mumbai mumbai is a very spiritual city the stunning bangladeshi filmmaker yasmine kabir reflects all cities by the sea are spiritual but in mumbai i see temples in peoples faceslike her remarkable observations kabir herself radiates an energy field that quietly draws you in she has a megawatt smile that lights up her bright kohllined eyes and favours masses of tangled tresses and chunky silver jewellerykabir was in the city to present her awardwinning documentary my migrant soul which opened the docurama documentary film festival at iit earlier this month my migrant soul is a quiet wrenching film about shahjahan babu a poor bangladeshi worker who is grossly exploited by the immigration agent when he emigrates to malaysia in search of work and eventually dies there the film has won awards at the film south asia festival in kathmandu and the yamagata documentary film festival it was screened here with her snappy music video on the bangladeshi street poetsongwriter pothik nabimuch of the poignancy of my migrant soul comes from the voiceover of the dead manletters and songs recorded on audio cassettes that he sent his mother during his dark despair in malaysia its as if babu left these tapes behind for the worldthe film is as much mine as babus kabir insistsan ordinary worker babus observations are tinctured with a roughhewn philosophy and poetry that elevate the film even as they sear the heart when babus mother cooks him a feast of pulao for his last meal before he leaves for malaysia he pleads with her to give him instead our national dish of leftover ricewhat if i dont get it abroadhis sister sells her blood to buy him two shirts and a pickle bottle for his trip and now his grieving mother still takes his coffin wherever she goes because i have no other token of his memorythe film gives a voice to everyday heroic figures swept into the debris of history and smothered in dust in the age of globalisation there are many forms of slavery and this is one of them kabir points out but i didnt want to make an investigative filmtoo many talking heads and statistics deaden the story rather i wanted to make a personal journey of migration that relied on emotions i did not want to make an angry film either i find that reaching out works better than anger an d accusation thats why i hate to identify villains in my films because were all villains at different levels weve reached a point in history where we have no option but to pleadthe newspapers remain a prime source of ideas for kabirs films her earlier film duhshomoy a mothers lament was about a teenage bangladeshi girl she had read about who was arrested and allegedly gangraped by the police and who died in custody likewise moved by newspaper reports of shahjahan babus death she met his family she shot the film herself on a hi8 camera for greater intimacy with her