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Introduction

The purpose o these notes is to provide additional contextual inormationabout the situation o Aghan reugee musicians in Peshawar in 985, togive an account o the process by whichAmirwas made, and to comment

rom a variety o perspectives on certain scenes and shots in the lm.Experiences with showing the lm to many varied audiences have raised anumber o questions, and the present notes are in part written with thesequeries in mind.

Amirwas made in my rst year as a Leverhulme Film Training Fellow atthe National Film and Television School. In planning the lm I wantedto utilise my amiliarity with the urban music o Aghanistan, acquiredduring extensive ethnomusicological. research between 973 and 977,mainly in the city o Herat, in western Aghanistan, and also in Kabul,the capital. This was the period immediately prior to the Marxist coupo 978, which led to the Soviet invasion o 979, the war against themujahideen, and the exodus o an estimated 4.5 million Aghan reugeesto Pakistan and Iran.

In the background o the lm lies the unseen spectre o Herat, Amirs home,a city celebrated in the history o the Islamic arts and in the 5th centuryA.D. the cultural centre o the Persian speaking world (or accounts o thecity see Wole 966; English 973; Doubleday 988; and Baily 988a). Inthe Aghan context Herat was a highly musical city, second only to Kabulin Aghan art and popular music (vocal and instrumental), as well assupporting a number o other more local traditions. During my eldworkin the 970s I carried out extensive lming in Super 8 and eventuallyedited the ootage into three videos. 2 This was my introduction toethnographic lm making. When in 985 I had the opportunity, andthe budget, to make a eature length 6mm documentary lm aboutAghan music I decided to go to the Pakistani city o Peshawar, in theexpectation that Aghan reugee musicians would be living and working

there. One heard that in the Peshawar bazaar cassettes could be oundo nationalist songs in support o the resistance. I had read about a waveo new poetry (Moin 985) which might also have musical implications.Nationalist songs were certainly part o Pashtun culture. An example o asong celebrating the annihilation o a British army retreating rom Kabulin 842 is to be ound in Andr Singers lm Khyber, andA Valley Againstan Empire, a French television lm about Masuds mujahideen army in thePanshir Valley, ends with a song o resistance sung by a man sitting on topo a bumt-out tank playing dambura(a type o long-necked lute). I wasthereore interested in nding out how musicians were aring as reugees.Were they able to continue in that proession? What eects, i any, didthe political situation have on music making? Was a new kind o politicalmusic coming into existence? How was the long standing condemnation

o music by orthodox Islam (Baily 988a, Chapter 9) aected by thepresent situation?

Research in Peshawar

The empire o the rst Amir o Aghanistan, Ahmad Shah Durran(ruled 747-73), included much o modem Pakistan, territories whichthe Aghans lost to the Sikh leader Ranjit Singh in the early part othe nineteenth century. The true Aghans, the Pashtun peopleS3 whohave dominated Aghanistan since 747, were divided by the DurandLine negotiated between the Aghan and British Indian governments in

893, which demarcated the boundary between south-east Aghanistanand the North-West Frontier Province o British India.4 This divisionbecame the source o much confict or Pakistan when, ater 947, theAghan government demanded the establishment o an independent stateor the Pashtuns living in Pakistan, to be called Pashtunistan. The issueremained a source o trouble until Aghanistan dropped these demandsin the early 960s, and or long periods the border between the twocountries was closed, cutting Aghanistan o rom the port o Karachion which its overseas trade largely depended. Aghanistans championingo the Pashtunistan issue must be regarded as an important reason or thesupport given to both reugees and mujahideen by the Pashtun people oNorth West Frontier Province (NWFP) during the present war.

The capital o NWFP is Peshawar, ormerly the winter capital o the

rulers o Aghanistan, and still a walled city in the 960s. Althoughlocated in the heart o the Pashtun area, the population o the old city oPeshawar were principally Punjabis, who spoke Hindku, a dialect o thePanjabi language. Reugees rom Aghanistan began arriving in NWFP inthe late 970s and grew to a steady stream ollowing the Soviet invasion o979, eventually numbering, it is estimated, about 3.5 million persons. nemajority were housed in reugee camps in NWFP set up along the Aghanborder by the Pakistani Government with nancial backing rom theUnited Nations gh Commissioner or Reugees. Lie in the camps wascertainly harsh but most amilies received adequate provisions rom thePakistani Government and medical acilities and schooling were availablein some degree. Gradually tents were replaced by more durable structureand the camps began to assume a more permanent aspect.

The camps were run according to strict rules and provided a situationin which the mullahs (Muslim clerics) were able to impose a rigidlyorthodox regime. In many ways women suered more rom the rigourso camp lie than men, who at least were ree to spend time in the locabazaars. Purdah was strongly enorced in the camps. Individual amilieswere oten separated rom their ormer local communities, within whichwomen had considerably reedom o movement, and in the camps womenwere in many cases more or less conned to their tents, hardly able to geoutside at all. In view o the maniold discomorts o camp lie it is notsurprising that many reugees, particularly those rom towns and cities oAghanistan, should preer to live in cities like Peshawar and attempt toearn their living there. The infux o reugees in turn had an enormouseect on the city o Peshawar; its population had at least doubled and amuch larger proportion o its inhabitants than beore were Pashtuns.

No music was allowed to be played in the reugee camps, not even overthe radio. The mullahs imposed strictly the prohibition on music whichis latent in Islam. The camps were maintained in a perpetual state omourning, justied by the constant infux o new arrivals who had lostrelatives in the ghting. Those who were proessional musicians amongstthe reugee population had the choice o living in a camp and hiding theiormer proession, or o living in the city o Peshawar i they wanted tocontinue working as musicians. In act, musicians were one o the moresuccessul proessional groups amongst the reugees, or they had a skilthat was in demand in the NWFP region. In this region o Pakistan theproession o musician has a low social rank, and in Pashtun societywith ew exceptions, proessional musicians are recruited rom a caste

T h e M a k i n g o f A m i r :

A n A f gh an Re f ugee Mus ic iansLife in Peshawar, Pakistan

By John Baily

Contents

Introduction Page Research in Peshawar Page The Film Making Process Page 3The Structure and Content o the Film Page 5The Atermath Page Notes Page 2Reerences Cited Page 3

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o hereditary musicians called Dom. In Aghanistan attitudes towardsmusicians had been considerably more liberal, even in the Pashtun areas,where amateur status was clearly dened.5 The proessional centre ormusicians in the city o Peshawar was Dubgari Road. Groups o musicianskept suites o rooms upstairs above the bazaar so prospective clients couldcome and visit them, usually to hire them to play at wedding parties. In985 Aghan music was popular amongst Pakistani Pashtuns in NNP,and there were many Aghan musicians based in Dubgari. This was notan entirely new situation: Aghan musicians, especially rom Jalalabad, a

large town hal-way along the road to Kabul, had been visiting Peshawaror a long time.

There was a large local cassette industry in Peshawar, including recordingso resistance songs. Typical o the perormers o this genre was the singerHaikal, rom Jalalabad. I purchased a cassette by him in the bazaar theday ater arriving in Peshawar. It contained two long dasOns (epics)describing recent events in Aghanistan and recounting the exploits oa particular band o mujahideen. The music was ast and energetic and Iwas struck by the style o tabla playing, which seemed to be imitating thesounds o gunre. When later I met the man who had played tabla onthis recording he conrmed this was the case.6 Another cassette I bought

was o solo singing in Pashto with the continuous sounds o a gun battlemixed in to provide atmosphere. One had come a long way rom bird songas the acme o the musical aesthetic (Baily 988a: 53). It transpired thatalthough such resistance songs were recorded on commercial cassettesthere was little call or the live perormance o such material. The patronso the proessional musicians amongst the Aghan reugee populationwere Pakistanis who wanted them to play or their wedding parties, andsongs about the war were inappropriate at such times. Love songs werewhat was required.

It was soon evident that there was an Aghan music scene in Peshawar,the problem was how to gain access to it. The best known o the Aghanreugee musicians at that time was Shah Wali Khan, originally rom theJalalabad area, and a ormer singer or Radio Aghanistan. He broadcastregularly on radio and television in Peshawar, being one o only our localA Grade artists (a classication used to determine status and rates o pay).When I met Shah Wali (the manager o the radio station sent or him tomeet me) I immediately recognised him as the musician who had sungthe anti-British song in the lm Khyber7 and when he took me backto his rooms in Dubgari I discovered to my surprise and delight that amusician in his band was a man I had known well in Herat ten yearsbeore, Amir Mohammad (or Amir, as I shall call him). He became themain protagonist o the lm I eventually made.

A certain amount o inormation is available elsewhere concerning Amirsormer lie in Herat, and about the lie o music o which he was a part.Amir was encountered by the ethnomusicologist Lorraine Sakata in 972

and she has published several recordings in which he plays zirbaghaland tabla (Sakata 983:32, 39). Amir was the nephew by marriage oHerats most celebrated woman singer, Zainab Herawi, also recorded bySakata (ibid. 88, 207) and one o my wie Veronica Doubledays threewomen o Herat (Doubleday 988). In her book Amir is called Hakimand Zainab Shirin. The social group o thirty or so male proessionamusicians in Herat o which Amir was a member is described in Baily(988a, Chapter 7), where an example o Amirs perormance as a singeat that time can also be ound (ibid. 9).

