Arab ki Sarai at Delhi’s Humayun’s tomb was immaculately dressed up for the Jahan-e-Khusrau, an annual three-day Sufi music festival held to commemorate the death anniversary of Amir Khusrau. The year was 2001. Illustrious artistes joined the magnificent musical company of Pakistan’s Abida Parveen, Iran’s Rumi Group and Tunisia’s Lotfi Bouchnak, to regale an audience that sat in the open gardens under moonlight. Little did festival founder, filmmaker and Padma Shri awardee Muzaffar Ali know that 20 years later, just under 25 km away from this venue, a lifetime worth of work would see a “pani phir gaya” moment.

Kotwara Farm, Ali’s home in Gurugram’s Gwalpahari, sits in a nasheb (Urdu for slope) as he puts it, with the beautifully rugged Aravali mountain range in close proximity and a pond behind the residence. This beauty, Ali realised, now comes at a price since the area has seen a burgeoning urban township spring up. Ali says much of it has to do with ASF Infrastructure, a private firm, developing an Information Technology sector-specific Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the area. 

“There are high-rise buildings here now. Water from the pond and the storm water drainage that passes right next to our house, is blocked by new construction and the hillock made by TERI [The Energy and Resources Institute] in the name of a golf course,” Ali alleges.

Like always, the rainwater should have followed its course into the foothills of the Aravalis. As per the records at Delhi’s primary weather station, the Safdarjung Observatory, 16 per cent excess rainfall was recorded in Gurugram in just 24 hours, on September 23. Other weather stations at Palam, Lodhi Road, Ridge Ayanagar and Pusa also recorded heavier than normal rainfall during this period. The 36-hour rain spell made this September the second wettest in a decade.

Like with several other commercial and residential premises, Ali’s home saw water flood in. “In just about an hour, there was three feet of water in my home office. All the archival tapes of original music from the Jahane-e-Khusrau festival from 20 years ago, and master tapes of my films, were swimming in muddy water. Sab sarabor ho gaya hai; I don’t know what to do,” he says helplessly.

Not just the tapes, a number of costumes from the festival and his films, old newspaper cuttings that were stored in a trunk, issues of the coffee table journal by Rumi Foundation, HU-the Sufi way, which document the Sufis of Kashmir, Punjab, Awadh etc, exquisite durries made in his hometown of the erstwhile royal estate of Kotwara, and his personal curation of music, lie ruined. “These tapes also housed the sound tracks of Anjuman (1986) and Gaman (1978),” he says of his films, “The tapes contained the originals.”

Music for Anjuman was directed by Khayyam while Gaman won Jaidev the National Award for best music direction and the National Award for best playback singer female (Chhaya Ganguly).

The damaged lot includes quarter-inch tapes that are no longer in use; music cassettes that replaced these, and CDs that came after. “I am still trying to wrap my head around how much is lost, what can be redeemed and what will be history now,” Ali says, who together with architect-designer wife Meera Ali, has putting the material to sun every morning.

Ali has filed a complaint at Gwalpahari police station in Gurugram to report the loss of “rare and valuable archival records of my films and festivals” that have been destroyed. “Due to the criminal negligence of ASF and TERI, this water was let loose by ASF and not allowed to move out by TERI. This created a flooding situation resulting in huge financial loss and damage to life and property. From time to time, I have been warning the MCG [Municipal Corporation of Gurugram] about this.” Ali says he has not received any support from the film industry or the Haryana government. “I have credibility attached to my life and name and they [the administration] should understand the problems a person like me is facing. Why would people want to settle here?”

“On his complaint, we have asked the MCG to clear out the drains. TERI has also been reached out to and they say off-season rain has caused damage to them too. But we will keep Muzaffar Ali’s maan-samaan and resolve the issue soon. FIR can’t be lodged as this is a non-cognisable offence,” said Gwalpahari police station ASI Prem Chand.

Ali says he has shifted his archives between locations over the last few years—from Mumbai, a city long lashed by the rains, to Lucknow, and finally Delhi. “I still have a lot of original photographs and archives at my Lucknow residence. Artistes and filmmakers tend to have valuable documentation which needs to be preserved and shared. My father [erstwhile Raja of Kotwara] also kept records till his death in 1990, and I have tried to safeguard them. He gifted some of it to the Amir-ud-Daula public library in Lucknow, opposite our home. I am not sure if they will be interested in safekeeping my archives too,” he tells mid-day.

With climate change a reality, Ali wonders if there is merit in considering the setting aside of a budget for the creation of a dedicated space that can serve as an art and cultural archive that’s air-conditioned and moisture-free.

Out of fashion quarter-inch tapes, cassettes, CDs with original music from some of Ali’s best films lie in slush