Indian author Javed Siddiqi honoured at Arts Council

The Arts Council of Pakistan recently paid tribute to Indian author Javed Siddiqi who has been on a visit to Karachi from India.

Siddiqui began his writing career as a journalist. However, during the emergency in 1970s, he found himself unable to continue with journalism and shifted to film writing. He first wrote dialogues for globally acclaimed Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khiladi. Later, he went on to write famous films like Chakra, Umrao Jan, Bazigar, Darr, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Taal.

Although his career as screenwriter was touched upon at the event, it were his memoirs and sketches that were the highlight as legendary voice artist Zia Mohyeddin recited a poignant sketch penned by him of his maternal grandmother.

Mohyeddin said he had respect for Siddiqi as a playwright because he had directed his two plays at the National Academy of Performing Arts. He added that he was thoroughly impressed when he read his sketches due to the layers of meanings in them.

The sketch read out by Mohyeddin was titled Bi Huzoor, the name by which the author addressed his grandmother. It was a beautiful piece in which the writer had reminisced about his teen years when he was impoverished and wanted to buy a film projector, for which he asked money from his grandmother, a pious lady who had disdain for films, but for the love of her grandchild, she gave him all the money that she had saved for a year to attend the Urs of Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer.

After the recitation of the sketch, the event featured a talk of poet Dr Fatima Hasan with Siddiqi, his wife and poet Zehra Nigah. Zehra said she had first read sketches penned by Siddiqi in London and immediately became a fan of his prose. She said the author had the unique art of infusing poetry in prose as his writings reminded her of various genres of poetry like Qaseeda, Shehr Aashob and Ghazal. The author said he hailed from Rampur and belonged to the family of distinguished peoples such as Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar and Maulana Shaukat Ali. He added that the legendary Shakir Ali, who is considered to be the pioneer of modern art in Pakistan, was his uncle.

About his fame for being the writer of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, the writer said he considered it to be his good work but he did not want that film to be his identity. He said this thought was painful for him that his primary identity was that of the writer of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.

About his association with the progressive writers and communist leaders, Siddiqi said his marriage was arranged by his comrade friends and mentors, especially Sultana Jafri. He said he had long association with the progressive theatre of India. Recalling a theatre association of progressives, he said its rule was that the first person to enter the hall would sweep it, the second person would arrange chairs and the third would arrange for drinking water. Siddiqi said he had himself seen great actors like AK Hangal, Shabana Azmi and Sanjeev Kumar sweeping and arranging chairs.

Siddiqi also shared how in a three-to-four minute meeting, Ray decided to hire him as the dialogue writer for Shatranj Ke Khiladi although he had no prior experience of writing for films. He said Ray actually wanted someone from outside the film industry to write dialogues for his film and Shama Zaidi, who was tasked with designing costumes for the film, recommended his name to Ray as she knew he had good command over the Urdu language.

About how writing memoirs and sketches was a different experience for him than film writing, Siddiqi said that whenever he wrote films, he had to keep the requirements of the viewers in mind, but he was free of any such constraint while writing memoirs and sketches. He said he wrote them as if he himself was the target audience of such writings.

At the end of the programme, a short film was screened that was based on the childhood of Siddiqi. It depicted the downfall of a feudal family after land reforms in India. The film starred Farida Jalal who played the role of Siddiqi’s paternal grandmother who was once virtually the queen of her mansion but as financial resources of the mansion declined, she had to sell her lands, ask employees to leave and even sell her jewellery to make the ends meet. The short film titled ‘Hajyani’ was a touching tale of the vicissitudes that befell a wealthy woman. The character of Hajyani in the film was of a female servant who supported her mistress through thick and thin considering it as her obligation.