Ali Muzaffar and David Lean

Director:
1980s
1970s
1960s
1950s
1940s
1 A Passage to India (1984)

2 Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor (1979) (TV)
3 Ryan's Daughter (1970)

4 Doctor Zhivago (1965)
5 The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) (uncredited)
... aka George Stevens Presents The Greatest Story Ever Told (USA: complete title)
6 Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

7 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
8 Summertime (1955)
... aka Summer Madness (UK)
9 Hobson's Choice (1954)
10 The Sound Barrier (1952)
... aka Breaking Through the Sound Barrier (USA: promotional title)
... aka Breaking the Sound Barrier (USA)
11 Madeleine (1950)
... aka The Strange Case of Madeleine (USA: reissue title)

12 The Passionate Friends (1949)
... aka One Woman's Story (USA)
13 Oliver Twist (1948)
14 Great Expectations (1946)
15 Brief Encounter (1945)
... aka Noel Coward's Brief Encounter (UK: complete title)
16 Blithe Spirit (1945)
... aka Noel Coward's 'Blithe Spirit' (UK: complete title)
17 This Happy Breed (1944)
... aka Noel Coward's This Happy Breed (UK: complete title)
18 In Which We Serve (1942)









Sir David Lean, KBE (March 25, 1908 – April 16, 1991) was an English film director and producer, best remembered for big-screen epics such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Doctor Zhivago. He was voted 9th best director of all time in the BFI "Directors Top Directors" poll 2002. In the 1990s a cinema was built in Croydon, Greater London to honour the great director. The David Lean cinema can be found situated within the Croydon Clocktower on Katherine Street.( Wikipedia.org)






David Lean

David Lean directed motion pictures with an acknowledged consciousness of his actions and a stated set of intentions and expectations about the end product of his labour. As a worker in an industry where that end product faces evaluation based on economic results on the one hand and aesthetic satisfaction on the other, Lean achieved a stature which few other directors in the brief history of motion pictures have equalled. His autocratic technique was legendary; and yet Lean's early career relied entirely on collaboration, first as editor on a score of pictures for other directors, then in a close association with the formidable Noel Coward on his first four pictures. For most of his career, Lean fiercely guarded the details of his personal life, which began with an upbringing and education in a Quaker tradition so strict that Lean was not allowed to see movies or attend the theatre until adulthood. Born in those first furtive moments in a silent movie theatre, Lean's sense of artistry, which he seldom consented to discuss, was ultimately given free rein, as economic success permitted him a freedom of aesthetic choices very few directors have ever had.(Sensesofcinema.com)




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Muzaffar Ali (born 21 October 1944; Lucknow) is an Indian film-maker, a fashion designer, a poet, an artist, a music-lover, a revivalist, a social worker.

In 2005 he was awarded the Padma Shri for his achievements. His son Shaad Ali is a film director.





FILMOGRAPHY

* Khizan (1991)
* Aaya Basant Sakhi (1986)
* Anjuman (1986) (also producer)
* Kali Mohini (1986)
* Semal Ki Darakht (1986)
* Ganga Teri Shakti Apaar (1985)
* India, an Unusual Environment for Meetings (1985)
* Sheeshon Ka Masiha (1985)
* Kue Yaar Mein (1984)
* Together Forever (1984)
* Vadakath: A Thervad in Kerala (1984)
* Sunhare Sapne (1983)
* Wah! Maan Gaye Ustad (1983)
* Aagman (1982)
* Laila Majnu Ki Nai Nautanki (1982)
* Venue India (1982)
* Woodcrafts of Saharanpur (1982)
* Umrao Jaan (1981) (also producer)
* Vasiqedars, the Pensioners of Avadh (1981)
* Gaman (1978) (also producer)

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ALI MUZAFFAR ( B.1944)

Hindi-URDU director born in Lucknow.Eldest son of the Raja Husain of Kotwara.
Science graduate from Aligarh Muslim Univrsity ( 1966 ).Worked in advertizing agencies Clarieon .McCann ( 1966) and Advertising & Sales Promotion (1968), and in publicity division of Air India ( 1970-81).
Amateur painter with exhibitions in Aligarh Lucknow? Calcutta And Bombay.First film GAMAN, about migrant labour in Bombay .UMRAO JAAN returned to now rarely attempted (except in TV ) genre of courtly melodrama set under Muslim rule .
Worked with political themes with Subhashini Ali,a Kanpur-based trade unionist and one-time CPI (M) MP.Made and acted lead role of his Tv serial JAAN-E-ALAM,rehabiltating of the Nawab Wajid Ali Shah,King of Avadh.The story was inspired by the Indrasahba,a nautanki ballet of the period ( cf,INDRASAHBA,1932).
One of the founders of the MUKT ( MArketing Union of Kinematograph Technicians ) Co-operative.Last feature, ZOONI, remains unfinished .( From Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema BY ASHISH RAJADHYAKSHA AND PAUL WILLEMEN).






