Husain's devastated son Owais is planning a film based on his late father's varied and eventful life
Husain's devastated son Owais is planning a film based on his late father's varied and eventful life
Owais Husain, filmmaker-artiste son of late M F Husain, reportedly shared a troubled relationship with his father, till the icon reached an advanced age. This is not surprising, when you have for your father one of those hallowed men of genius, who first glimpse the distant light of a new age, and concentrate it in the speculum of their art work. These radicals cannot be tied down to the narrow confines of domesticity, as their relationship is with humanity at large, and not just to their relatives and family members. One remembers that Gandhi's son Harilal suffered the same fate. 
grief-stricken: Owais Husain at his Worli home
Known to the world through the derivative identity of being Husain's son, Owais grew up at a definite disadvantage. Along with the pride and immediate recognition came the huge burden of expectation. It is a little known fact that Owais assisted Husain when the latter directed Gaja Gamini. In fact, it is well known in art circles that Husain's following feature film Meenaxi was largely directed by Owais himself. The tide turned in Husain's later years, however. After Husain's exile in Dubai and Qatar, Owais' relationship with his father gained a fresh new lease of life. In fact, Owais even made a documentary on his father last year, entitled Letters To My Son About My Father.
Devastated by his father's death, Owais is now contemplating a biopic on his father's full and rather colourful 96-year-old life. This new venture is sure to throw some challenges his way. While working on the documentary last year, Owais had said to me, "I don't know how to end the documentary. There are no full stops to his life, which has been charted by destiny. I've titled it Letters To My Son About My Father. My son is four years old. When he grows up, he should know about the luminous legacy that he has to uphold."
Speaking the vicissitudes and upheavals weathered by Husain, Owias said, "My father is older than modern independent India. As a child, he struggled to make ends meet. During the freedom movement, he painted slogans in protest of the oppressive rulers. In independent India, he painted pictures that were sold for astronomical sums of money. He didn't plan any of this. He didn't plan his exile in Dubai, and his subsequent citizenship in Qatar." Speaking on Husain's experiences as an expatriate, Owais said, "My father has been a nomad all his life, rendered homeless in recent years. He stayed close to me in Dubai, and I constantly tried to make him feel at home. But I had my own work too. I know he missed India, his home, terribly. He will continue to miss his real home, wherever he is. You can take M F Husain out of India, but you can't take India out of M F Husain."
And now thankfully, Owais was with his father in London when the end came. I also spoke to Reima, Owais' grief-stricken wife, from Dubai. When I asked her how Owais was coping with the loss, Reima said, "How do I answer that? How does any son take his father's passing? Owais was with his father in London at the time of his passing. In fact, he has been tending to his father for some time. I'm going to fly to London very shortly."
Asked about the possible cause of death, she said, "It was old age. He was after all, 96 years old. Everyone has to go. Owais has many plans on how to carry forward his father's legacy. He is planning a feature film. At the moment we just want to be left alone."
Husain handed me a copy of his memoirs, written in Urdu: Gulzaru00a0
I've known Husain saab closely. What an artiste. And what a way to go! He was painting till the last minute, even at the advanced age of 96. I think that's the perfect exeunt for any artiste. I am to visit Qatar soon, and was hoping to meet him there. I've met him in the US too. He intensely longed to come home. It is sad that we let him go, never asking him to return.
Gaye to kabhi humne manaane ki koshish bhi nahin ki. When he was in India, he would come over, and we would share a drink or two. He would ask for wine. He had even asked me to write a song for his film, which I did, although it was later dropped from the film, for reasons unknown to me. In fact, Jabbar Patel had planned to make a film on Husain saab's life, which I was to write.
In fact, Husain Saab wrote several pages of his own life-story in Urdu, for that film. Knowing instinctively how precious it was, he retained the pages, giving me a photocopy. I still have the pages. Jabbar's film was eventually shelved. But we don't really need any film to tell us what the man's life was worth, do we?
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