Saeed Mirza, who marked Indian parallel films in front of the world, has now taken up a new assignment. Controversy KR. Narayanan Film Institute Chairman
“Not to speak out would be a crime. We are speaking out to reclaim the soul and spirit of this land”. India heard these words on November 5, 2015. It was when 24 filmmakers who numbered the country returned their National Awards to protest the increasing intolerance and hate killings in the country after the Narendra Modi government came to power; The words of Saeed Akhtar Mirza, the famous director and screenwriter who led that group… Saeed Mirza, who marked Indian parallel films in front of the world, has now taken up a new assignment. Controversy KR. Heavy responsibilities await him as he ascends to the post of chairman of the Narayanan Film Institute. “I know exactly what happened at the institute. But now we are not talking about it” – this was the first reaction of Saeed Mirza who took over as chairman. To be sure, he will not be ‘guilty’ of silence at a time when the soul and energy of this institution needs to be restored. At a time when communalism is engulfing the country with the connivance of the state, a person who broke the silence and became a firm voice of secularism cannot help but be like that.
‘Here you can dare to dream about movies’
Saeed Mirza says that he will discuss with the students and staff of the institute and find a solution after listening to their problems. I was a student at Pune Film Institute. Later became its chairman. I am well aware of the problems a student faces in a film institute and what the chairman stands for. Here too some changes and additions are required. “Once they are completed, the injuries faced by the students will disappear,” he says.
He is aiming for many changes in the institute, including the ‘Masters in Residents’ programme, involving eminent persons from various fields of art. Not only famous filmmakers, but also dancers, writers and technicians from different parts of the world, K.R. Narayanan will interact with the students of Film Institute. “Here you can dare to dream of movies. “Cinema is a place of humanity beyond caste, religion and language” – K.R. This is the assurance given by Saeed Mirza to the students of Narayanan Institute. He cites his own life as an example. “My wife Jennifer is a Christian. My brother’s wife is also Hindu. My son Safdar is married to a Chinese girl and another son Zaheer is married to a Lebanese girl. Therefore, I can embrace all faiths” – Mirza explains. That is why he does not accept the separation of cinema as Hollywood, Bollywood and Kollywood. He likes Malayalam cinema very much. Saeed Mirza says that he watched more than 100 Malayalam films when he was the jury president of the Kerala State Film Awards Committee for 2021. Everyone says Malayalam cinema is very realistic. Moreover, I feel that there are new ideas and methods in Malayalam. I feel that Malayalam has a film culture that is a mixture of fantasy and reality,” he says.
‘The Leftist Sufi’
Saeed Mirza: The Leftist Sufi (2016) is a documentary directed by Kirit Khurana and Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy to mark the film career of Saeed Mirza. His life and attitudes can be read from this title itself. All his creations were the camera brought back to the lives of common people in India. In all of them he has stated the exact politics. The physical handicaps of the 80’s have not diminished that fighting spirit. This is evidenced by the fact that he wrote the book “Memory in the Age of Amnesia: A Personal History of our Times” in 2018 to remember many things, at a time when many things are forgotten, and when many remain silent. Saeed Mirza was born on June 30, 1943 in Bombay into a film family. Father is famous screenwriter Akhtar Mirza. Entering the world of visuals by working in the advertising industry. Graduated from Film and Television Institute of India, Pune in 1976. Later became the Chairman of this institute.
Saeed Mirza became a key participant in the movement during the heyday of parallel cinema in the second half of the 70s and 80s. He made his debut in 1978 with his first film ‘Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastan’. 1980’s ‘Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kum Aatha Ha’ showed the ‘parallel face’ of India’s angry youth. At a time when cinema was inaccessible to the common man, ‘Mirza Magic’, which even cast people he met on the roadside, was a wonder then. The 1984 ‘Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho’ satirically questioned the mechanization and non-partisanship of the Indian judiciary was widely discussed. He also popularized the television series Nukkad (1986) and Intazaar (1988), which told the story of commoners on the streets. He is the brother of Aziz Mirza who directed the television serial ‘Circus’ which made Shahrukh Khan popular in 1989. Saeed Mirza’s film ‘Naseem’, set in the backdrop of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1995, was another bold effort. The film, which narrates the dramatic change in society brought about by the demolition of the Babri Masjid from the perspective of a Bombay schoolboy, won two National Film Awards. Mirza’s last directorial venture was Ek To Chance in 2009. He was honored with the 2020 ICA International Cultural Artifact Film Festival Achievement Award. Her first autobiographical novel, Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother, released in 2008, is a series of notes from her mother who died in 1990, Sufi fables and childhood memories. Saeed Mirza is also a Life Member of International Film and Television Club of Asian Academy of Film and Television. It has won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Film twice and National Film Awards three times for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. He is also a trustee of Anhad, a Delhi-based charity working for communal harmony.