The Non-Conformist by Parikshat Sahni

Author:Parikshat Sahni
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9789353056261
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2019-08-30T04:00:00+00:00

Return to Kashmir

I returned to my beloved valley in 1968 for the shooting of a film called Shayar-e-Kashmir Mahjoor, which was inspired by and was based on the life of the eminent Sufi poet, Ghulam Ahmed Mahjoor, one of Dad’s closest friends. He was a great poet who later received the appellation of Shayar-e-Kashmir—National Poet of Kashmir. When he was in Moscow with a delegation the year before, Dad had told me about this film that he was planning to make with the help of the Government of Kashmir. He had told me the story of Mahjoor Saheb’s life already. Not only is the story interesting, it goes a long way in proving Dad’s emotional and sensitive nature.

One day, during one of his sojourns in Srinagar, Dad heard someone singing a melodious song in the street. On inquiring from a man, he was told that the song had been written by his boss, a man named Mahjoor. He told Dad that was how Mahjoor Saheb reached the people of Kashmir. The songs had such a deep impact on Dad that he sought out Mahjoor Saheb and arranged a meeting. He was profoundly impressed when he heard the translations of Mahjoor Saheb’s poems. Gradually, the two of them became close friends. Dad admired his poetry, but rued the fact that he refused to have his songs and poetry published. It was Mahjoor Saheb’s contention that since the local population was largely illiterate, the best way to get through to them was to write songs and have bards sing them through the length and breadth of the valley. The idea was to reach the people and inspire them—in the best traditions of oral literature.

Dad was surprised to know that apart from him, very few people were aware of Mahjoor Saheb’s identity. One day, Dad was travelling in a tonga with Mahjoor Saheb when he found a crowd of people standing around Sheri, the bard who sang the latter’s songs in marketplaces. Dad stopped the tonga and asked someone who had written this song. The man replied that it was written by an ancient Sufi poet. When Dad pointed to Mahjoor Saheb and informed the crowd that the song had been written by the man sitting with him in the tonga, at first they did not believe him. But when Mahjoor Saheb revealed who he was, and when Sheri, the singer, corroborated this, the crowd went wild and there was an impromptu celebration in the market.

The film was to be shot entirely in Kashmir. That was the main attraction for me—the lure of spending a few months in Kashmir in our old ancestral home. I enthusiastically embarked on the project. When I landed in Srinagar in the late sixties, my joy knew no bounds. Kashmir was beautiful as ever. The land was lush and green. The air was pure and intoxicating as ever. The people were warm and affectionate. It was a homecoming.

Shooting the film was however a tough assignment. But once I

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