Lucknow :

Mijwan, a small village in Azamgarh that did not even have a pin code to its name, has empowered the village women such that Hollywood actress Naomi Campbell and several Bollywood actors are clients of their embroidery. Similar stories from the village were shared by Shabana Azmi at the Lucknow Literature Carnival organised by Lucknow Expressions in association with TOI here on Saturday. Mijwan is the village where her father Kaifi Azmi was born and where he founded the Mijwan Welfare Society in 1993, now run by Shabana.

“Students there are now getting English tuitions through Skype by volunteers in America and London,” she said. She also shared how the women are running beauty parlours and organizing fashion shows all by themselves.

Sharing success stories of the villagers, Azmi said people generally undermine the impact of music and theater in personality development. “My mother Shaukat Azmi used to give the girls lessons in theater and there was, and still is, an evident change in their personalities,” she said.

She also claimed that the village now has no girl married before the age of 18 which was possible only after a long struggle to bring about such positive change in the lives of women.

Parallel cinema alive in new avatar’

Maintaining that parallel cinema still survives in India, Shabana Azmi said that it has only assumed a new avatar. Quoting the example of Meghna Gulzar’s Talvar and others like Masaan and Kissa, Azmi said that filmmakers today work on current issues that interest and provoke them. “Parallel cinema does not only mean making films on villages or on feudalism only. The latter has long been left behind. To go out of the formula and have a discourse around it can be called parallel cinema too,” said Azmi.

Kaifi Azmi Academy likely to come up by 2016

The much-awaited All-India Kaifi Azmi Academy in UP might see the light of the day by March 2016, said Shabana Azmi on Saturday. She was responding to a question from the audience at the Lucknow Literature Carnival. She said she was hopeful of the assurance made to her by the UP chief minister. “Last time when I met the CM, he assured me that I shall have the key to the academy by March,” said Azmi. She also added that the CM felt bad Azmi had to make consistent efforts in the matter. She said she wishes to make the academy “a sort of an adda for intellectual arguments, debates and discussions.” Praising the people of the state, she said that UP has a lot of talent which she pines to make a part of her academy. “The advantage of good language, pronunciation and finesse comes as a natural talent to people here,” she said. The UP cabinet had cleared a proposal to provide financial assistance for setting up the All-India Kaifi Azmi Academy in July 2014. UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam had been appointed nodal construction agency for it.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / November 29th, 2015