Amir was born in Pai Koh, a remote village some miles rom Shendandin Farah Province, into a Gharibzadeh (barber) amily. His parents diedwhen he was young and he was brought up in the village by his atherbrother. At the age o twelve or so he was peremptorily sent o to Heracity to nd another o his athers brothers, the barber Khalia Shekarwho had married into the community o proessional women musiciansIt was in this social milieu that Amir became a musician, not throughormal training but by exposure to music, observation, imitation andparticipation. In the 970s he was a singer and harmonium player leadingsmall bands composed mostly o amateur musicians who had turnedproessional and who mainly perormed popular music. He was a low-ranking member o Herats small community o proessional musicianand had little knowledge o the theory or practice o art music. For varioureasons he had been denied access to these matters by the more seniomembers o the extended amily o musicians he lived amongst when hejoined his uncle (ibid. 07).

In Herat Amir had been remarkable not so much as a musician but inhis manner and conduct. He was a stylish dresser, wearing elaboratelyembroidered shirts and expensive silk turbans. He was very articulatea wonderul raconteur in the stylised manner o talking ound amongscertain men o the Herad underworld o gamblers, hashish smokersdancing boys, kdkehs and some musicians (see, or example, Baily 988b)Amir had a considerable knowledge o musician olk-lore; tales o greausOds o Kabul and o India, and o Sus and their shrines. I recordedsome o these tales but ater my eldwork I regretted not having workedin more detail with him, realising that I had missed a great opportunityWhen we met again he greeted me as a long-lost brother, a link with thepast. As he oten said to me, When I see your ace I see Herat.

Since leaving Herat at the time o the uprising o March 979 againstthe new Marxist regime, Amir had had a complicated lie. He had beenin Kabul or some months, where he was well known in the KuchehKharabat, the musicians quarter in the old city, then went to Iran, thenback to Kabul beore nally leaving or Pakistan, where he had lived orabout three years. He spent a year in a village near Quetta, then movedto Peshawar. Amirs rst language was Dari but there were relatively ewDari speakers in NWFP, where Pashto was the dominant language. Heratwas a long way away, ew o the Aghan reugees living in or aroundPeshawar had ever been there. It was oten regarded with some mistrust byother Aghans, who believed Heratis to be mostly Shiahs, and suspectedthem o greater allegiance to Iran than to Aghanistan. Amir wasthereore something o an outsider amongst the mainly Pashtun reugee

in Peshawar but he knew some Pashto rom his childhood, or Shendandhad proportionately more speakers o that language than Herat.

I was a little surprised to nd Amir as a member o Shah Walis bandShah Wali was praised or his knowledge o rags (melodic modes) andor the classical approach he brought to his singing, whereas Amir hadknown little about such matters. In Herat he had not usually played withhigh ranking musicians. The kind o Aghan Persian olk and popularsongs that he perormed in Herat were not in demand in NWFP andhe was now playing the rubab, the short-necked plucked lute that is thenational instrument o Aghanistan. That he could play this instrumenta little I knew, but he was never the regular rubab player in a Herati

Map o Aghanistan and Pakistan

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group. In Peshawar it was evident that his musical skills had developedconsiderably. He now had the opportunity to learn something about musictheory, notably the musical identities o the various rags, and was gettingbetter at the style o classical music played on rubab. His new knowledgederived rom various sources: other Aghan musicians such as Shah Wali,Pakistani musicians in Dubgari and his mentor in Lahore, the NawabSahib. Although he was playing with a greater level o expertise, I oundthat he had considerable trouble tuning the rubab, especially the manysympathetic strings. He also ngered the rets rom some unconventionalpositions and had adopted some idiosyncratic tunings (see Baily 98 or

an account o Aghan modal practice).

Amir had had the opportunity to advance himsel through being amember o Shah Walis band, which gave him some standing amongst themusicians o Dubgari. I was unable to nd out what Shah Wali saw in Amirand, as discussed later, theirs was a sometimes quarrelsome relationship.Certainly Amir was a social asset; he had charm and tact with patrons, wasready to ingratiate himsel with them and to act the henchman. Whenpatrons came to hire the band Shah Wali would consult Amir about theterms oered, the distances to be travelled, and the comorts promised, orabove all Amir was an experienced proessional musician, the veteran othousands o engagements, and knew how to get on well with people andcreate a good ambiance at a wedding or private party.

Having ound Amir, there was no question that he had to be the centralcharacter o my lm. His personality, articulateness and opennesscombined to make or near perect casting. He provided the crucial accessto the world o proessional musicians in Dubgari. Shah Walis was notexactly the band I had imagined I would work with: Shah Wali was toosuccessul and perormed rather little resistance music. But no-one coulddeny his pre-eminent rank amongst the Aghan reugee musicians.

The Film Making Process

Amir is a portrait lm, a genre which provides a particularly successulcinematic approach in documentary lm making. In concentrating on oneor two central characters, the documentary portrait is obviously close in

approach to the ction lm, which is, above anything else, about people.The portrait lm ollows the same person in many dierent situations,allows the audience to build up an acquaintanceship and creates anempathy. The question o casting becomes a crucially important issue, inthe sense o choosing the appropriate person/people who will come overwell on lm. Amir is also to some extent an observational lm, ollowingrelatively undirected actuality, but there is no thought o claiming tobe a fy-on-the-wall. The presence o the lm crew is acknowledged atvarious junctures, and there is no pretense that this is anything other thana lm.

Amir is very much in the documentary style o the National Film andTelevision School (see Baily, 989, or a detailed discussion o this lmstyle). There is minimal commentary and all the dialogue is subtitled.

There are no inter-titles or cards, and no supplementary inormationis provided except in the brie narration in English at the start. Allthe inormation needed to interpret the action (or to arrive at aninterpretation) is provided by the action itsel. This is also a lm aboutresearch and recreates something o the eldwork experience. There isa eeling o getting deeper into things, o progressive revelation. Theaudiences initial access to the world o the Aghan reugee musicians ismediated by an Aghan interpreter/researcher (A.W. Sultani), and laterthe lm maker takes over the investigative role.

The Shoot

The lm was shot by Wayne Derrick, then in his nal year as adocumentary director and camera student as the NFTS, someone witha special interest and commitment to the schools style o documentarylm making. Wayne Derrick has a particular fair or the sequence-shotand some good examples are to be ound in this lm, e.g. Shots 6-7, 3857-58.I arrived in Peshawar on 26 March 985 to carry out preliminary researchWithin a week I was introduced to Shah Wali and through him had me

Amir. Ater this I spent much time in Shah Walis deyrah (suite o roomsin Dubgari with Amir and other musicians, and went out with Shah Walisband to observe it at various engagements. I played the rubab a great dealhaving studied this instrument in the 970s with one o Aghanistansmost revered musicians, Ustad Mohammad Omar. Such expertise as Ipossess in rubab playing gave me an invaluable entr6e into the world oAghan musicians in Peshawar. I also conducted some research on Pashtunmusic and recorded a number o Pakistani musicians. When Wayne joinedme on 28 April I had a good idea o the range o activities we mighthope to lm. Shooting started on 4 May and continued intermittentlyuntil 5 June. We knew in advance that Ramadan, the Muslim month oast, would start on about 2 May. I had hoped that Ramadan would bein some ways a month o estivity as it had been in Herat, with nightlyconcerts o music. I ound this was not the case in Peshawar. Here is a briediary o the shoot.

4 May: In Dubgari. Amir in the street; visit to a rubbmaker, Amirs account o the role o the deyrah.

5 May: In the deyrah. Amir plays rubb . Wali sings. ShahWali sings. Delawar Selab recites. Conversationabout cassette.

7 May: At Amirs house. Amirs account o his experiencesas a reugee. Satar talks about marrying hisdaughter to Amir. Tour o house and courtyard.Eating a meal.

8 May: In the deyrah. Proessor Nawab Khan teaches

Amir and Wali.

9 May: In Dubgari. Musicians prepare to leave orwedding. Shooting at the wedding in Mardan.Instrumental music and Shah Wali singing.

2 May: Area around Amirs house. In barber shop, Amirshopping. In Dubgari. Bakhtiar teaches Mushtar,conversation with Amir.

4 May: Deans Hotel. Nawab Sahib, Amir and Shah Waliplay. Amirs rubb solo.

5 May: In the deyrah. Ezat Jans visit. Ezat Jan playrubb .

6 May: Outside Deans Hotel. Interview with Amir aboutthe Nawab Sahib.

8 May: Peshawar bazaar, ollowing Amir.

9 May: Graveyard and shrine o Rahman Baba.

20 May: Peshawar bazaar. Trac.

25 May: Swat. Amir, Shah Wali and others by river. Amirand Satar playrubb and nlin the evening.

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5 June: Peshawar TV station. Interview with a stamember about Shah Walis success. Copy o videoo Shah Wali perorming at the TV Station.

For equipment we used an Aaton l6min camera with zoom lens, and aNagra stereo tape recorder with a variety o microphones. The stereoacility was only used when shooting the musical perormance at thewedding party on May 9th. Reducing the lm crew to two (the so calledshort crew) helps prevent the lm makers rom dominating the actualitybeing lmed. The role o the director is to direct the visual and sound

recording units rather than the action. Although ideally one should lmthings as they happen, without provoking or in any way controlling them,this ideal is oten dicult or impossible to achieve. Familiarity with thesubject will inevitably suggest types o scene to be sought out, which maybe passively awaited or more actively provoked. Any orward planning,such as arranging to shoot in a particular location, is likely to arousecertain expectations on the part o both lm makers and actors. Thusthe director inevitably exerts some degree o control over the actualityrecorded.

