Aligarh: The second day of the panel discussion on celebrated filmmaker Muzaffar Ali’s memoir ‘Zikr: In the Light and Shade of Time’, held at the Kennedy Auditorium of Aligarh Muslim University was equally enriching for the attendees.

Ali interacted with the students informally and took a range of questions on film writing, career and future choices for the students, his films, his family, Lucknow, Aligarh, the title of the book, Muslim Identity, etc.

One of the panelists, Prof Mohammad Asim Siddiqui, Chairman, the Department of English, asked him if he was aware that he was making a masterpiece when he was making the film ‘Umrao Jaan’ (1981). He shared those moments, adding that his father Syed Sajid Husain Ali did a lot of research on Umrao Jaan during the making of the film, which helped add authenticity to the screenplay.

Prof Asim Siddiqui mentioned sartorial history in the book, an aspect of micro history. He also urged the students to read the book ‘Zikr’ and learn the art of writing and how to express it beautifully.

Muzaffar Ali also talked about his admiration for Satyajit Ray, and how he learned a lot from people everywhere, especially from Ray.

Presiding over the programme, Prof Shafey Kidwai remarked that the memoir of Muzaffar Ali is extraordinary in the sense that it’s written dispassionately, without a trace of self-love which makes this autobiography exceptional and a must-read for art and culture lovers.

In a special intervention, Prof Mohammad Sajjad (Department of History, AMU) talked about Ali’s apt observation of the Khilafat movement in the book. He talked about Buddhist associations of the Imli tree which is used in the title of the chapter on Aligarh in the memoir.