Film on Bacha Khan wins award

Documentary film on the life, struggle and achievements of great freedom fighter and founder of Khudai Khidmatgar Tehrik, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan aka Bacha Khan, has won the Black Pearl Award at the Third Annual Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) held at Dubai.

The movie, “The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, A Torch for Peace, directed by Canadian film-maker T C McLuhan, was awarded a prize of $10,000. The closing ceremony for the film festival was held at the Emirates Palace Hotel on October 17.

Celebrity guests, including Naomi Watts and Eva Mendes, presented the 2009 Black Pearl Awards to the winners at the culmination of 10-day cinema screening of 128 films. Seventeen narrative features, 14 documentary features, 25 short films, and 10 student shorts competed for the awards.

A special Black Pearl Award for lifetime achievement was presented to Vanessa Redgrave on October 8, the festival’s opening night. The English-language documentary on Bacha Khan and having comments in Pashto and Urdu was filmed in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan besides some shorts in the US. The film won the award at a time when the region, which Bacha Khan wanted a cradle of love and peace and where he was preaching non-violence, is passing through worst type of violence and militancy.

Badshah Khan, or Bacha Khan in Pashto, was the name given to him out of reverence by his loyal followers, who wore red cotton uniform to become known as the Red Shirts. The reformist movement’s more widely used name was Khudai Khidmatgar.

In the documentary ageing Khudai Khidmatgars recite a poem based on the oath that every volunteer took while joining the movement. They proclaim being a Khudai Khidmatgar and promise to serve humanity in the name of God.

The opening verse says that God doesn’t need any service and thus serving his creation is like serving Him. “The fewer words the better,” remarked McLuhan in her brief opening words. “You cannot imagine my happiness to return to this place after four years,” she said while referring to her previous visit when she did some filming in the NWFP.

She pointed out that her documentary on Badshah Khan carried great message of hope and peace. In an interview in New York when her documentary was premiered there in November, the 62-year- old McLuhan was quoted as saying that it had taken her 21 years to complete the project. She said she started working on it in September 1987 after conceiving the idea from a book on Bacha Khan by Indian author Eknath Esawaran.

Esawaran, who is featured in the documentary, wrote the book “A man to match his mountains” to pay tribute to the Frontier Gandhi. Another title of the book is “Non-violent Soldier of Islam.”

Apart from Esawaran, several Indian politicians and scholars talk about Bacha Khan in the documentary and describe him as a great man who performed a miracle by converting his gun-loving and war-liking Pakhtun people to non-violence.

They pointed out that Bacha Khan spent 35 years in prison but never compromised on principles. M J Akbar, a well known Indian author and newspaper editor, noted that media’s obsession with Mahatma Gandhi left no space for the other great apostle of non-violence, Bacha Khan.

Former Indian prime minister I K Gujral, his country’s ex-foreign secretary Salman Khursheed, Gandhian activist Nirmala Deshpande and a number of retired military and civil officers from India spoke highly about Bacha Khan’s contribution to the freedom struggle against the British colonialists.

Former President General Pervez Musharrraf was the lone commentator in the documentary who didn’t find anything praiseworthy about Bacha Khan. Afghan President Hamid Karai and his former minister Arif Noorazai showered praise on the Khudai Khidmatgar leader, who was lived for years in Afghanistan and was laid to rest in Jalal Abad according to his will.

The documentary contains some rare footage. It is made memorable by the presence of scores of old Khudai Khidmatgars, among them Qudrat Shah, Dheran Shah, Dr. Ghulam Jilani, Ghulam Sarwar, Mir Dad and Ghazan Khan. In assertive tone they talk about their love for Bacha Khan and the sacrifices the Khudai Khidmatgars offered for the freedom of their homeland.

Five elderly women, wrapping themselves up in their shawls but brave enough to speak to the camera, recount the virtues of Bacha Khan. Another one, Husan Afroza, feeble and unable to walk without support, gives strength to others by proclaiming her to be a fearless Khudai Khidmatgar.

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