‘It feels like he was born for today,’ says documentary filmmaker Meera Dewan

A still from the film Baba Farid: Poet of the Soul

Born Farid al-Din Mas’ud Ganj-i-Shakar in Pakistan’s Multan, the poet-saint’s devotional verses have been sung for centuries by the Sikhs and his Sufi followers. This is an addition to the various films Dewan has made on Punjab, tackling issues ranging from bride dumping and trafficking to the concept of langar and the Guru Granth Sahib. Her last film, In His Inner Voice: Kuldip Nayyar, was on the veteran journalist, who passed away recently.

“What Baba Farid wrote and recited centuries back still resonates with us. It feels like he was born for today,” says Dewan, who relied on the book, Sheikh Farid – The Great Sufi Mystic by Dr TR Shangari. In the film, we meet Inderjit Singh Khalsa, the 94-year-old lawyer, who runs the Baba Farid Society and lives in Faridkot, and preserves the saint’s literature and works, apart from running various educational institutions in his name.

The film also given insight into the ambience of the Baba’s Khanqas. “He was the first to allow women to enter there,” says the filmmaker. It also gives an insight into his philosophy of simple living and non materialism. “There are several studies on how Baba Farid influenced the philosophy of Guru Nanak,” she says. The film also features singers Vidya Rao, Hans Raj Hans and Armaan Ali Dehelvi.

The film will be screened at IIC in Delhi on February 1, 6.30 pm