Director of ‘Umrao Jaan’ shows of his rare side through art

The work represents the artist’s enduring love for Kashmir, leaves and landscapes that stayed in his mind long after he had left the place.

It was the extra time during the Covid-induced lockdown that led Muzaffar Ali, director of the 1981 classic movie Umrao Jaan to hone his talent in art. The collection of his artworks titled ‘The Other Side’ will be displayed in an online exhibition on Kalakriti Art Gallery’s website. The work represents the artist’s enduring love for Kashmir, leaves and landscapes that stayed in his mind long after he had left the place.

“Kashmir was very much on my mind while working on the series,” acknowledges the filmmaker-artist who also shot the unreleased film Zooni, starring Dimple Kapadia and Vinod Khanna, based on the famous Kashmiri poet Habba Khatoon. The film was marred by a lot of delays owing to curfews, but the years 1987 to 1990 spent in the Valley meant Muzaffar got a chance to take in the vivid beauty of the landscapes, often during his walks, while riding on his horse or driving.

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“In Kashmir, the drama of the leaves is very evident. I got fascinated by what could be done with an element like a leaf on a canvas. I got to watch them through the seasons. The leaves became a visual vocabulary for what I saw. There is a subtle poetry in them… new leaves growing and the old ones dying and returning to their origin intrigued me,” explains Muzaffar Ali, who is also a fashion designer and revivalist, and runs the House of Kotwara with his wife, Meera Ali.

The paintings — mostly sepia-toned in hues of white, black, light and dark browns — are collages featuring leaves, bursts of Urdu poetry and horses. In the collection of watercolours and oil paintings, all capture the beauty and wonder of landscapes seen through the eyes of the artist.

Painted over a span of a few years, the works took form while the descendant of the Royal family of Kotwara was spending time at his farm in Gurgaon surrounded by the 1,000 trees the family planted there.

“Nostalgia is a big trigger for art. All your interests merge in a painting, love for poetry, music, cinematic journey… That’s exciting part about art. I paint whatever I feel excites my imagination. It shows another side to a person,” shares the Padma Shri awardee whose work spans multi-mediums.

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