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Filmmaker, painter, designer, author, and cultural custodian Muzaffar Ali believes cinema, at its best, merges poetry, music, and history into living experience.

In an interview with Patriot , Ali spoke about the magic of film, the craft behind it, and why some stories cannot be recreated.

A labour of love

“Without pain, there is no art. A person who doesn’t feel pain is not an artist,” Ali said. “A child is not born in a day, it takes nine months. In the same way, whatever concept comes to the mind, it slowly comes to the fore.”

Ali recalls the work that went into Umrao Jaan, from recreating Lucknow’s grandeur to capturing the nuances of tawaif culture. “We shot it for a year in two seasons in 1980, extensively in Lucknow, Faizabad, and in Mehboob Studio,

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