SHEEMA Kirmani has many facets to her life, being a classical dancer, theatre actor and a social activist. Today she shares her choices in terms of music, movies and books with the readers of Dawn Magazine.
Busy as Sheema Kirmani is, she takes out a lot of time to listen to music, watch movies and read books. However, she claims that while she listens to music, she is not fond of songs, as such. Her favourite piece of music is a selection of Khusro’s compositions.
The other genre of music she likes very much is bhajans, particularly a collection sung by M.S. Subbulakshmi, a South Indian. It is believed that Meera Bai, the princess of Gujarat, gave up her life of luxury and went into the forest in search of the divine, where she wrote the poems comprising this repertoire. Says Sheema, “The first time I heard the bhajans, I was totally enamoured both by them and the singer.”
Sheema is also fond of the music of L. Subramaniam, a doctor of music who plays the violin in an Indianized way, incorporating a lot of fusion work. Says Sheema, “There is great subtlety and depth in his music. I have heard him live in an auditorium packed with three thousand people and saw him moving everyone to tears when he played a piece that he had composed — an ode to his dead mother. So powerful was his music.”
The social activist also enjoys watching art movies, her favourite being Satyajit Ray’s Charu Lata. Set in Bengal, it is about a woman hailing from a traditional, patriarchal family, who is bored with her life. She gets involved in a peasants’ movement and starts looking for truth and justice. “It is an artistically made movie, very tender and sensitive, and has always stayed with me,” says Sheema.
The other movie Kirmani cites is Prakash Jha’s Mrityudand, which means ‘Death Sentence’, revolving around a woman whose husband gives up his married life to join a corrupt priesthood.
However, her ultimate favourite is the Indian Umra-o-Jan Ada, which she describes as “a visually beautiful film, with a moving story and incredible acting”. She also loved the Chinese film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon about which she says, “The effects may be un-real, but there is an aesthetic quality in the martial arts, and the film has love and romance.”
Sheema Kirmani’s favourite book is Qurat-ul-ain Hyder’s Aag Ka Darya. The first time she read it was 25 years ago, when she had just started reading Urdu literature. Admits Sheema, “I found it difficult reading because my Urdu wasn’t so good then, but I found the book amazing. It gives incredible historical landscapes and although at that point the book had not been translated into English, I had felt it was a world classic. I have read it over and over again, often only reading a chapter at random, but it never fails to enrapture, and, in fact, each time I discover something new in it. I love her style of writing and am fond of all her novels.”
Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is another of Sheema’s favourite. She was in her twenties when she read it the first time and since then has re-read it a number of times and always been moved to tears. The story of a woman who gives up a secure life for passion and love only to be betrayed in the end, Sheema feels that the beauty of it is its universality and the fact that it could happen to anyone in any generation.
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, a more contemporary novel written in the 1980s, also ranks highly among her favourite books. Its characters are basically housewives, whose lives are affected by the anti-establishment movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s. Sheema says she likes the note of continuity in the book and the fact that it does not have a ‘happily ever after’ ending.
Another book that “is very close” to Sheema is The Politics of Women’s Spirituality. It is an anthology of essays by various women who have been involved in the women’s movement all over the world, and, as such, it represents diverse viewpoints — from the world of theatre, science, economics, medicine, etc. Says Sheema, “It is almost like a reference book for me, and I derive inspiration from these essays.”
FAVOURITE MUSIC: Anything composed by Amir Khusro
FAVOURITE MOVIE: Umra-o-Jan Ada
FAVOURITE BOOK: Aag Ka Darya, by Qurat-ul-ain Hyder
SHEEMA Kirmani has many facets to her life, being a classical dancer, theatre actor and a social activist. Today she shares her choices in terms of music, movies and books with the readers of Dawn Magazine.
