Remembering Mohammad Anwar, Mehmood Jamal and Irfan Hussain
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February 24, 2021
LATE MOHAMMAD ANWAR: Life in exile is an excruciating experience. Its bitter taste is only known to people who have suffered it. The parting of the company is unbearable and hurtful when one himself is at the fag end of his innings when those with whom one had ‘sweet and sour’ relations running over decades without much of misunderstanding back to the Creator to whom we all have to return to account for our lives here and hereafter.
When I heard the tragic news of Anwar Bhai’s death the other day, I could not believe it. Just a few days back I had a chat with him on phone and we promised to meet over a cup of coffee as soon Covid restrictions were relaxed. Cruel Death took him away before we could deliberate on ‘halat-e-hazra’ (current situation). We shared two different schools of political thoughts as manifested in PPP and MQM. I also knew him to be son–in-law of late Barrister
Last modified on Tue 16 Mar 2021 08.25 EDT
Mahmood Jamal, who has died aged 72, was one of the pioneers of multicultural television in Britain. As a producer of films and documentaries Mahmood sought to bring talent and material from minority-ethnic communities to the screen.
The launch of Channel 4 in 1982, and its remit to feature programmes and concerns that the BBC and ITV had not, led Mahmood and his brother, Ahmed Jamal, to form the all-Asian Retake Film and Video Collective, the first of its kind in the UK.
Two years later, while continuing to work with Retake, Mahmood formed his own production company, Epicflo, and began to make films set in, and of interest to, British-Asian communities.
Mahmood Jamal 1947-2020. Photo courtesy author
On Dec 23, 2020, the poet, screenwriter and film producer Mahmood Jamal passed away at London’s Royal Free Hospital. He had been receiving treatment for prostate cancer, and had been admitted for investigations after intestinal bleeding was discovered. There he was diagnosed with Covid-19, placed in intensive care and, after a few days, died.
Mahmood was the second son of Maulana Jamal Mian of Farangi Mahal (d. 2012) and the grandson of Maulana Abdul Bari (d. 1926), a leader of the Khilafat Movement. His mother was Asar, daughter of Shah Hayat Ahmed, the Sajjada Nasheen of Rudauli Sharif in Bara Banki, Awadh.