiana means singing Sufiana and for this
you have to see the Sufiana in every form of singing and in every relationship
in life. You cannot sing Sufiana if you are ungrateful, if you are petty and
jealous, competitive and aggressive. Some can make the connect and in some cases
their ego interferes. The audience is not coming to you directly. It is taking
the same route as the singer... the divine route. Few understand this as
commerce and intellect often comes in between. First you have to receive light
from that divine connection to pour out your soul.
As a filmmaker I have journeyed through the realm of poetry and music
that touches the soul and reality at the same time. Like many of us, I have
evolved from poet to poet, from poem to poem. I have seen the process as an
unveiling of mysteries in a modern strife-ridden life. For me it was finding a
woman in a courtesan and not a courtesan in a woman. It was the discovery of the
soul through poetry and music that takes one into a mystical realm. Umrao Jaan
steered clear of the megalomania, a trap that films of such genres have found
themselves landing into, taking away from a spiritual awakening that would be
awaiting round the corner.
And in such a journey you find tassawuf (Sufism) in everything and
everything in tassawuf. The power of music on the big screen is still untapped.
The power of the voice has to rise to meet the challenge of a harsh changing
world. Sufi films and music that is waiting to be born on Indian soil very soon,
in these music will become the reality of the subject. You can’t pay lip service
to tassawuf in cinema. It has be the ethos the film, it has be the ethos of the
reality the country is steeped in.
Thus this journey has taken me to a realm when poetry and music, soul
and reality, singer and the listener have become one. However, it is here where
the challenge lies and needs to be addressed.
In the words of Jawed Kamaal, an Aligarh/Rampur poet Wahshat ne vo
bhi loot li dam bhar mein dosto Jo muddaton mein ayi thi shayastagi hamein That
moment of madness took it all away The refinement that had come over centuries
— Muzaffar Ali is a
filmmaker and painter. He is the Executive Director and Secretary of the Rumi
Foundation. He can be contacted at www.rumifoundation.in
Source: Asian Age, New Delhi
9:32 PM
Sultan Shahin
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