Although some lm makers apparently maintain that it is dicult tocontrol eciently the shooting while simultaneously making the soundrecording (Zemp 988: 258), did not nd this a problem, perhapsbecause I delegated much o the decision making about how to shoot to

Wayne Derrick. I would usually signal to him when to start rolling, andsometimes when to stop, but other decisions to do with ocal length, angle,raming and camera movement were largely let to him, though we otendiscussed in advance what was required. Part o our technique involvedWayne keeping his non-camera eye open, scanning the scene, and readyto respond to visual signals rom me. Given that he came to Pakistanknowing virtually nothing o the language, and little about the culture, hedid an extraordinary job, somehow divining accurately what needed to beshot at any given moment.

Although we went armed with an imagined scenario, and had a generalidea o the kind o lm to be made, the lm was in no sense scripted inadvance. During the course o the shoot we had many discussions aboutwhat we had got and what we still needed to get, thinking about howthe material shot so ar tted the original intention, how it suggestedmodications and new scenarios. We were unable to screen rushes, butwe did listen to the audio tapes, and in any case I was working on a roughtranslation o the dialogue recorded during the course o the shoot. Themaking o this kind o lm is a mode o ethnographic inquiry in its ownright.

There is no doubt that lming imposed considerable strains on relationsamongst the musicians, notably between Amir and Shah Wali. Themusicians were by no means naive about lm making. They had otenseen themselves on Peshawar TV and were amiliar with Hindi and Urdumovies. They occasionally hired a VCR and monitor to watch lms in thedeyrah. Shah Wali had composed music or a lm in Pakistan, and hadperormed in at least one Western documentary (Andr6 Singers Khyber).In the musicians experience lm makers worked at high pressure, but we

did not conorm to that expectation and instead spent time taking partin the lie o Dubgari and only reaching or the camera and tape recorderwhen something interesting started happening.

Amir was happy with this arrangement but it clearly began to irritateShah Wali, who came to his deyrah less and less oten. From his pointo view we should have been making a lm about him, the amous singer,not someone who was in certain respects his henchman and menial, amere accompanist. Amir gave us access to Shah Wali, and Shah Wali didnot particularly appreciate it. This tension culminated at the weddingparty in Mardan (Scene 4) when during the last song Shah Wali suddenlyturned and slapped Amir round the ace, ostensibly because Amir was

chatting with Mena Gol, the tabla player, and not concentrating on themusic. Amir was very quiet ater this, and later told me that Shah Walisometimes abused him in this way. They had quarreled beore, and Amirhad even been sacked rom the band. 8 Ater this incident I eared thatAmir would be dismissed, a disaster rom every point o view. Fortunatelyat this juncture Shah Wali and Arnirs most notable patron, the NawabSahib, arrived rom Lahore on a visit to Peshawar. He was able to gethem to patch up their quarrel, a mediating role it transpired he had playedbeore.Editing

The editing oAmir presented ew serious problems. Several dierenttypes o audience had to be bome in mind.

. The general audience o English speakers, who might have theopportunity to see the lm on national television.2. Specialists in ethnomusicology, anthropology and regional studies. Fothem the lm is a report on the condition o Aghan reugee musiciansin Peshawar.3. The Aghan audience, or whom very ew lms had ever been made intheir own languages, principally Dari (Aghan Persian) and Pashto.4. The NFTS audience o sta and student lm makers, concerned leswith anthropology than with making good movies.

In procedural terms I held regular weekly screenings o the lm at theNFTS or whatever audience o lm makers I could muster at the timeTheir eedback was invaluable. Ater each screening we would have along discussion, ollowed by a weeks cutting beore the next screeningSome people ollowed the changes made week by week; their eedbackwas valuable or estimating the success o solutions to problems identiedat earlier screenings. Sometimes a new person would be present, veryimportant or giving a resh view o the material. Colin Young, Directoro the NFTS, and main architect o the schools documentary lm stylesaw the lm several times and made a number o valuable suggestions. Alstages o the cutting, rom synching-up to track laying, were carried out byme. In my opinion, editing is a crucial part o ethnographic lm makingand should be carried out by the anthropologist/lm director and not byan outside editor.

The ootage passed rom a rst assembly through our rough cuts to therst ne cut, which was later altered in the second (and nal) ne cut. Thrst assembly had much o the structure o the nal lm. The most serioudiculties arose with the central section o the lm, that dealing with theworkplace. There was a lot o ootage available and it was dicult to gethe various sub-scenes in the right order. The name o the lm, Amirwas established while synching-up the rushes, so that the whole editingprocess proceeded rom this point o reerence. In the midst o the editingtwo months ater the shoot, news arrived rom Amir that Shah Wali hadsacked him rom the band. This intelligence was prooundly disturbingand threw something o a shadow over the editing. It was decided, partlyor reasons o accuracy, that this inormation had to be included in thelm, so an inter-title between the end o the last shot (Amir playing therubb) and the credits was inserted, saying:

A month later Shah Wali replacedAmir with another rubb player.

The impact o this could be quite unsettling or the audience, with Amirapparently cosy lie in Peshawar seen in its true state o insecurity.

The rst ne cut o the lm was shown in video at the RAI EthnographiFilm Festival in London in September 985. This version used voice-ovetranslation in English o dialogue and songs, and ended with the newso Amirs sacking. Although it seemed at the time that the editing wanished, this screening served to show that the lm was rather too long

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and contained some potentially boring sequences. There were particularproblems near the beginning o the lm, with a scene in which Amir tookhis rubab to an instrument maker or a minor repair. Though badly lit, thishad the virtue o being good observational ootage o a real conversationabout the instrument, but it made the start o the lm slow and tentativeand aroused the wrong expectations in the audience. It was decided thecut out the whole sequence.

While recutting the nal version (ater this particular screening), newsarrived rom Amir in Peshawar saying that he had patched up his quarrel

with Shah Wali and was now back in the band. This was cause orrejoicing, and the nal card was excised. By the time he was sacked romthe band again (and this happened several times) the lm was completed.

The Structure and Content of the Film

Dramatis Personae(in order o appearance):

Amir Mohammad: proessional musician rom Herat, rubb playerin Shah Walis band.

Ahmad Wali Sultani: researcher, interpreter, interviewer.Satar Khan: Amirs ather-in-law, tablaplayer rom Jalalabad.

John Baily: lm maker and ethnomusicologist.Mushtar Ali Haidar: singer and harmonium player rom Jalalabad.Bakhtiar Ustaz: Pakistani master musician, rubb player.Mena Gol: tablaplayer in Shah Walis band.Shah Wali Khan: successul singer and band leader rom Jalalabad.Delawar Saylab: writer and poet, originally rom Aghanistan.Ezat Jan Mujaddidi: a riend o Amirs rom Herat.The Nawab Sahib: a son o the ormer Nawab o Dir, music connoisseur.

Overall Structure of the Film:

The lm is sub-divided into scenes in this written analysis but the scenesare not labelled as such in the lm.

Scene - Introduction to Amir MohammadScene 2 - Amir at homeScene 3 - The musicians workplaceScene 4 - The wedding partyScene 5 - Ezat Jans visitScene 6 - At the shrine o Rahman BabaScene 7 - Ramaddn (Ramazdn) in SwatScene 8 - Amir plays the rubb

A Shot-by-Shot Analysis(all dates reer to date o shooting):

A ragment o music played on the Aghan rubab precedes the title. Thisis taken rom the beginning o Amirs nal perormance (Shot 57).

TITLE CARDSAmir

An Afghan refugee musicianslife in Peshawar, Pakistan

Scene - Introduction toAmirShot - Peshawar trac. 20 May 985

Scooter rickshaws in Chowk-e Yadgar, Peshawar. An establishing shot,showing the densely packed urban landscape and soundscape in which somuch o the lm is set. The commentary, spoken by John Baily, begins:

As a result o the civil war in Aghanistan several millionreugees sought shelter in neighbouring Pakistan, especiallyaround the city o Peshawar, which is close to the border andlinked to Aghanistan by the Khyber Pass. The majority oreugees live in camps run by the Government and the UnitedNations, but many thousands have settled in the city o Peshawarand sought to make their living here. I came to Peshawar hopingto nd some o the Aghan musicians I had known ten yearsearlier. I soon ound my old riend Amir...

During the commentary the camera slowly zooms out to reveal more othe densely packed bazaar we are about to enter. At the mention o Amirwe cut to Shot 2. The term civil war in the commentary is controversialor many Aghans would claim that the war was against a Soviet invasionand in no sense a civil war. Certainly most o the ghting was betweenthe mujahideen and the Aghan government backed by Soviet troops, buthere were also local militias set up by the government, occasional ghtingbetween mujahideen groups, and assassinations between the rival Marxist(Khalqand Parcham) parties in Kabul. I believe the term civil war isjustied. The continuation o the war ater the Soviet withdrawl o 989supports this interpretation.

Shot 2 - Amir walks along Dubgari Road. 4 May 985

The commentary continues:

...a native o the distant city o Herat. Amir became a reugeethree years ago and eventually made his way to Peshawar,where he joined the band o the Pashto singer Shah Wali, themost successul o the Aghan reugee musicians and a star olocal radio and television. Amir is an orphan, brought up in anextended amily o hereditary musicians, and has been earning aliving rom music since the age o twelve. When I knew him inHerat he was a singer and harmonium player, but there is littledemand in Peshawar or the style o Hearti popular music heperorms. So now he plays Pashtun music on the rubab, a typeo lute, and is even learning the more dicult classical style orhis new instrument.

