In search of his darvesh
Muzaffar Ali’s ongoing exhibition at the Bikaner House in Delhi surprises you. The paintings, drawings and sculptures are not that of a filmmaker who has suddenly on a whim decided to venture into some other medium. Rather here is an artist who happens to be a filmmaker, a calligrapher, a fashion designer, a cultural revivalist, an author and a poet. The 80-year-old agrees. “I am an artist first.
Ever since I was a child I would always keep drawing. In fact, my confidence in filmmaking came from my drawing skills,” says Ali, who debuted as an artist last year. The present exhibition, Farasnama—The Legend of the Horse, draws heavily from his passion for horses. The canvases—large-format and some as small as a miniature—catch the magnificent beast, or as Ali puts it “the gentle beast” in a variety of colour and texture.
But it is the bronzes that really steal the show. They definitely do not look like the work of someone who is modeling for the first time. “In the last one year I started working with clay. That prompted me to try bronze,” says the Gurugram-based filmmaker. The horses here are caught in motion—a horse with a raised leg as if in a trot; some busts portray the mane of the steeds blowing in the breeze; while some have the horses half-sitting gently looking back.
What makes these all the more alluring is the lighting and the shadow that falls on the white-washed walls. No doubt that Ali’s filmmaking skills are at play here. “I have grown up around horses. In my hometown Kotwara, a royal outpost in the erstwhile Awadh, horses were integral part of the household,” says Ali, who often spends his time now with his horse, Barak and, of course, a horde of Salukis.
Known for his 1981 period drama Umrao Jaan, Ali credits his art for the minute detailing in the film. “I worked for a short while with filmmaker Satyajit Ray in an advertising firm. I observed his working style in regards to films,” says Ali, who like Ray often illustrates a particular scene in minute detail before filming it. “It helps me visualise it better and adhere to the authenticity without going overboard,” says the Padma Shri-awardee.
What finally prompted him to bring his art to the public? Ali smiles and reminisces how the late MF Husain would always encourage him to paint more. “But I wanted to do things at my own pace,” he says. So are his horses a sort-of inspiration from Husain’s? “Not really. My horses are quite different from his. Mine are Sufi representations. To me horses are akin to a darvesh—a Sufi fakeer or mendicant. I believe they bring barkat—good fortune—wherever they are. My art is an ode to their generous spirit,” he says.
There is a section in the exhibition which is dedicated to his incomplete film, Zooni, based on the life of 16th-century Kashmiri poet Habba Khatoon. Started in 1988, Ali is keen to complete the unfinished project. “Next year is quite ambitious for me. I want to release Zooni and also travel with Farasnama to the various lands of the horses, so that people can relate to them. After all, a true Sufi always spreads the message far and wide,” he smiles.