Saeed Mirza feels that he had nothing new to show through movies and therefore, it dawned upon him to write a book which will not be bound by any limitations, where he can capture various facets of his life’s experiences. He says that the framework for this book, AMMI – letter to a democratic mother was in his mind almost a decade ago but it took him three-and-half years to pen it down. He succinctly puts forth, “I first prepared the spinal cord of my work. Thereafter, it was easy to venture as I knew where to come back from.”
The American ‘war on terror’ and its cascading effect on the rest of the world seem to be the seeds of this book. But the book, he says, is not a commentary. His maiden tome is much more - an amalgamation of historical essay, soliloquy, play, diatribe and a travelogue.
When asked about the intriguing name, AMMI – letter to a democratic mother, he says the word ‘democratic’ is loaded. It points to the contemporary war between the so-called civilised and uncivilised, rogue versus law-abiding countries. In today’s scenario, he feels, the interpretation of this word is causing death. And the pure, unadulterated might of the West, particularly the US, is resulting in the destruction of civilisations. To him, his mother, who never read a relevant book, was more democratic. Saeed’s proximity to his mother and her influence on him is visible as she forms the edifice of this book. The narration is in the form of a poignant letter to his mother which keeps her abreast of the major happenings in the world after she left for her heavenly abode. He says that “this book cannot be typecast in any genre. It should be read till the end and then thrown in the basket. However, it can be picked again for reference after going through similar experiences in life.”
Saeed narrated incidents from the book which he captured during his journey across India. He says, `‘ordinary people in India and all over the world are fantastic and meeting them has been a humbling experience.” Once while travelling, Saeed says, he saw a painting of Sohni waiting to cross the river to meet Mahiwal, at the back of a truck. He stopped the truck and asked the driver about the painting. The driver explained that in an era of hatred, rat race, selfishness, he wanted to spread the message of true love in the country through this painting depicting sacrifice and true love. In another instance, in course of his travel through Karnataka, Saeed saw a poor farmer and his wife who refused to talk and bluntly shooed him away. He later found out that the couple had hired two bulls for four hours to plough the field. And in no way they wanted to waste their time by talking to some one who wouldn’t make any difference to their lives.
“The real India is not Shahrukh Khan and Anil Ambani,’’ he says matter-of-factly, : “it lies in the ordinary people who are toiling hard to make ends meet with dignity.’’
This definitely sounds convincing, coming from a man who has understandably shown the plight of the proletariat through his serials like Nukkad and films like Albert Pinto ko Gussa kyon Aata hai, Mohan Joshi haazir ho, to name a few of his works.