The camera tracks Amir, rom behind at rst, passes him, and by the endo the shot Amir is seen rom in ront, as though we are now ready to meehim. Dubgari Road, to which we return later, is where the musicians havetheir rooms, but it is also occupied by a variety o shops and businessesnotably cratsmen making urniture, quilts and sandals. Amir carriesin his hand a rubb in its bag. He is walking to an instrument makersworkshop to have a broken peg replaced, and an earlier version o thilm (shown at the RAI Ethnographic Film Festival in 985) showed himwith the instrument maker. This sequence served to introduce the rubbbut made the beginning o the lm very slow, as noted above. So insteadthe instrument is introduced by being played, with the sound laid orwardover the end o Shot 2.

Shot 3 - Amir plays the rubb. 5 May 985

Amir is in Shah Wali Khans deyrah, playing a naghmeh-ye klsik (classicainstrumental piece) on the rubb. This is the Kabuli version o NorthIndian instrumental art music. The melodic mode is Rg Malkauns, themetric cycle is Tintl(6 beats). This piece shows the kind o music towhich he now has access. At the end he attempts a seh (or tihai), but it goewrong, a act he acknowledges with good humor, and which demonstratehis incomplete control o this musical genre. He is accompanied by thedoholak, a typical instrument o Pashtun regional music, played in turn bytwo musicians (both are brothers o Mena Gol, the tablaplayer in ShahWalis band). Although this scene was unsolicited, it was in some waysstaged by the musicians or the camera. But it does airly represent the

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kind o music making that sometimes goes on in the deyrah, to pass thetime or to entertain guests or patrons, with clapping and nger snappingrom the audience. Here the lm crew are the guests.

Scene 2 - Amir at HomeShot 4 - Amir and Sultani in the alley. 2 May 985

Ahmad Wali Sultani, then assistant to the Field Ocer o Aghanaid inPeshawar, sometimes helped us as researcher, interpreter and interviewer,especially in the early days o the shoot. He and Amir walk along the alley

where Amir lives in the Akhundabad suburb o Peshawar, a relatively poorarea housing many Aghan reugees. Sultani carries two magazines or theAaton camera and his briecase. This scene was shot during our secondvisit to Amirs house or lming, and in act they are walking away romhis house rather than towards it, as is implied in the way this leads on toShot 5.

Shot 5 - Amir enters his house. 7 May 985

This shot conducts us into Amirs single-room house, and has been takenrom the end o Shot 8, when Amir re-entered the house ater showingus round the courtyard. Sultanis question Whats it like living here? andAmirs reply are non-synch and are taken rom the start o Shot 6.

Shots 6 and 7 - The tour o Amirs room. 7 May 985

In this ascinating sequence Amir shows us round the room that he andhis young wie share with his parents-in-law and their other children. Hecomplains repeatedly about the lack o space. The walls have been coveredwith newspaper and decorated with pictures, garlands rom Amirswedding hang on the wall, while the ceiling is bedecked with fags, alsorom his wedding. There is a television set and radio-cassette player, andan electric an. Amirs house was much more pleasantly urnished thansome others I saw, and is a testament to his developed aesthetic sense; heknows how to make things look nice, a trait he shares with many Heratis.In the course o Shot 6 we see or the rst time Satar Khan, Amirs wiesather, also a hereditary proessional musician.

Shot 8 - Tour o the courtyard. 7 May 985

This is where the women work, washing clothes and cooking. The tenthas been put up to provide shade. Water was delivered by hosepipe romthe adjoining house. While shooting this scene the women, Amirs wieand mother-in-law, who had been busy preparing our meal, were hidingon the fat roo. Something should be said about the absence o womenrom the lm, which airly represents my experience as a eld worker intraditional Muslim communities in which purdah is still strictly observed.I never met, or even saw, Amirs young wie. Possibly i I had pressed himhard he would have allowed me to meet, and perhaps even to lm her,but that would have raised problems in showing the lm to Aghans, whowould immediately point out how this conrmed some o their negativestereotypes o musicians as bad Muslims.

Shot 9 - Amir tells us about coming to Peshawar. 7 May 985

Amirs movements ater leaving Herat soon ater the uprising o March979 were complicated. He recounted some o his experience on lm butthe description was too long and detailed to be used. It was a question oselecting rom the ootage a continuous segment which had cohesion andwhich provided important inormation about his present circumstances. Idecided to use a section which tells us about his meeting Shah Wali, hisuture band leader, and Satar Khan, his uture ather-in-law. Amir hadknow Satar since the time o their military service, in the late 960s. Whilein the army they oten played music together, to entertain the troops andtheir ocers. When Shah Wali greeted Amir as My brother rom Herat

he meant brother in the metaphorical, not the literal, sense. It is clearthat Shah Wali had been generous to Amir. Amir joined Shah Walis bandin the ollowing way. At that time a Pakistani musician, Bakhtiar Ustaz(Shot 24), was playing rubab in Shah Walis band, but Bakhtiar, who wasoten employed as an accompanist or radio and television broadcasts, wanot keen on going to Shah Walis engagements ar rom the city. One dayAmir played the rubab or a cassette recording session with Shah Waliwho then asked him to join his group as a regular member. Towards theend o this shot Amir tells us how his riends urged him to get marriedand his disinclination to do so until Aghanistan was ree. Ibis takes us

into the next shot.

Shot 0 - Satar on his daughters marriage to Amir. 7 May 985

Satar - Amirs ather-in-law - oers some important and revealinginormation in this shot. He was very ond o his daughter and did notwant to lose her in marriage: he would not give her away or a millionrupees. He wanted to keep her within his household, especially sincebeing reugees they might lose all contact i she was married and wento reside in the house o her husbands amily (as was the custom). At thesame time he was sorry or Amir, and also elt that the economic and sociastability o the amily would be increased i Amir came to live with themThe solution was to marry his daughter to Amir, which enabled Amir tomove in with Satar. It is particularly signicant that Shah Wah paid the

expenses o the wedding, or this says a lot about the relationship betweenthe two men. Paying or the wedding is indicative that Amirs status isakin to that o henchman, or dependant.

Shots and 2 - Waiting to eat in Amirs room. 7 May 985

Satar and his son have been bringing in the ood. The music issuing romthe cassette machine is rom a tape o Ustad Sarahang, Aghanistans greatsinger o North Indian art music, much respected by musicians like Amiand Satar. The meal is laid out, they are waiting only or the lm crew tolay down their equipment. The sound o Shot is out o synch and rununinterrupted into Shot 2, which is in synch. The white drink is duq, atype o diluted yoghourt. At the end o the shot Amir gazes thoughtullyupward, which carries us into the next shot, as though Amir could hear

the trac in the distance.

The editing o Scene 2 posed some interesting problems. The shots wermade in the ollowing order: interviews with Amir and Satar, tour o theroom, eating. In an early rough cut I put them in the order o- the toureating and talking. Colin Young suggested putting the eating last in thisscene, saying he needed time to digest the dense inormation just givenby Amir and Satar.

Scene 3 - The Musicians Workplace

Scene 3 is the longest in the lm and proved the most dicult in terms oediting. Many o the problems were solved by Colin Youngs suggestionthat the visit to Shah Walis deyrah (Shots 26-33) should seem like aninterlude in the story o going out to a wedding that starts with Shot 25.

Shot 3 - Trac in Dubgari Road. 8 May 985

The purpose o this shot o a rerigerator being carried on a horse-drawncart is to get us back to Dubgari. It works as a sound cut as much asanything, or Dubgari is distinguished by the high-pitched whine oscooter rickshaws.

Shots 4-6 - Satar Khan and John Baily walk down Dubgari.8 May 985

I am tracked rom in ront as I walk along Dubgari Road with Sata

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Khan. Satar explains that Dubgari Road is where all the musicians inPeshawar are based, each group o musicians having an upstairs deyrah(room, or a suite o rooms) in this street. This shot was completely set up,and was repeated. In the rst take I wore earphones while taking soundwith the Nagra. We decided to repeat the shot without the earphones. Theintention was to elicit inormation about Dubgari, and the basic pointsare made by Satar very clearly. Ibis scene presented many problems incutting, which were nally solved by inserting an originally mute shot(Shot 5) o musicians leaning down rom the balconies o their rooms.In Shot 6 we meet a young Aghan musician Mushtar Ali Haidar,

whose band Satar had recently joined as tabla player. Mushtar, who likeso many o the Aghan musicians in Peshawar comes rom Jalalabad, haslived in Peshawar rom the beginning o the confict. I have been justlycriticised by some anthropologists who have worked in Aghanistan orthe somewhat peremptory way in which I call Mushtar over and greethim; there should have been more enquiries about our mutual welare andthat o our respective amilies. The justication or including Shots 4and 6, besides the inormation they give about Dubgari (which couldhave been presented in the orm o inter-titles), is that they give the lmmaker an identity, and show the cumbersome equipment which a soundrecordist has to manage. With Mushtar and Satar together Shot 6 alsoprepares us or the music lesson that is to ollow, and helps us to keep tracko who is who.

Shot 7 - Trac in Dubgari Road. 8 May 985

Another lling shot indicating the lapse o time.

