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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsZikr: In the Light and Shade of Time is Muzaffar Ali’s autobiography, published in October 2022 by Vintage Books (Penguin Random House India). It is a creative life told from Lucknow and Awadh, moving through filmmaking, poetry, painting, craft and Sufi thought. Politics is one strand of the book, not its organizing theme. Readers who come to it for the making of Umrao Jaan will find that film, but it sits inside a wider account of a life spent between cinema and the arts.
What kind of book it is
The publisher calls Zikr an interior portrait of a filmmaker and artist. It places Ali’s creative life against his family background, post-Partition India, his schooling at Aligarh, early advertising work in Calcutta, and his work with the then-new Air India. The title is an Arabic and Urdu word associated with remembrance, and Ali used it to describe the book’s method. In an Indian Express interview published on 22 November 2022, he said: “Literally, this book is a zikr of people and things.” He added that the book tracks his intellectual and spiritual evolution and connects his artistic pursuits.
Ali’s own description of its scope is equally direct. In the same interview he said: “It’s about my journey through art, the various places that have enriched me, and the various people who have been part of my artistic pursuit.” The route he names runs from Lucknow to Aligarh to Kolkata to Mumbai, and the book is organized around people and places more than around a single career timeline.
Edition details
The following figures come from the publisher’s listing for the hardback. They describe the edition, not current availability.
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| Item | Detail (as listed by the publisher) |
|---|---|
| Title | Zikr: In the Light and Shade of Time |
| Author | Muzaffar Ali |
| Imprint and format | Vintage Books, hardback |
| Publication date | October 2022 |
| Pages | 264 |
| ISBN | 9780670096107 |
| MRP | ₹699, a reference price from the 2022 listing; current selling price not stated |
| Audiobook | Not stated; the publisher page contains an unfilled audio section with no date or ISBN |
How the book is arranged
Ali is not a conventional chronicler, and the book does not present itself as a standard year-by-year biography. A Hindustan Times review by Arun AK, dated 2 December 2022, offers a helpful three-part reading of the structure. This is one reviewer’s outline rather than the publisher’s table of contents, but it is a useful map:
- Origins and early career: family, childhood, education, poetry, advertising and Air India.
- Filmmaking: the films, and the unfinished Zooni project.
- Sufi saints and poetry: the spiritual and literary material that closes the book.
The same review notes that Urdu verses open each chapter. Ali described how the text took shape: in a Scroll interview published on 25 April 2023, he said the memoir came together over roughly six months in 2022, during the pandemic, beginning with notes he typed on his cellphone. Each chapter was labelled “POV,” or point of view. He summed up the organizing aim this way: “The challenge was to create a thread between my life and my art and what was happening to me and what I would like to see happen to the world,” adding, “I’ve stuck to the poetic journey.”
The film strand
Cinema runs through the book, and reviewers identify several films and projects that Ali discusses at length. Scroll’s review by Mohammad Asim Siddiqui, dated 29 April 2023, is the most detailed account of this material.
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Gaman
The publisher describes the memoir as giving the background and sensibilities behind Gaman and Anjuman. Reviewers treat Gaman as one of the films through which the book examines how Ali’s cultural background entered his cinema.
Aagaman
The Scroll review lists Aagaman among the films the memoir addresses. It is discussed as part of the filmmaking account rather than as a standalone project.
Anjuman
Alongside Gaman, Anjuman is the film the publisher names when explaining the book’s account of creative sensibility. Readers interested in how Ali’s films were conceived will find this one of the book’s most direct points of entry.
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Umrao Jaan
The memoir covers Umrao Jaan, and the Scroll review frames it within Ali’s wider interest in Awadhi culture. The book is not confined to this film, but it is the title most readers will recognize first.
Zooni
Zooni is the project the book returns to most often in reviewers’ accounts. It concerns Habba Khatoon, the Kashmiri poet, and Ali could not complete it amid political circumstances. The Hindustan Times review places it in the middle section of the book, and the Scroll review treats its halting as one of the memoir’s central frustrations. For readers, it is the clearest example of how poetry, cinema and politics meet in the same story.
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The Scroll review describes a range that goes well past filmmaking: poetry, painting, couture, cars, Awadhi culture, Sufism and Rumi’s humanism. It also addresses Ali’s textile and craft work. The review reports that Ali made 18 short films on textile and craft; that figure is attributed to the review, dated 2023, and is not a publisher-verified total. Ali also offers his perspective on Bollywood and on the place of art in society. In the Indian Express interview of 22 November 2022, he said: “Freedom of art is as important as freedom of man. A man has to feel free in society to express himself.” This is Ali’s statement in that interview; it is not presented as a sentence from the memoir itself.
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Sufi thought and Urdu poetry
The book’s later sections turn toward Sufism, Rumi and Urdu verse. Reviewers describe this as the part of the memoir where the account of a life gives way to reflection on the ideas that shaped it. Readers who expect the film anecdotes to carry the book may find this section slower, but it is where Ali’s stated aim of linking life, art and spiritual evolution is most visible.
Politics as one strand
Politics appears in the book, but it does not organize it. The Hindustan Times review notes Ali’s brief electoral foray in Lucknow. The Scroll review treats the political circumstances around Zooni as part of the story of what stopped a project. Beyond these points, the reviews do not support describing the memoir as primarily a political book. Ali’s own framing, that he wanted his life and art to connect with events around him and with the world he hoped to see, places politics inside a broader concern with art and society.
Who the book suits
The reviews and interviews suggest three different reading experiences:
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- If you want the filmmaking: the Gaman, Anjuman, Umrao Jaan and Zooni sections are the core, though the book’s film material is shaped by Ali’s wider artistic life.
- If you want Awadh and its cultural history: the Lucknow and Awadh material, the Urdu verse and the craft and textile work give the book its strongest regional texture.
- If you expect a conventional chronological biography: the book’s arrangement, with poetic reflection in the later sections, will feel looser than a standard life story.
Where to find it
Penguin Random House India lists paperback and hardback buying options through SapnaOnline, Bookscape, Bookswagon, Crossword, Atlantic and Amazon. Those listings confirm the publisher’s retail routes, not current stock or the current price. Check the ISBN, 9780670096107, against any listing before buying, to make sure it matches the Vintage hardback.
The Bottom Line
Read Zikr as a creative autobiography in which filmmaking is one thread among poetry, craft, Awadhi culture and Sufi reflection. It rewards readers who want Ali’s films in the context of his wider life; it is less suited to readers who want a fast, strictly chronological account or a book about politics.
Quick Recap
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