KARACHI, Sept 28: Trying to understand and then illustrate a ritual associated with a foreign culture is an exceedingly demanding task. Painstaking research has to go into it along with a profound sense of empathy in order to have a keen understanding of a practice which is primarily to do with the spiritual aspect of life and less with worldly pursuits.
The Manghopir shrine in Karachi and the many crocodiles that exist in a pond near it have a really old history, with a Sufi known as Pir Mangho being its chief protagonist. The reptiles, a little more than 100 in number, are devotees of the pir. The 100-year-old Mor Sahib is the oldest of the lot.
Berlin-based filmmaker Till Passow's 30-minute documentary titled Mor Sahib's Wish premiered at the Goethe Institut on Wednesday was an attempt at capturing what happens around the shrine with particular reference to Mor Sahib and the annual urs that takes place there.
The attempt unfortunately wasn't able to catch the spirit of the whole exercise and focused more on its ritualistic facet.
The film begins with a description spanning a paragraph or two about the pir and the different Sheedi tribes which organise and take part in the urs. The first image the viewer sees is of a woman singing under a tent set up for the mela. Then an old man (who can't talk) with the help of an interpreter or interlocutor speaks into the camera informing the viewer about where Mangho Pir came from and how he became famous. According to him, the crocodiles were actually the lice which were formed after a discussion between the pir and another great Sufi saint Baba Farid. The latter had claimed the crocodiles wouldn't harm anyone and were a sign of the pir's presence. Then shots of the crocodiles, with Mor Sahib being the focal point, are shown raising their heads from the water.
This is followed by the rituals that are integral to the urs, including the one in which a goat is slaughtered by the devotees. The camera remains still on the blood gushing out of the goat's neck. The rituals were inter-cut with interviews of a few people, one of whom is an elderly woman who talks about the extra-sensory experiences or out-of-body experiences related to her association with the pir, crocodiles and the urs. Again, shots of a man feeding the crocodiles and garlanding them are interjected, and some of the close-ups manage to effectively catch the expression of the animals while leaping at the person who is offering meat or halva to them. A woman informs the viewer that if someone offers food to Mor Sahib and he eats it, his/her wish will be fulfilled.
Perhaps the most engaging shots of the film are those in which women are seen dancing, shaking their head vigorously as if in a trance. The effect is heightened by the music played in the mela, with the thumping sound of the dhol drowning out the rest of the sounds. Once the rituals are over, a shot of Mor Sahib slowly disappearing into the pond water ends the documentary.One felt the film lacked in content and concentrated more on its apparent happenings. There was no chronology of the rituals, nor was there any explanation as to why certain things were deemed necessary for the whole arrangement. What dominated the visuals was the crocodiles gobbling up big chunks of meat or the blood-letting caused by the slaughtering of the goats and using that blood for other purposes. It failed to touch the spiritual journey of all those who take part in the mela, how it is essential for their lives and how it lends meaning to their existence. Half-an-hour is just not enough to capture the essence of something as intense. In that much time one can only touch on a certain aspect of it, and that too should be backed by proper research work.Prior to the screening, Director of Goethe Institut Dr Markus Litz talked briefly about the film and said the annual urs was similar to something that happened in East Africa.