ALI MUZAFFAR

" A film is a journey from the heart to the heart through the sieve of the mind..."
"A product of the heart ...
universalizing emotion and finding a universal emotion is the main Task "
" For me women are not symbols of sex...
they transcend their phisicality and bocome mirror of a culture ...
they become the story ..0
they become the way of a sensitive perception of reality around us
they become a medium of a depth artistic expression
they become the story .
It is through this connection that costumes for them become
important for the character ...they define the personality...
they project the culture ... they become the cinema ...
they become the statement..."
( From muzaffarali.com)





THE STORM IN HIS HEART

By Nilima Pathak

Inspired by the extremes of beauty and suffering, Indian film-maker Muzaffar Ali finds a voice for his soul in art, poetry and Sufi thought

He's one of those who needn't lock the doors of his house while he's away. What can be burgled anyway? The wealth of talent is all within him! Muzaffar Ali is film director, artist, fashion designer, Sufi follower and politician amuzaffar, art, sufill rolled in one.

Since he's not an actor, one wonders how he manages to play such diverse roles. "I'm a person who feels things," says Ali. "I believe each work of art is a kind of meditation," he adds. Going by the evidence, one realizes that the real Ali is actually a painter. His other personae are but an outlet for this one. He clarifies: "Painting is my private life and film-making is my public life."

Ali belongs to Kotwara, a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The young Ali had only a brush for company and an ambition—to become an artist. The obstacle: his single-room dwelling couldn't accommodate his canvas. A friend obliged and Ali found space in his house. His first painting exhibition was held in 1968. All went well, with one hitch: he had no buyers! Just one painting was sold. The rest had to be gifted.

The times change. And how! His works are now bought at the conceptual stage itself. What inspires or touches him the most? "I think the driving force in me is the helplessness of people. I feel that if you apply your mind creatively to this, you can do something about it. Actually that's what makes me an artist! Painting to me is a way of clarifying my mind, creating a relationship with myself, which is so intimate. It has some kind of abstract feeling of love and poetry of love," Ali replies.

One could say that his life is full of surprises, even inspiring. A man on the move, his quest for Sufi sources of knowledge seems endless. It was in Kashmir (in north India) that Ali first became acquainted with the teachings of the Sufis. "Sufism takes the self to the self," he declares. "The flower has everything in its garden—fresh morning air, birds and trees. But is there an eye that gets moist on seeing any of these?" he recites.

Breaking the rhythm he adds: "The experience of beauty and its impact on the heart is the biggest prayer." To him beauty means, "that moment of surrender when you confront His creation. It's the ecstasy of seeing something in an instant. In music it could be tune or rhythm—something that surrounds you. If you can't reach that, it means you miss the essential quality of beauty."

The fine arts are, so to say, a mission with him. Ali is unfailingly charismatic. His frames tell you about the man's accomplishments, his vision and quality as a thinker. He says: "I've been brought up in situations beset with contradictions, rife with trauma. I saw and felt when things were going wrong." The political and social turmoil he encountered evoked an intense response in him. "That became my basic temperament. And owing to that temperament, I'm an artist. I started sketching what I felt. But gradually began to feel that whatever I was doing was only one-dimensional. Maybe if it was translated on celluloid, it could communicate on a much bigger scale. Also my feelings could be transformed into a film," he states.

Gaman, a Hindi film on the angst of modern life, was the outcome. "An outlet for settling my creative imbalances," he says. Ali finds life in big cities stifling. Gaman portrays such sentiments. He explains: "Actually the urbanite is upset because issues of his environment, culture and livelihood are not being addressed. No one is thinking of him. So some holistic thinking is required to be able to eliminate that sadness and helplessness in him." His films always portray people's helplessness and look at their sadness. "By doing so you make people sensitive to the cause of that sadness," Ali declares.

CinemaHe narrates a story: "A person went to Hazrat Ali, the mentor of Sufism. Hazrat Ali declared: 'I have no assets, nothing to give to the world. Why have you come to me?' The man replied: 'I want nothing. You just smile. That's enough!' So love is a very strong force to bring about a positive change in society."

Whatever the man undertakes, he does with passion. Attributing his success as a filmmaker to his sketches, he says: "I sketch out each and every scene. Making a film brings out the best in me. And the discipline of film-making has made me versatile." Arriving at a distilled emotion or peak of an emotion, so important to him, is what drives him to perfection in his craft.

Despite recognition, he didn't get into routine filmmaking. "Had I done so, I would've moved from one film to another. But I go into a film with a certain amount of depth, taking a lot of time over it. After the completion of a film, it takes me time to grow out of it. So it creates obvious gaps. These gaps have to be filled with some kind of exercise-be it painting, which is my basic strength, or even designing clothes. Through designing I have been able to create employment and a relationship with my own village. This gives me the dimension of a designer. Thus I believe I have absolved myself of the blame that I am so much rolled in one," he laughs.

How content a person is he? "Very," he replies. "At the same time, restless. I'm content with myself but restless over the larger environment." Regrets, if any, could presumably be over his brush with politics. As if on cue, he adds: "I have an unfinished dream. That of completing my film Zooni."

His multifaceted personality is a curious mix of feelings and ideas. He can talk about the harsh and ugly realities of life, as well as the rich and beautiful aspects in the same breath. There's this story: A man went to a Sufi master and asked him: "How do you feel?" The master said: "Like one who has arisen in the morning and does not know whether he will be dead by the evening." The man said: "But that is the situation of all men." To which the master replied: "Yes, but how many of them feel it?"

Needless to say, Ali does. He lives each moment of life fully. And doesn't seem to plan for the next. A true Sufi, indeed. For Sufis don't preach. They only teach. And can be understood. But only by people who seek.


Life Positive, April 2000