Shots 8-23 - The music lesson. 2 May 985

On my rst visit to Dubgari I noticed this ladder (it can also be seen inShot 2) and wondered when I would come to go up it. In due course Idid, to visit Satar in Mushtars deyrah. The music lesson was an exampleo a quite unoreseen spontaneous situation. I knew that Bakhtiar was inDubgari that aternoon and I wanted to see him and perhaps lm him.Amir was dispatched to ascertain where he was, and came back to say thatBakhtiar was up in Mushtars deyrah. In Shot 8 Amir climbs the ladderand conrms that Bakhtiar is there. Faint sounds o music lter down.

Wayne Derrick scaled the ladder, shooting all the time, and ollowed Amirinto the qeyrah, where we ound Bakhtiar giving Mushtar a lesson inharmonium playing, with Satar playing tabla. Although Wayne succeededin getting up the ladder without interruption it was eventually decidedto cut a rather fat section out o the middle o this sequence-shot (adecision I now regret). Shot 9 takes us into the deyrah and the musicians,who have paused during our entry, continue with their activities.

Shots 20-23 are rom a single sequence-shot o musical perormancewhich has been shortened by cutting out several sections. The cuts aredetermined primarily by consideration o the sound, to preserve theintegrity o the 0 (metric cycle). With cyclical music o this kind it isnot too dicult to make relatively unobtrusive sound cuts, especially ithe picture cut is made in a dierent place. Careul listening reveals wherethey occur. There was a problem in getting rom this material into Amirsconversation with Bakhtiar (Shot 24); this was solved by inserting a synchshot o Mushtars hands on the harmonium which comes originally romthe beginning o the long sequence-shot.

This scene is o great interest. Besides revealing the poverty o Muslitarsdeyrah in comparison with Shah Walis (which we see next), it shows whatgoes on in an advanced music lesson rom an ustad (master musician) toa student. Notice how the ustad sings the composition and the stereotypedvariations using oral notation (the sargam system: Sa Re Ga Ma Pa DhaNi Sa), and also the way the sam beat, the rst beat o the metric cycle,serves as a point o resolution o rhythmic tension, with head movementsand gesticulations.

The music lesson has urther signicance in that it shows the Aghanreugee musicians taking lessons rom the senior Pakistani musicians inDubgari. This puts them in the role o students. Even the great Shah Walregularly took lessons rom Proessor Nawab Khan, another Pakistandoyen o the musicians quarter. According to my interpretation, thiplaced the Aghan reugee musicians in a junior role in the Dubgarihierarchy. Amir had certainly beneted greatly rom such lessons. ShahWali had beneted less, but submitting to lessons was a small price to payor maintaining good relations with his Pakistani colleagues in the music

proession.

Shot 24 - Amir and Bakhtiar Ustaz in conversation. 2 May 985

This shot shows the way that Amir, ater a weeks shooting, has graspedthe intentions o the lm makers, and engages Bakhtiar in conversationBakhtiar Ustaz (ustaz, a orm o the word ustad, a master musician)is the leading rubab player in Peshawar, and is rom a hereditarymusician amily. Besides giving some basic inormation about his lieand his passion or music, he articulates very nicely some o the valuesattributed to music. He talks about music as a great science, a river, or aninexhaustible ocean. I oten heard such ideas articulated by musicians inAghanistan. On hearing these statements Amir pulls at his earlobes aa sign o respect, a gesture I have also seen in Aghanistan. Bakhtiar say

there are some women amongst his students, and mentions Margaret, ayoung American archaeologist working at Peshawar University. The othewomen, or girls, are probably rom courtesan amilies. On one occasionbeore the shoot I attended a ceremony in Dubgari where a male singeand harmonium player went through a string tying9 with a girl studentdescribed to me as a dancer. Dubgari was a celebrated red light districbeore General Zia ul-Haq came to power, but that side o Dubgari liewas much suppressed in 985.

Shot 25 - Mena Gol in the street. 9 May 985

Mena Gol is the tabla player in Shah Walis band; he and Shah Walihave played together or many years. He also appears in the lm KhyberAter greeting the lm crew and engaging in a little horse play with a

Pakistani musician we learn that soon we are going to a wedding in amini-bus barely discernable across the street. This is a linking shot; Menathen leads the lm crew up the stairs to the deyrah, where we at last meeShah Wali.

Shot 26 - Shah Wali sings and talks. 5 May 985

This perormance was shot on our second day o lming, and although puon or our benet is very much the way that Shah Wali would entertainriends and patrons in the deyrah We have seen this room beore, in Shot3, which came rom our rst shooting on that day. Ater that Shah Walhad arrived and perormed this song or us. It is worth giving the completetext as lmed in a single sequence-shot:

I will not orget that night o love I have been beaten by theneedle-like ends o your hair My lie is passing as i I were lyingon a bed o thorns My heart has been pierced by the points oyour eyelashes

This is a drop o blood rom my wounded heartYour cheeks are red rom the blood o my heartMy lie is passing...

Like a moth bewitched by the beauty o candlelightI am scorched by the fame o your love

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My lie is passing....

Saylab, you are rocking the world like a cradle rom her plaitsLike swinging it over the oceans My lie is passing....

In the lm the song starts rom the third verse. The ootage shows ShahWali perorming in romantic mood; the smiles, acial expressions, thesubtle wink. We discover that Amir is accompanying him on doholak.At the end we are told that the poetry was written by Delawar Saylab,an Aghan who has lived or some time in Peshawar and who is a writer

by proession. He sits by Shah Wali whispering the text to him while thelatter sings. His pen-name, Saylab, appears in the last verse o the song.

Shots 27-30 - Conversation about recording a cassette. 5 May 985

This conversation took place immediately ater Shah Wali had sung hissong. It has been reconstructed with careul editing, and though someo the shots do not cut well together, the intrinsic interest o this scene- which shows the musicians involvement in the world o commercialmusic and that they have little to do with resistance music - ar outweighsthese deciencies. In Shot 27 Shah Walis brother asks Delawar Saylababout some resistance poetry he has promised to write him to record on acassette. Delawar Saylab excuses his ailure to have done this or Wali byappealing to the unpredictability o Fate, and then launches into anotherpolitical poem he has written:

There is a voice against the oppressorIn the dum dum. o bulletsInnocents are dying now that BabraklO is in power

The whole world is shakingBecause warriors have put on their bandoliersWhile the man on the throne o power slumbers

The animated recitation o this poem is o interest, showingsomething o this quite distinct style o delivering text

Shot 28 is a cutaway to Amir to cover my asking about a cassettethat had been discussed earlier, beore we started shooting. Due to a

misunderstanding, arising rom my imperect Dari, Shah Walis brotherthinks I am talking about the cassette he had discussed with DelawarSaylab in Shot 27 and in Shot 29 tells us this cassette will be aboutAghanistan. As a result o this misunderstanding a very revealing bito inormation was thrown up in Shot 30, where Shah Wali corrects themistake and says they are talking about recording a cassette o love songsthe next day or business. He looks embarrassed at having to make thisadmission.

Shots 3-33 - Amir explains about uses o the deyrah. 4 May 985

The three shots making up this scene were shot on the rst day olming. Sultanis discussion with Amir is more like an interview (or evenan interrogation!) than a conversation, with a rapid stream o questions.

The sound is also very bad, with a radio blaring lm songs rom the shopbelow. The use o this shot also interrupts the fow o events rom Shot 25,when we are inormed that we are going to a wedding party, to Shot 36,where we get into the mini-bus and depart. Shots 3-33 have been usedbecause o the important inormation they provide about the deyrah andthe work o Shah Walis band. The point is made that the musicians do notlive in Dubgari Road; it is a business centre, the deyrah is like an oce,where patrons come to hire musicians. Shah Walis was the best appointedset o musicians rooms (three rooms in all) I saw in Dubgari, and wassuitable or entertaining important and wealthy patrons. Shah Wali hadoccupied these rooms or six months; his ormer rooms, which I visited,were much less salubrious, and were now occupied by another group o

Aghan musicians. We also learn how widespread Shah Walis patronare, and how ar the band sometimes travels to perorm. In one senseit is the inclusion o this scene which makes Amir an anthropologicallm; there is a sacrice o cinematic to ethnographic considerations hereCinematically we would be better o without this scene.

Scene 4 - The Wedding PartyShots 34-35 - Loading the van. 9 May 985

The harmoniums in their covers are carried out and loaded on the

minibus. Shah Walis brother, also a singer and harmonium player, actas the groups manager, and also looks ater their PA system (which icharged as an extra to patrons).

Shot 36 - Shah Wali emerges. 9 May 985

Hal-an-hour later than Shots 34-35, it is early evening and the light isailing. Shah Wali emerges with all the grandeur o a great usuid and takeshis place in the ront seat. He says in English Sit down please! to thelm crew.

Shot 37 - Logari dance tunes at the wedding. 9 May 985

The wedding was held at Mardan, a town some eighty miles romPeshawar. It is important to note that this was a Pakistani Pakhtunwedding, not a wedding amongst Aghan reugees, which would havebeen on a much smaller and simpler scale (I attended one in Peshawarnear Amirs house, beore Wayne arrived). We attended the mens weddingparty while an equivalent party or women was held in an adjacent housebut I saw nothing o it. These separate celebrations or men and womenwere perectly amiliar rom Herat (Baily 988a: 24-3 ).

