Khusrau Darya Prem Ka

40 mins | Hindustani and Persian with English subtitles | India | 2015

Khusrau Darya Prem Ka is a modern-day docu-drama where artists try to understand the 14th-century poet-composer, Amir Khusrau Dehlavi. The film uses the dramatic dastan goi (traditional storytelling in Urdu) to tell the narrative of Amir Khusrau in the voices of Ankit Chadha (a dastan goi artist preparing a stage presentation on Amir Khusrau) and Rene Singh (a musician preparing a musical rendering of Khusrau’s poetry). Together, as they explore Delhi’s historical monuments or meet children from the basti Nizamuddin playing with Khusrau’s Hindvi poetry, Ankit renders some of Khusrau’s historical works in a typical dastan goi style. This journey comes to an interesting twist when Ankit’s dastan goi persona ‘detaches’ from him and turns into a ‘real’ historical character! Ankit confronts this persona – his alter ego – and engages in a dialogue about what is the relevance of Khusrau’s poetry and heritage in today’s life, what it means to be a Sufi, and so on.

The film also uses some renderings of Khusrau’s popular poetry in the voices of traditional qawwals (such as Mohammad Ahmed Warsi and Farid Ayaz qawwals), as well as in beautiful forms of Urdu-Persian calligraphy by Anis Siddiqui.

Director Yousuf Saeed will introduce the film and will be in conversation with the audience following the screening. A film produced for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, New Delhi

Dedicated to the memory of Ankit Chadha who went too far in search of Amir Khusrau