Legacy of Lucknow: A Study of Four Famous Personalities of Cinema, Born and Raised in or Near the City

Abstract

When inquired about the cultivation of maximalism by the City of Nawabs, Lucknow, Muzaffar Ali, the Indian maker, poet, artist, fashion designer, and cultural revivalist, replied, “It (Lucknow) has a deeper sense of understanding and feeling situations. The deeper the feeling the greater the sense of the maximal. Here one thing leads to another, till you create an anjuman, a congregation of people and ideas. These feelings are getting eroded by consumerism and film can be one way of recreating them for everybody.” (Shriti Das) Lucknow’s culture is marked by tolerance, courtesy and artistic refinement. The city is renowned for storytelling tradition popularly known as kissa goi, mushaira, kathak dance, poetry, theatre, literature, and is associated with the traditions of ghazals, and classical music. Lucknow, thus, provides quite a conducive environment for artistic growth and space for everything that constitutes the core components of cinema. Through Muzaffar Ali’s words a clear insight into the romantic sophistication of Lucknow city can be perceived in a subtler way: “The rational, historical, humanistic outlook of my father, and the compassionate, culturally-oriented life of my mother, Rani Kaniz Hyder, both were mirrors to the timeless types that existed in Awadh. Through them, these types found their way to the outer world and to the inner world of the sensitive, feminine feudal culture of Umrao Jaan” (Meera Ali). Some of the prominent cinema personalities from Uttar Pradesh are Kaifi Azmi, Shakeel Badayun, Muzaffar Ali and Naushad Ali. Kaifi Azmi, a noted lyricist of Bollywood, was from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh. Shakeel Ahmad was born in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, while Naushad Ali and Muzaffar Ali both hailed from the City of Nawabs, Lucknow. The purpose of this study is to bring together the above mentioned four famous personalities of Hindi cinema born and raised in or near Lucknow, and study the impact that Uttar Pradesh, and Lucknow in particular, had on these eminent personalities so much that it shaped their lives to help them reach the heights and skies of fame and stardom.