The shot starts with a pan around the audience to give some indicationo the location, then concentrates on the musicians, whom we see playingtogether as a band or the rst time: Shah Wali and Wali with theirharmoniums, Amir on rubab, Mena Gol on tabla, and a member othe group we have not met beore, Mustaa, who plays clarinet. He is aPakistani, and like Bakhtiar, oten plays on radio and television. He wasrarely to be ound in Dubgari.

The band plays a type o music called Logari, a style associated withthe perormances o dancing boys in the region o the Logar Valley. Itwas particularly popular with the Pakistanis, and was being adopted byPakistani bands in Peshawar. The style consists o sequences o shortmelodies, with long pauses between them, at which points the dancingboy, had one been present, would reeze. Amir leads one o the sectionswith his rubdb. Note the vigorous style o tabla playing and the glissandmade by running the nger across the head o the larger drum (bayan), anexample o mischieveousness in Aghan music.

Shot 38 - Shah Wali sings two songs o resistance. 9 May 985

This sequence-shot, with a total length o six minutes and teen seconds

is a tour deorce by cameraman Wayne Derrick, a model o how musicaperormance should be lmed. The only interruption in this sequence-shot is the insert o the Kalashnikov being red towards the end o thesecond song (Shot 38a). O course, we had good luck, in that some veryinteresting things happened during this perormance, such as the donatingo money, the dancing, and the ring o the gun.

The rst song is in the genre known as tappa, short verses (each a tappaor landay) strung together, with a distinct musical setting. The mentiono the name Malang Jan in the third tappa, the takhalos (pen name) oa prominent Aghan poet writing in Pashto, who had been active 20-30years earlier during the Pashtunistan dispute between Aghanistan and

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Pakistan, suggests that the complete poem was written by him. ShahWalis brother sings the second o the our tappas. The melodic mode isBairaini and the metric cycle is Geda (Baily 98 ; 988a, Chapter 4).

I sacrice myselGod take me back to KabulBecause the children o my village are praying or me

I sacrice mysel or youThe homeland belongs to me and I belong to it

With my red blood I will make it ree or ever

I sacrice mysel or youI am the gardener o my countryBecause , Malang Jan, learned to crawl in it

I sacrice myselBeing in love is like having hal a kingdomParticularly when the beloved is ghting on your side

This is an excellent example o Pashtun music. During the instrumentalsection ater the second tappa we see a man approach to shower moneyover the musicians. This is standard practice and operates in the ollowingmanner. The bands boy (in this case Joma, a young relative o ShahWali) has a wad o one hundred -rupee notes. A patron who wishes toexpress his appreciation o the music, and to lay claim to being a bigman, approaches with a 00-rupee note, which he exchanges or thehundred I-rupee notes. These he then scatters slowly over the musicians,to be collected o the foor by the boy, who puts them back into a wadand exchanges with the next patron who wants to honour the band. Thusthe same notes may circulate a dozen times in the course o the evening,adding substantially to the musicians agreed honorarium. Ater the tappaShah Wali launches into a nationalist song which is a staple item o hisrepertory. This is another excellent example o Pashtun music, this time inthe chaharbeita genre, with Shah Wali starting lines, his brother nishingthem. The melodic mode is again Bairami, and the metric cycle is Dadra.The text is as ollows:

The blind cannot remain here

This is the homeland o the sightedMy homeland is the country o the angelsThe blind cannot remain hereMy homeland is the country o the angels

Here every Pashtun is standing up or his honour and graceHe is standing up to protect his homeland with honour and courageThose who are prepared to die or their homelandAre the deenders o their homelandMy homeland is the country o the angelsThe blind cannot remain hereAghanistan is the homeland o the angelsAghanistan is the homeland o the warriors

As the cries o the warriors are ull o zeal or reedomSimilarly every maiden is modest and ull o zealThe Pashtun way o lie binds one to the homelandMy homeland is the country o the angelsThe blind cannot remain hereMy homeland is the country o the angels

As these rocks and mountains are witnesses The enemy remains thwartedRashid, this is the homeland o the lions My country is the homeland othe angels The blind cannot remain here My country is the homeland othe angels.

This song is o interest. According to Shah Wali, the poetry was writtenby the aorementioned Malang Jan at the time o the Pashtunistan crisiswhen Aghanistan was seeking to promote the separation o North WesFrontier Province, which is predominantly Pashtun, as an autonomousstate to be called Pashtunistan. This was a period o great tension betweenthe two countries, and lasted rom the late 940s to the early 960s. Thesong originally expressed Pashtun nationalistic sentiments. Shah Wali hadaltered the text slightly to bring in Aghanistan, but the song remaina vehicle o Pashtun sentiment, which is presumably why the audiencereacts to it with such enthusiasm.

In a lmed conversation Shah Wali explained to me that he was not ableto sing what he called mujahideen poetry over the radio and televisionit was not permitted. Nor was this the kind o song text that Pakistanipatrons wanted to hear at their wedding parties. For these reasons ShahWali could not be regarded as a singer o resistance songs. When he sangthese two songs at the wedding Shah Wali signalled to me, knowing thatthis was the kind o material I was particularly interested in. As ShahWali starts the second song a roar goes up rom the audience, and a manpreviously nursing a gun springs to his eet to dance. Another dancer joinhim, another roar goes up rom the crowd. Both are showered with moneyAter they have danced Joma gathers up the money and narrowly escapeinjury when the man with the gun lets o our rounds in his enthusiasmThe musicians look concerned, a mixture o anxiety and condescensionover this childish behaviour. The insert where the Kalashnikov is red(Shot 38all) was lmed during an earlier song, the loudness o the ringconceals the sound o extraneous music. This shot was cut in partly tocover over a rather hesitant section o shooting in the later part o thislong shot, partly because o its inherent dramatic quality. It also remindus that a war is going on, and heralds a turn to more serious matters inthe next part o the lm. The camera holds on to Amir at the end othe music, giving us a vignette o the activity that occurs between songsFurthermore, this helps to bring us back to the subject o the lm, Amirater a long scene in which he has played a relatively minor role.

At the beginning o Shot 38 Amir is smoking charas, as the Aghancall hashish, but it should not be thought that is the case every time wesee him smoking. Several times during the shoot Shah Wali criticisedAmir or smoking (ordinary) cigarettes while being lmed, saying tha

it looked bad. What will the people in England think? he wouldask. Shah Wali tolerated Amirs predeliction or smoking charas, but onthis occasion it seems to have particularly annoyed him. During the lassong at the wedding party Shah Wali turned and slapped Amir roundthe ace, angry that he was being inattentive and chatting to Mena Gol(see page 9). Fortunately we were no longer shooting by this time or theemotional connotations o Shah Walis action would have been even moreproound.

Scene 5 - EzatJans Visit

Ezat Jan Mujaddidi comes rom a prominent Aghan amily, whosemembers lived until recently in various parts o the country, includingHerat. The Mujaddidis are a powerul and important Pashtun clan who

have played a signicant role in Aghanistans history. They are associatedwith the Naqshbandi Su Order and are treated with great reverenceProessor S.M. Mujaddidi heads one o the seven parties in the Peshawarmujahideen alliance. I had met Ezat Jan a ew times in Herat. In manyways he did not conorm to the earnest image o his clan. He was a wealthymusic enthusiast and amateur musician, and he used to run a tourist hoteprimarily as a place to entertain his riends and play music. Amir playedthere many times with Ezat Jan and his riends. Ezat Jan had become areugee several years beore and lived in Islamabad. Amir had given me hiaddress and I called on him during a trip to Islamabad, but he was away.Two weeks later he came to visit us in Peshawar.

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Shot 39 - Amir prays. 5 May 985

Amir in the ront room o Shah Walis deyrah, overlooking Dubgari Road.The impression intended is that this is the day ater the wedding. ShahWali is stretched out asleep on a bed, instruments in their covers and bagslie in the comer. Amir perorms the mid-day prayers. Although a ratherstereotyped shot - Aghans are invariably shown at prayer at one point oranother in a lm - I elt it was important to document this side o Amir.There is no doubt that at least externally he was a much better Muslimin Peshawar than he had been in Herat, where he rarely perormed the

ve prayers per day required o the orthodox and pious. Given the rathernegative attitudes towards musicians in Aghanistan it was important toshow Amir in a good light. There is a urther symbolic reason or showingAmir praying at this point, or we are about to enter upon matters o lieand death.

Shots 40-42 - Ezat Jan describes the uprising in Herat. 5 May 985

Sultani engages Ezat Jan in conversation about the uprising that tookplace in Herat in March 979. In the middle a short shot (Shot 4) isinserted showing Jorna washing his eet preparatory to perorming hisprayers, with the sound o Ezat Jan talking laid over rom Shot 40. Thisinsert helps eect the transition rom Shot 40 to Shot 42, where Amirreappears. Although Ezat Jans account is no doubt exaggerated, recentevidence shows that the uprising was o considerable importance, andincluded a mutiny by some o the Aghan troops stationed in Herat. Theuprising lasted or our days and many thousands o civilians were killed.It was quelled ater bombing and strang raids by Soviet aircrat fyingdirect rom the Soviet Union. A number o Soviet and other Easternbloc civilian personnel were horribly murdered. It was intended thatsimultaneous uprisings should take place in Kandahar and Kabul, butor some reason they did not materialise. It is thought that the Heratuprising was important in the Soviet decision to invade Aghanistan inDecember 979. Heratis like Amir were very proud o the act that therevolution (or, more precisely, the counter-revolution) had started in theirhome town.

