Weaving a tale on textiles

Muzzaffar Ali is a man of class, taste and quality. The filmmaker, whose name is etched in history for making the successful film Umrao Jaan, has now embarked on a journey that has brought him to the city of pearls. Muzaffar is working on a series of 12 documentaries to promote the crafts and textiles of India. He has completed shooting seven 15-minute films and his eighth film, on the Pochampally and Bidri arts, is being shot in Hyderabad. The man of many talents sits down for a chat about the project.

Globalising crafts
Muzaffar Ali is driven by many passions and crafts is only one of them. "I have always found crafts very intriguing. It's not just the process but also the culture of the craft and the talent of the artisans and their lives that fascinate me. That's what I am trying to capture in these films. It's a very compelling medium and whenever I come across anything to do with crafts, I am automatically drawn to it. I want to document the various dimensions of the craft," he says, adding, "Pochampally is one of the crafts that we have chosen because it's such an intricate form of dying and drying. It is called Double Ikkat. Magic is created when it is woven! Ikkat is also a worldwide tradition and it is bringing the world closer. A similar kind of craft is found in central Asia, Burma, Japan, and Indonesia. That is also one of the reasons why I am making these films. Crafts need to be globalised for them to sustain in the future and this is my attempt." The research that went into the making of the film was deep, explains Muzaffar, who is assisted by his wife Meera Ali in the project. Read More