Shahid Jamal
 

SHAHID JAMAL is a film-maker who is equally at ease at teaching and in television production. He is currently heading the Post Graduate Diploma Programme in Development Communication, at Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. He has been associated with this course since its inception and has established it successfully as a specialized and professional course. He has directed and produced current affairs programmes, documentaries, corporate films and a large number of short films on varied subjects.

Bhoomika: When did your association with JNU begin?

Shahid Jamal: My association with JNU can be divided into two phases - in 1982, I entered SIS as a M.A. student. However, I quit halfway because of personal reasons. In 1984, I joined MCRC in Jamia and completed my M.A. in Mass Communication in 1986. I had already started making some documentaries. Yet I felt that I must not leave my academic journey incomplete. So in 1987, I came back to JNU for M.Phil. in Social Medicine and Community Health. I submitted my dissertation on Mass Media and Medicine  in 1989.

Bhoomika: Why did you choose Social Medicine as your area of interest?

Shahid Jamal: I chose that field simply because I found it more relevant than History or Political Science…I was already making documentaries. I needed to be socially aware all the time. I found that health was the most neglected area of public life…it is so even today. Misinformation and lack of knowledge are rampant. For instance, look at the funding pattern- films on AIDS find money more readily in India than those on some other diseases which claim many more lives than AIDS does. This is a mindless imitation of an international pattern. Social commitment to Public Health and nutrition is lacking in India. I was always attracted to this cause and hence, I took it up. I have made several documentaries on ailments such as Epilepsy, Diabetic Retinopathy, Retinal Detachment, Alzheimer’s disease, etc.

 Bhoomika: With what goals and aspirations did you come to JNU?

Shahid Jamal: The aspirations were definitely not career-oriented. The campus attracted me. In activity, curriculum and ethos, JNU was absolutely inter-disciplinary in nature. It was a University in its true sense. That place changed our personalities. The environment of JNU inspires towards all kinds of goals and aspirations, no matter what you choose to excel in…

Bhoomika: Tell us about the expectations with which you entered JNU. What difference did you notice between this University and the other educational institutions you had attended previously?

Shahid Jamal: I entered JNU with a certain degree of fore-knowledge. Through newspapers and other media, we already knew that JNU was a place of great social, political, cultural and aesthetic awareness. Everyone knew how committed JNUites were to the cause of egalitarianism. Yet, it was a completely different feeling that overwhelmed me when I actually entered this campus. As a student of Gorakhpur University, I used to move around in a small group of socially aware and politically active friends. Such students were very few in number. In JNU, however, the whole campus was conscious of what was happening in the world! With different shades of ideology, it was a politically charged and liberal campus. Students’ politics was also very different here. There was no space for hooliganism and indecency. I felt that the role of students’ politics was to declass all the students. Democracy was actually practiced here….it was all so liberating.

 Bhoomika: Were you ever active in students’ politics?

Shahid Jamal: I was an active member of AISF though I never contested any election.

Bhoomika: Were you associated with any theatre groups?

Shahid Jamal: At that time, students’ theatre groups were not so prominent. Habib Tanvir used to live in Ber Sarai in those days. I used to attend his productions, especially the street plays. Much later, I became a member of the Advisory Committee of IPTA, U.P. I still hold that post.

Bhoomika: How far has JNU become a part of your identity?

Shahid Jamal: JNU is always in my work. I share the analytical capability that I developed in JNU, with my students and colleagues. I always carry with me what JNU has taught me and it is very helpful.

Bhoomika: How would you respond to an opportunity of going back to JNU as a student now?

Shahid Jamal: I don’t want to go back. It is good to go down the memory lane once in while but to do so literally, in reality, may damage the emotional image of the place that I have formed over the years. I’m satisfied with my JNU experience. Nothing needs to be added there. You know, while I was in JNU, I hardly ever changed out of my bathroom slippers. Where was the need? Everything was available on campus. Why go out?  I remember, to ward-off our boredom, we would board Bus no.666 every evening, after dinner. That bus had a circular route. So after one full round, it would drop you at your hostel. This was our favourite pastime apart from roaming on the ring road all night. JNU was indeed a wonderful place … But once I came out of JNU, I realized that there was a vast reality outside which could not be ignored. As a documentary film-maker, I have traveled a lot, met a lot of people and seen a lot of suffering. This field requires a strong fascination for life. You grow humble and your ego diminishes as you meet so many people. Once that happens, you become addicted to movement, change and progression. Memories are therapeutic when you are always on the move. But past must not be mixed with the future. The world has so much to offer. One has to go on and look for newer experiences. That is why I don’t want to go back…

Bhoomika: What was your first film about?

Shahid Jamal:  My first documentary was actually a ’diploma film’, i.e. it was made as per the requirements of the M.A. curriculum at MCRC, Jamia. It is called Cactus in November. This film is about Delhi riots of November 1984. It underlines the agony and alienation of widows after the riots. It is not a pure documentary because it has some experimental shades too. It explores the abstract idea of a Ramgarhiya Sikh widow running for shelter. It was adjudged the best diploma film of 1986 from MCRC.

Bhoomika: On what projects are you working presently?

Shahid Jamal: My latest documentary is called Assassination and it is a comment on poverty and hunger in India. It shows how the rural poor of India are becoming pawns in the vicious circle of ’new economic policies for development’. Shot in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, it shows how starvation deaths are man-made. Apart from this, I’m doing a series of interviews called Roots that deals with partition stories. In these hour-long conversations, people who came to India from Pakistan, and became celebrities here, will be sharing their pre-partition and partition memories. Similarly, those who went from India to Pakistan and became famous there, will be interviewed in Pakistan. We have already done the first three episodes with A.K.Hangal (theatre and film personality), Sagar Sarhadi (the Director of the film Bazar) and Kuldeep Nayyar (an illustrious journalist). I am also planning to shoot a series of short stories by writers of South Asian origin. The focus would be on human stories with no direct politics involved. Of course, over the years I’ve realized that the most human stories are also the most political ones. What I mean is that, the emphasis would be on common, day-to-day incidents rather than the political ones. This project is at the preliminary research stage right now.

Bhoomika: And is there a dream project in your life? Can you tell us about that?

Shahid Jamal: Yes, I want to make a feature film some day. There is no particular storyline. In my imagination, it is a series of fragments, uniting in the end into a cohesive whole…..A feature film has to be commercially viable too. So I’ll also have to work out the finance aspect. I will try to be true to my objectives. I do not compromise there.

Bhoomika: What kind of movies do you watch?

Shahid Jamal: I watch all types of movies. It actually depends on my mood. I even enjoy Govinda movies. In terms of critical merit, I like many movies. The one I can recall right now is No Man’s Land which I saw recently. I’ll watch Khamosh Paani next  I’ve heard that it is excellent. I think right now, some of the best movies are being made by Iranians.

 I also feel that Bollywood has still not risen to serious film-making. Shyam Benegal is the only consistent director we’ve had.

Bhoomika: You have been teaching and training young talent since almost sixteen years. Quite a few of your students must be making films and documentaries now…..

Shahid Jamal: Not many. When I entered the field of Mass Communications, things were very different. Film-making was a passion for me and many of my colleagues. To raise funds for my second documentary, I even sold my camera for Rs.10,000. We had a different attitude towards career, achievement, success and happiness. Today, students’ first priority is money. Most of my students take up jobs in news channels immediately after finishing M.A. Very few, not even a handful, enter the arena of serious film-making. One can say that the goals of the younger generation have changed.

Bhoomika: What message would you like to give to the JNU students’ community?

Shahid Jamal: My good wishes are always with you. Do what you do with honesty and conviction.