To exist is to co-exist, says filmmaker Muzaffar Ali

Aligarh: Celebrated filmmaker, artist, poet and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) alumnus Muzaffar Ali presented deep philosophical insights as he talked about his memoir 'Zikr: In the Light and Shade of Time' (Penguin, 2022) at the Women’s College auditorium of AMU on Friday.

The discussants -- Mohammad Asim Siddiqui, Chairman, Department of English, whose review of the memoir has already been published, and Ambreen Khan, Art and Culture Curator and Visiting Faculty at Jamia Millia Islamia -- posed some pertinent questions to Ali, whose replies and conversations were embellished with apt couplets and quotes.

The maker of films like Gaman (1978), Umrao Jan (1981), Aagaman (1982), and Anjuman (1986), among others, discussed his memoir and various shades of his artistic endeavours.

To a question about how he felt inspired and learnt painting and took great interest in poetry, Muzaffar Ali replied, “Poetry and painting have a deep bonding."

“Unless a civilisation respects other civilisations, it can neither develop nor survive," he said while replying to another question.

To another question, he responded philosophically saying: "To exist is to co-exist."

Ali also enlightened the audience with his profound insights into his filmmaking style, principles, and perspectives through a good number of anecdotes as he explored deeper into the artistic expression demanded by his craft.

After the panel discussion, M. Shafey Kidwai from the Department of Mass Communication, AMU, began his address with a profound note quoting Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: “Autobiography is a wound where the blood of history does not dry.”

His words helped the audience get a good idea of Ali's autobiography.