INDIAN FILMMAKER Muzaffar Ali, whose Sufi festival Jahan-e-Khusrau is being held at London’s Southbank Centre this weekend, is not sure if the decision to get his festival to Britain has come at the right time. “Even now I don’t know whether it is the right time to come here,” said the filmmaker, who has dedicated his festival to Hazrat
Amir Khusrau, the 13th-century Sufi poet saint, when asked why it took him a decade to get the festival, which was set up in New Delhi in 2001, to Britain. “It needs a lot interest from young blood to take the things to the next level. I can only do so much,” he said.
“Young people need to discover Khusrau, translate Khusrau and accept Khusrau as an idea and to understand the whole ethos of Sufism. I hope I find that young blood here,” said Ali, who is accompanied by his wife Meera, the production design head of the festival. “We have no money, I am doing this as a mission. It needs a lot of funds to be able to position this festival. We don’t know what the reception in London will be. If I had money, I would have made it into a movement overnight — put up hoardings, posters and ads in Tube stations and bus stands and everything,” Ali said. “It might just hit some people and take root,” he added.
“It is not easy to come here. You need a lot of maturity of thoughts, ideas, people, artists,” the filmmaker said and said the response for the inaugural festival in London will decide if his Rumi Foundation can make it an annual festival here like in India.
The filmmaker, whose Umrao Jaan will be screened on the third day of the festival at Southbank, is also keen to start UK chapter of his Rumi Foundation. “We are trying to discover different equation between people from different parts of the world and the centuries-old culture of Sufism. We are trying to find linkages in craft, music, poetry, calligraphy and so many other visual forms,” he said.
However, he made it clear that the London chapter will not be a fundraising unit as is the case with most Indian non-governmental organisations in the UK. “We have found a patron here in Lord Khalid Hameed. We need a young group of people who can take this forward. We will use it to source artists from here, even translators.” “Sufism has no aim, but love,” said Punjab singer Hans Raj Hans, who is the headline act for the three-day festival at Southbank Centre on Friday.