Ater this, at Amirs prompting, Ezat Jan describes how many o hisMujaddidi relatives were arrested ater the uprising. This occurred both in

Herat and in other parts o Aghanistan. They were never heard o againand it is presumed they were all killed. Perhaps because o his proclivityor music and disinterest in politics Ezat Jan was not arrested. We lmedhim later on the same day playing the rubab with Amir in the deyrah, buteventually I decided not to use this ootage, which did not t well betweenthe account o the uprising and the graveyard scene that ollows.

Scene 6 - At the Shrine o Rahman BabaShots 43-45 - Amir visits the graveyard. 9 May 985

This vast graveyard lies between Akhundabad and the shrine o RahmanBaba and is about teen minutes walk rom Amirs house. I had passedthe graveyard when visiting Rahman Baba with Amir beore the shootstarted, and he had told me that his daughter was buried there. We had

talked about going to do some lming at the shrine and Amir asked meseveral times when could we go. I realised that in such a place it would notrequire much to get Amir to tell us how he really elt about being a reugeeand decided that we should visit his daughters grave on the way.

In Shot 43 Arnir walks to the graveyard. His path led him through a largegroup o women visiting graves and we had to be careul to turn o at thispoint so as not to give oence. In Shot 44 Amir prays at his daughtersgrave and tells us how she died. He blames his misortune on his being areugee but inant mortality is in any case high, and his daughter died inthe Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. Medical assistance was available,but too late. In Shot 45 Amir leaves the graveyard and we get some ideao its enormous extent.

Shots 46-48 - Amir at the shrine o Rahman Baba. 9 May 985

Rahman Baba was one o the great poets o the Pashto language, and hiburial place in Peshawar has become an important Su shrine.2 Amirlater says he has a great love o shrines, indeed, he is interested in allthose aspects o Islam that he connects with Susm. His proession asa musician even nds approval within a Su ramework o belie. Aterpraying Amir shakes the fagpole and hands a small amount o moneyto a custodian o the shrine. He then slowly circurnambulates the graveThe connection between the shrine and the ormer King o Aghanistan

Zahir Shah, seems to have a special signicance or Amir, who must bedescribed as a nationalist at heart. This is a comer o Pakistan that he canidentiy as Aghan.

In Shot 48 Amir goes to the mosque next to the shrine, picks up a copy othe Holy Koran, kisses it and presses it to his orehead in order to absorbsome o its spiritual essence.

Shots 49-5 - Amir and the malangs. 9 May 985

Various types o holy men o one kind or another inhabit shrines. Amirreers to them as malangs at one point, but a malang is only one type omendicant. In the subtitles this is translated as dervish, a more amiliaterm to an English speaking audience. In Shot 49 Amir arrives at theteahouse in the shrine grounds. In Shot 50 someone calls the pigeonsand eeds them while Amir watches. At this point, in order to explainsomething o the signicance o the pigeons, remarks rom a later shothave been overlaid, as though Amir is thinking aloud. There are goodreasons why this device should not work; it is a new convention tointroduce so late in a lm. But it does work. Amirs reerence to Heraalso prepares us or his moment o truth. In Shot 5 he catches apigeon, kisses it twice and lets it go, telling us that his mothers namewas Katar (Pigeon), a remark made more poignant i we recall that Amiis an orphan. His mother died when he was a ew years old and he canremember little about her.

Shots 52-53 - Amirs moment o truth. 9 May 985

When we came to the shrine I had determined to conront Amir withsome searching questions about his deeper eelings. Ater eeding thepigeons we took him o to a quiet comer and set up or what may becalled the Stephen Peet method or eliciting apparently spontaneouinormation to camera. In this technique the interviewer sits just belowthe camera, asks a question, and is careul not to make any audibleresponse while the answer is given, but conveys attention and agreementthrough acial expressions. Later, the original question is cut out, and theresult is a seemingly natural statement. Stephen Peet used this techniquevery eectively in his long-running BBC series Yesterdays Witness. came into this situation armed with a list o questions (on a piece o papein my pocket) to put to Amir. We set up, and I asked Sultani to put aquestion about pigeons at shrines, just to get things going. Some o wha

Amir said about this has been used with Shot 50 (see above). We turnedo. Then I told Sultani the next question, which was what did Amir prayor when he visited the shrine. Amir gave a very open and interestingreply, dwelling on his predilection or shrines (Shot 52). At the end othis shot Sultani said Thats enough, youve got what you wanted havenyou? Lets try one more question, I said, ask him what it is that upsethim most. Sultani did so, and evoked a powerul and moving responserom Amir, in the course o which he started to weep. Since I had seenhim in tears on a number o occasions I was not unduly surprised by thisIt may seem heartless but I elt that I had a licence to do this, not just orcinematic eect, but to obtain the powerul statement about the universapredicament o the reugee I knew Amir could express. Ater this shot we

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stopped lming or a while and I got Amir to talk about aspects o lie inHerat, which I recorded. He soon recovered his spirits and took us o tovisit his spiritual mentor, a holy man at the shrine.

Scene 7 - Ramadn in Swat

In Herat beore the war Ramadan (the month o ast, pronouncedRamazan in Aghanistan and Pakistan) was a period o estivity by night,and a time when there was a lot o public music (see Baily 988a:3-4).I had hoped that the same would be the case in Pakistan, especially as the

time scheduled or the shoot extended well into the month o ast. I soondiscovered that in Pakistan Ramazan was not a time or playing music,and I also learned as Ranzazan approached that Shah Wali and his bandliked to go with their amilies to Swat, in the mountains to the north oPeshawar. There they would rent accomodation or the month. It was achance or a holiday at a time when there was no work in Peshawar, andbeing much cooler it was easier to keep the ast. As expected, the band letor the hills at the start o Ramazan, on 2 May. Wayne and I ollowed aew days later intending to get some nal ootage needed or the lm. Iplanned that the lm should nish with Rwnazan.

In editing the lm I was aced with the problem o how to get rom Amirsmoment o truth up to Swat. At the end o Shot 53 it happened thatan aeroplane passed overhead, making a lot o noise and adding a ratherominous presence to the proceedings, as though it might attack us. Amirlooks up pensively, listening intently. We had taken some shots o the riverin Swat and I realised that the pitch spectrum o the sound made by theplane matched the sound o the rushing water. This suggested a cross-ade: the possibility o a sound edit dictated the choice o cut to the river(Shot 54). The sound o the river is added to the sound o the plane atthe end o Shot 53, and boosted by running an atmos track o runningwater, to reach a crescendo just beore the picture cut. In cinematic terms Iound the result very satisying, a metaphorical river o tears, and a perecttransition to the next shot.

Shot 54 - A river in Swat. 25 May 985

Shot 55 - Amir by the river. 25 May 985

Amir, back in his usual cheery mood, explains why they have come to Swatin Ramazan, and how it reminds them o Aghanistan, with its mountains,orests and rivers, and cool air. Here we can smell Aghanistan.

Shot 56 - Shah Wali by the river. 25 May 985

Shah Wali explains that they sometimes get engagements to play orprivate parties while in Swat. A ew days later, ater Wayne had returnedto Peshawar, I accompanied them to such a gathering. Note the verydiplomatic way in which Shah Wah speaks, reerring to our Pakistaniriends, our Muslim brothers rom Pakistan.

Scene 8 - Amir Plays the Rubb

This scene was shot well beore the musicians let or Swat. It belongsto a quite separate aspect o Amir and Shah Walis lie in Peshawar, onethat is otherwise not dealt with at all in the lm. The scene is presented,ollowing Shah Walis statements in Shot 56, as though they are nowplaying or some o their Pakistani patrons in Swat. Anyone with rsthand experience o Peshawar and Swat in early summer will see throughthis deception straight away, or this scene was c learly shot in a hot roomon a hot day in Peshawar, not in the cold night mountain air o Swat. Butater Shah Walis talk o their Pakistani patrons the scene is appropriatesince here Amir plays the rubab or his patron par excellence.

Shahbuddin Nawabzade is a son o the last independent ruler o DirState, on the Aghan rontier (Dichter 967:60-66). His ather wasdeposed in 960 or alleged insurrection (ibid., Fraser-Tytler 967:323-4)and his son, whom the musicians call the Nawab Sahib, eels himsel tobe an exile. He lives in Lahore and is orbidden to visit Dir. The closesthe can come is Peshawar. The Nawab Sahib is a keen amateur musiciana dilettante in the best sense, with a good knowledge o rags and o oldlmi git (lm songs). He speaks Persian and Pashto, as well as Urdu andEnglish, and he has been generous to Amir and Shah Wali, giving themmusical instruments, including two rubabs to Amir. In this scene Amir

plays one o these, which is lavishly decorated. When the Nawab was inPeshawar he would stay at Deans Hotel and Amir and Shah Wali spenmuch o their time there, waiting on him, learning rom him, and playingor him and his guests. It was on such an occasion that the ootage in thiscene was shot.

