Award winning filmmaker Faraz Ali’s short film Obur is a revelation in more ways than one. Telling the story of a young boy in Kashmir, it neither trains its lens on military nor militancy. What’s more, the entire film is shot on an I-phone. As Obur literally swept the Critics’ Choice Awards this year, winning no less than four awards for best film, direction, cinematography and writing in short film category, Ali shares, “All through the making of the film, I prioritised storytelling over anything else.” Encapsulating the tale of a mother and son and how power outage affects him, he wanted to draw attention to everyday issues of ordinary mortals.
Hailing from Allahabad, now Prayagraj, Ali was inadvertently drawn to The Valley often represented in broad strokes of beauty or terror. What struck him the most was, “There is life beyond the shadow of the gun. People have fun, why even we played cricked on its streets, and above all there is hope.” In fact, the talented filmmaker’s earlier feature Shoebox was on his hometown, Allahabad, which he has seen changing so much that it became a friend he grew up with, but could no longer relate to its changing characteristics. Truth of the city is interesting for him, “Allahabad is a fragment of my memory.”
He shares how personification of a city is evident more impactfully in films like Garam Hawa. He observes, “The same city can be seen differently through the gaze of different filmmakers. For instance, the Bombay seen in Ram Gopal Varma’s movies is so different from the one in The Lunchbox. The one in Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light is again markedly unique.” Only he doesn’t find much difference between the problems of people in different cities. Yes, even those living in the Valley face similar predicaments as any other.
More than facts, he feels its truth which will survive the test of time. Indeed, each person’s vantage point is unique. He states, “Sky is blue is a fact. But I might see sorrow in it, whereas another maker might sense happiness.” Hence, it’s not ‘seeing is believing’ for him but feeling is. As he puts it, “Your gut instinct always tells you what is right.” Interestingly, capturing the film on a mobile phone seemed the right choice for this advertising professional. For it meant the crew didn’t have to drag heavy equipment through snow-laden terrains and reach remote areas. “Choice of equipment complements your story.” Since most actors were facing the camera for the first time, he reveals, “They were not intimidated by a mobile phone as they were quite accustomed to making reels on it.”
Ali’s background in advertising is not the reason why he turned to making films. His cinematic sensibility may not have been shaped by his vocation of making commercials. He opines, “To keep your artistic voice intact, you have to understand the economy of India, which is so different from that of Europe or the US. For, unlike the west we don’t we have the culture of grants.” So, he believes in the axiom, ‘one for the soul and one for the kitchen’, with the later invariably, feeding his artistic integrity. He quips, “Why does a filmmaker have to die in penury?”
In the near future, he will once again be making a film on Kashmir, hoping to pull off a comedy, but in long term he does not want to burden himself with expectations of particular kind of films he would like to be known for. All he wants is, “To have a great time while making films and ensure that no one on his sets is having a bad time. While I am in the thick of action, my prime motive is to make films ethically.” For him, means don’t justify the end but are as important the final goal. Thus, to the aspirants from small towns desirous of taking a plunge into the world of filmmaking, he does not have any advice, only ready to offer a ‘non- toxic environment’, so when they work with him, the wonder of cinema is intact. Winning awards may not be sine qua non for keeping his sense of amazement or love for cinema alive. But as he states, “It puts the spotlight on you. Every filmmaker needs that attention. Success of each film decides what you make next. Besides, it might inspire someone writing a beautiful story sitting in Kashmir to make one.”
