Nasreen Munni Kabir

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Nasreen Munni Kabir (born 1950) [1] is an India-born television producer, director and author based in the U.K. [2] She is best known for producing an annual season of Indian films for the British terrestrial television channel Channel 4.

Contents

Her work includes the 46-part series Movie Mahal , In Search of Guru Dutt , Follow that Star (a profile of Amitabh Bachchan), and Channel 4 series such as How To Make It Big in Bollywood & The Inner and Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan. She won the 1999 Women of Achievement Award in Arts & Culture in the UK and became a governor on the board of the British Film Institute in 2000, serving a six-year term.

Over the years, she has directed several documentaries and published 15 books on cinema, including five books featuring the dialogue of Indian celebrated classic films and book-length biographical conversations with personalities in the Hindi film industry, Javed Akhtar, Lata Mangeshkar, A.R. Rahman, Gulzar, and Waheeda Rehman. [1] [3] Her latest book is a biography of legendary tabla virtuoso Ustad Zakir Hussain [4] [5]

Early life and education

Born in Hyderabad, India, Kabir's parents moved to London when she was age three. She did her master's in cinema studies. [1]

Career

Kabir moved to Paris and lived there for 19 years, studying film and working as an assistant on various documentaries. She also worked with French film director Robert Bresson as his trainee assistant on the film FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER. She also worked as a consultant with Pompidou Centre in Paris, where she organised two Indian film festivals in 1983/85. In 1982, she resettled in London where she began her current job as Channel 4 TV's consultant on Indian Films. In 1986, she directed and produced a 46-part television docu-series on Indian cinema titled Movie Mahal for Channel 4 TV UK. [1] and other series on Hindi cinema.

In 2005, she produced a two-part documentary on Shahrukh Khan, The Inner and Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan . It featured the superstar's 2004 Temptations concert tour, the film contrasts Khan's "inner world" of family and daily life, with the "outer world" of his work. She continues to curate an annual season of Indian films for Channel 4 each year. She has also directed a six-part series for Channel 4 UK on the legendary playback singer Lata Mangeshkar called LATA IN HER OWN VOICE.

In April 2011, a book titled "A. R. Rahman The Spirit of Music" written based on the conversations with Nasreen Munni Kabir was released. Also in 2011, she produced Bismillah of Benares a documentary on shehnai maestro, Bismillah Khan. It was presented by A.R. Rahman's KM Musiq and distributed by Sony Music in India. [6]

April 2014 saw the release of a book named 'Conversations with Waheeda Rehman' which was based on her conversations with Waheeda Rehman about the latter's life and work. [3] [7]

Personal life

She lives in London. [1]

Filmography

Bibliography

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<i>Conversations with Waheeda Rehman</i> Biography by Nasreen Munni Kabir

Conversations with Waheeda Rehman is a biography by the producer of television documentaries and author Nasreen Munni Kabir, documenting Kabir's extensive conversations with the actress Waheeda Rehman about the actress' life and career. The biography details Rehman's birth in 1938 in Chingleput, her 54-year-long film career, and her 1974 marriage to the actor Kamaljeet, with whom she has two children. It was published on 19 February 2014 by Penguin Books. The book generated positive reviews from book critics; most of the praise was directed towards the book's question-and-answer format, and Kabir's and Rehman's style in questioning and answering, respectively.

<i>Yours Guru Dutt</i> Book by Nasreen Munni Kabir

Yours Guru Dutt is a 2006 book by the British author and television documentary producer Nasreen Munni Kabir, containing a total of 37 handwritten letters in both English and Hindi by the Indian actor and filmmaker Guru Dutt—most of which are addressed to his wife Geeta. The book, published by Roli Books and became Kabir's second book about Dutt after Guru Dutt: A Life in Cinema (1996), was commercially successful. It garnered positive critical acclaim, with some reviewers noting the elegance in his letters.

<i>Guru Dutt: A Life in Cinema</i> 1996 book by Nasreen Munni Kabir

Guru Dutt: A Life in Cinema is a 1996 biography written by the British author and television documentary producer Nasreen Munni Kabir, detailing the life and career of the Indian actor-cum-filmmaker Guru Dutt. The book chronicles Dutt's birth in Panambur in 1925, his 18-year-long film career, his marriage to the playback singer Geeta Dutt, with whom he had three children, and his death in 1964.

<i>Lata Mangeshkar ...in Her Own Voice</i> 2009 book by Nasreen Munni Kabir

Lata Mangeshkar ...in Her Own Voice is a biography by the British author and television documentary producer Nasreen Munni Kabir, detailing the life and career of the Indian playback singer Lata Mangeshkar. The book contains their extensive conversations from May 2008 to March 2009. Published by Niyogi Books on. 15 May 2009, it was well received by literary critics.

<i>The Dialogue of Pyaasa</i> Book by Nasreen Munni Kabir

The Dialogue of Pyaasa is a 2011 book by the British author and television documentary producer Nasreen Munni Kabir, containing the dialogues of the 1957 Indian romantic drama Pyaasa in Hindustani and its translation in English. The book was published by Om Books International on 28 February 2011 and received positive critical reviews.

<i>Jiya Jale: The Stories of Songs</i> 2018 book by Nasreen Munni Kabir

Jiya Jale: The Stories of Songs is a book by the author and television documentary producer Nasreen Munni Kabir, containing her conversations with Gulzar taking place from early 2017 to April 2018. Her second book on the same subject after In the Company of a Poet in 2012, it details the development of several of his songs and features their English translations. The book was published by Speaking Tiger Books on 10 November 2018 and acclaimed by critics for its contents and format.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Coffee with kabir". The Indian Express. 30 March 2014. pp. 1–3. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  2. Kumar, Anuj (24 April 2011). "Noteworthy!". The Hindu. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  3. 1 2 Ramnath, Nandini (29 March 2014). "Nasreen Munni Kabir: My biggest problem is, who next?". Mint. Livemint. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  4. Kabir, Nasreen Munni (16 January 2018). "The Zakir Hussain interview: 'What do I bring to the tabla? I think it is openness and clarity'". Scroll.in. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  5. "Zakir Hussain". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  6. "'I wish he had lived to see it'". The Hindu. 29 October 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  7. "Home".