Shots 57-58 - An-r plays the rubab. 4 May 985

. In my judgement this is a ne example o solo rubab playing, in whichAmir excels himsel It is used here as a cathartic expression o Amirs stato mind, perhaps another moment o truth. It would be interesting tocompare peoples comments ater watching just this scene with those whoview it in its proper place, at the end o the lm, or we now have someo the inormation necessary or an interpretation o the perormanceAmir starts with the shakl, the unmetered introduction equivalent tothe alap o North Indian music. He then plays two song tunes. The rstis a nationalist song composed by Awal Mir, with the Pashto text Thisis my beautiul country. 3 The second, played at the request o ShahWali, is My dear dervish, step orth lightly. Both are well establisheditems in Amirs repertory. The melodic mode o the shakl and both tunesis Bairami. Waynes sequence shooting here is remarkable, graduallyunolding the scene. He pulls ocus on Shah Wali, whose ace registers atwinge o envy as he turns away rom Amir, now the centre o attentionThe camera pans slowly rom ace to ace o the intent audience, nally tothe Nawab, with his walking stick and Casio keyboard by his side. 4

A cut has been made in this shot to remove one repetition o part o thesecond tune which otherwise goes on slightly too long or the generaaudience. At the end o Shot 58 Amir gets up rom his chair and there

is a ade to black ollowed by the credits. It is at this point that the inter-title saying that Amir was replaced a month later by another rubab playeormerly came up (see page ). Originally I wanted to continue Shot58 with the next bit o action, in which Amir kisses the hand o theNawab Sahib and apologises or his perormance. When the rough cutwas screened which ended in this way I ound the audience was waitingor the next reel! Rather than completing the preceding scene this bito action had the eect o raising expectations o the next one. It wasthereore cut.

The Aftermath

The lm was shot and edited in 985. Amir and I kept in contact bysending audio cassettes to one another or several years ater. He wasin and out o Shah Walis band several times but nally dropped oualtogether. He still lives with Satar Khan, now in a somewhat largerhouse in Akhundabad, and is the ather o two healthy boys. I anythinghis contact with Westerners in Peshawar that began with the lm hasserved him well and he has become much in demand with the expatriatecommunity. I oten hear rom people who have visited Peshawar recentlyon Aghan business who tell me they saw Amir recently playing at someparty or other. I hear less o Shah Wali but believe he is continuing toadvance his career and becoming a popular singer throughout Pakistan.

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Ezat Jan Mujaddidi came as a reugee to the USA in about 987 and livesin San Diego. He has his musical instruments with him and sometimesplays at concerts o Aghan and Iranian music. He must be counted one othe outstanding Aghan musicians resident in the USA. Living on welareis not easy when you were ormerly the owner o several thousand acres oHerats best agricultural land. He will surely return to Herat as soon as itis sae to do so. Now nearly a year ater the withdrawal o Soviet troops noend to the confict in Aghanistan is in sight and the situation only growsmore complex. It may well be many years beore reugees like Amir andEzat Jan can return to their homeland.

January 990

Notes

. The Leverhulme Film Training Fellowship Scheme was established in984, when the Royal Anthropological Institute invited applications ortwo training ellowships in the making o anthropological lms, tenableat the National Film and Television School, Beaconseld, just to thewest o London. The aim o the scheme, made possible by a grant romthe Leverhulme Trust, was to train anthropologists with an aptitude orvisual anthropology, in the use o lm, and to enable them to make atleast one documentary lm during their years work. The intention o thescheme was to stimulate the tertiary education sector to provide acilitiesand nance or lming o this kind. The scheme ran or three years; therst two successul candidates were accepted or a second year o training,while in the third year two new ellows were selected.

2. The City of Herat (30 mins), The Annual Cycle of Music in Herat (55mins) and The Shrines of Herat (30 mins). A copy o these videos isavailable or hire rom the Royal Anthropological Institute, 50 FitzroyStreet, London WlP 5S.

3. The size o the population o Aghanistan at the time o the Marxistcoup o 978 is generally estimated at about 5 million. O these perhaps7 million were Pashtuns, the politically dominant ethnic group. Otherethnic groups in Aghanistan are TaJiks, Uzbaks, Hazaras, Taimuris,Aimaqs, Turkmens, Pashais, Nuristanis, and other smaller groups. The

ocial languages o Aghanistan are Pashto and Dari (Aghan Persian),and Dari is eectively the lingua ranca.

4. The Pashtuns are called Pakhtuns in Pakistan, and the language Pakhtorather than Pashto. This simply refects a dierence in dialect, in theeasterly tribes the sh sound is pronounced kh. The same tribal peopleswere known to the British as Pathans. To minimise conusion the Pakhtunpeople o Pakistan will be reerred to here as Pashtuns.

5. The importance o the distinction between amateur and proessionalmusicians in Aghanistan is discussed in detail by Baily 988a: 0-2;988b).

6. The musician in question was Satar Khan, Amirs ather-in-law, who

was a member o Haikals group at that time. At about the time I metAmir, Satar Khan joined another band, that o Mushtar Ali Haidar, whomwe meet in Scene 3. In one dastan on the cassette Haikal sang:

It was in the dark o night when the mujahideen were ghtingIt was dicult to distinguish riend rom oeIn the morning it was time or the third attackAllah 0 Akbar could be heard amongst the bombardment

The mujdahideen were going now into that districtAnd they were happy or the blood they shed in martyrdomThey prepared themselves or martyrdomAs they made their third attack upon the town

The use o the tablato imitate the sounds o gunre was, or exampleespecially prominent ater the rst line o the second verse above. It seemclear that the written history o the war in Aghanistan will have to utilisethe stories recounted in epics such as this.

7. The English translation o this song as sub-titled in the lm is worthreproducing:

Keep your hands oFor you cannot succeed

This is the land o the AghansAnd we will not be ooled any more

Child o Imperialism, listen to meStay silent and dont play with re

For I am the AghanAnd I made the British feeI was the thunder over their headsAnd my hands destroyed them

So get out BritishFor you cannot escapeThis is the land o the AghansAnd we will not be ooled any more

8. Curiously, I had once seen exactly the same treatment meted out toAmir in Herat, this time rom the senior member o the extended amilyo musicians with whom Amir lived.

9. The tying o a string around the wrist o the student is the way thatstudents are initiated in the world o South Asian music. See, or exampleKippen 988: 4, 3-5, 35.

0. Babrak Kamal was the President o Aghanistan in 985. He wasbrought to power in the Soviet invasion o 979 and was replaced in 986by Dr Najibullah.

. This shot is labelled as a (i.e. 38a) because it is (in this lm) a

unique instance o a visual insert over a continuous sound track, whichimmediately reverts to synch.

2. A translation o Rahman Babas divdn, book o poetry, has beenpublished by Enevoldsen (977).

3. Awal Mir was a celebrated Pashto singer rom Kandahar. At the timeo Dauds coup in 973 there was a competition or the best patriotic songAwal Mir won the competition with this song, whose chorus runs:

This is my beautiul country, This is my handsome countryThis is too dear to me, This is Aghanistan

Many other singers perormed the song but their renditions apparently

lacked something when compared with Awal Mirs original versionPlaying this tune makes Amir seem very patriotic to an Aghan audience

4. The Nawab Sahib usually plays the harmonium, at which he issomething o an expert. Due to a back injury he nds the pumping othe harmonium somewhat taxing and had recently purchased the Casiokeyboard.

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References Cited

Baily, John98 A system o modes used in the urban music o Aghanistan,Ethnomusicology, XXV():46-64.

988a Music o Aghanistan: Proessional musicians in the city oHerat. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. With accompanyingaudio cassette.

988b Amin-e Diwaneh: The musician as madman, Popular Music,7(2):3-46.

989 Film making as musical ethnography, World o Music.

Ditcher, David967 The North-West Frontier o West Pakistan. A Study in RegionalGeography. Oxord: Clarendon Press.

Doubleday, Veronica988 Three Women o Herat. London: Jonathan Cape.

Dupree, Louis

973 Aghanistan. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

English, Paul973 The Traditional City o Herat, in L. Carl Brown (ed.) FromMadina to Metropolis: Heritage and Change in the Near Eastern City.Princeton: The Darwin Press. Pps. 73-90.

Enevoldsen, Jens977 Selectionsrom Rahman Baba. Heming (Denmark): PoulKristensen.

Fraser-Tytler, W.K.967 Aghanistan. A Study o Political Developments in Central andSouthern Asia. Third edition. London: Oxord University Press.

Kippen, James988 The Tabla o Lucknow. A cultural analysis o a musical tradition.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. With accompanying audiocassette.

Moin, Baqr985 An Aghan cultural renaissance? The Middle East, January, page29.

Sakata, Hiromi Lorraine983 Music in the Mind: the Concepts o Music and Musician inAghanistan. Kent State University Press. With two accompanying audiocassettes.

Wole, Nancy Hatch966 Herat. Kabul: The Aghan Tourist Organization.

Zernp, Hugo988 Review o Amir, in Yearbook or Traditional Music, 20: 257-260.

Researched, directed and edited by John Baily

Camera - Wayne DerrickSound recordist - John Baily

Produced jointly byThe Royal Anthropological Institute, and

The National Film and Television School, UK1985

Study guide written by John Baily 990

With thanks to Ahmad Wali Sultani, Veronica Doubleday andNabi Misdaq or help with translations o dialogue and song texts.

Shot and edited in 98552 mins / 6 mm / optical sound, colorLanguages: Dari (Aghan Persian) and Pashto, English subtitles,

brie commentary in English at the beginning

Available rom:

Documentary Educational Resources0 Morse StreetWatertown, Massachusetts 0272Telephone: (67) 926-049Fax: (67) 926-959

copyright 2004 Documentary Educational Resources

101 Morse Street Watertown, MA 02472 Tel 617.926.0491

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