It is really interesting to study the different point of views drawn through cinema and literature when it comes to response to the traumatic events of the Partition of India (1947). The dark corners of unexplored human psyche makes a man do the unspeakable atrocities under the darkest circumstances, is but evident from the episode of the Partition which itself is a huge blot on the civilization that has been breathing for centuries and stopped momentarily during one such episode. Be it Indian cinema of the 1950's or of the 2000's, the 1947 Partition seems to resurface again and again. A little strain in the political scenario of our Sub-continent is just enough to trigger waves in the cinematic world of the Indian subcontinent (a self-contained eco-system in itself).
The sub-continent tends to drift back to 1947 even if the issues would be the cause of some concurrent phenomena. Let's take this a little ahead and have a glance at a few memorable partition-based films through the years. Given below are some of the most unique and exceptional perspectives as films about the Partition and its aftermath effect down the line that perpetuates even today on both the sides.
Tamas:
Govind Nihalani’s Tamas is a 1987 period television film based on the eve of India- Pakistan partition. Although this film was made in 1987, it still had the essence of the Partition as though it is being relived. It didn't have the evolved perspective that a next generation Indian would have. The director Govind Nihalani himself has his roots in Pakistan but his family migrated into the modern India during the Partition. It is obvious for him to feel nostalgic about his roots even if he might not have been there because the families like his who were uprooted still have the traumatic impact of this event. No wonder he made this film and that too a long one. The impact can still be seen as this film was made almost four decades later. The film shows how Sikhs and Hindus were outnumbered and brutally killed by the Muslim majority in the newly created Pakistan. It also encased a real incident where the Sikh women (girls, widows, and old women) gave up their lives by jumping into a well when their men were all killed in a riot between the Sikhs and the Muslims. This was an episode picked up to show that it was a rampant practise to kill oneself if one’s husband died or got killed, so as to save oneself from being dishonoured by the men from other community.
Also the film had scenes of families evacuating the towns they have lived in for generations. As an audience and although belonging to the present generation, the film sends me back into my childhood days where the elders of my family shared their strange memories about the partition. It was as though as I was relating the events to what my great grandfather and others went through. Although massacre happened on both sides, the Indian cinema, by obvious means, reflects more the sufferings of Indians. The desecration of temples and other religious places, whether belonging to Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs, has been vividly depicted in the film. It follows a crescendo in terms of its narration, where the tension between communities increase following an incident and it is followed by riots and partition. The story encompasses the event of the Partition of two nations through the events that occur in a village where Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs lived in harmony for centuries until the time of Partition. It makes us feel sad about the Partition at first and later glad about it, when we see the horrors of communal violence. Tamas (darkness) truly depicts the darkness that befell the Indian Subcontinent in 1947, a dark chapter in the lives of two nations. Tamas is one of my favourites when it comes to cinema dealing with the Indian partition. It makes me think of that part of my family which was forced to migrate from Karachi through Gujarat into Mumbai. Whenever I watch this film, I feel a longing to go and visit the places in Karachi where they stayed for years till the fateful year itself.
Earth:
Deepa Mehta’s 1947 Earth is an Indo-Canadian film which is an adaptation from the book Ice Candy Man. This film is a unique take as far as the point of view is concerned. All the partition films are either based on the point of view of a Hindu or Muslim or Sikh. But 1947 Earth is the first of its kind where the point of view of a young Parsi girl (a minority that was safe on both sides of the Partition) is the vision of the film. It lends a perspective which has given a very different shade to the stories of Partition. This part of cinema has dealt with the complexities involving love between communities, which was a taboo especially during those times and resulted in life-taking penalties. It shows the crush this young Parsi girl, Lenny, has on a Muslim ice-candy man and how her story revolves around him, her Ayah (a Hindu) and a few of her friends with whom the young girl spent some time of her day. Ayah’s group of friends eventually starts to fall apart as the stink of the Partition happening begins to spread in the air. Ayah’s lover a Muslim is a formidable opponent to the ice-candy man who himself is in love with Ayah and ensues the death of the masseur. This story brings out the extent of brutality a human could be capable of in times that challenge his very basic instinct and also his character.
It also shows the fateful journey of once good friends turning foes with time as Partition fuels the communal fire between them. Deepa Mehta has made a masterpiece in the collections of partition films. She has handled the material of her film convincingly enough to give us a nostalgic feel about the partition and its times. Even if she didn’t choose to show the migration of people and chose to stay in the town within the story, the events within it conveyed the partition happening at a macro level followed by its effect at the micro level (just the way Govind Nihalani’s Tamas deals with the story in a village). But the nostalgic feel and the intense emotions of relations is strongly conveyed in Deepa Mehta’s Earth. Earth surpasses Tamas in this sense for me as a nostalgic experience on partition. But both the films have their unique identities in their own respect. Earth very beautifully conveyed how a civilization can turn a living hell when it is torn in two pieces or more, how its civilized people become the very monsters spreading the epidemic of massacre.
A movie that put my heart in pain, Khamosh Paani is a 2003 French- German production. It is based in late 1970’s Charkhi village of Pakistan. The film deals with the subject of Islamism of Pakistan that began post the assassination of the then PM Zulfikar Bhutto at the hands of the then Military General of Pakistan, Zia ul Haq. The story is almost entirely based in the remote village of Charkhi near India-Pakistan border. Ayesha is a widow who looks after her teenage son Saleem with the pension of her husband and by teaching Quran to the village girls. Saleem has a love interest in the village girls’ school, Zubeida. Things begin to change when military dictatorship takes over in Pakistan and the village is frequented by Islamist extremists. Although opposed by the elders of the village, the Islamism of the village can’t be curtailed as youth in the village such as Saleem fall prey to Islamist extremists and their jihad agenda. The film explores the extent of brainwashing the youth under the pretext of Islam for jihad. Ayesha is visited by her long lost ‘Sikh’ brother when he comes to Charkhi in Pakistan to visit a local Gurudwara.
This unearths the ‘Sikh’ past of Ayesha in front of the villagers and her son, who by now is an extremist himself. The Islamism converts Saleem into a fanatic to the extent that he forces his mother to prove her faith towards Islam in public, to which she refuses. In the end, the unfortunate Ayesha realises that even for the remaining life she will not be accepted by her community though her son is and hence she suicides. Strangely enough, Saleem has no impact of this event and moves on in life to become an Islamist extremist. The film clearly outlines the far-reaching consequences of the partition that perpetuate to fuel hatred between the two countries. The partition episode has been effectively used as a fodder to fuel Islamist extremism in modern Pakistan and to fulfil the ultra motives of terrorists under the name of Jihad. Youth in Pakistan like Saleem are made to forget their possible Hindu or Sikh lineage and thus closing all doors of harmony that otherwise could have been possible. Other than these crucial point, what really pained me was the fact that innocent people like Ayesha who were unfortunately left behind during partition, were subjected to ‘Agniparikshas’ time and again but never accepted by the Muslim community in Pakistan till the very end. The film clearly outlines the attitude of the orthodox Muslim community that Pakistan lives in. Somewhere they are still stuck in the 1940’s.
Apart from being a fan of love stories woven around partition of India, what makes Anil Sharma’s Gadar: Ek prem katha (2001), one of my all time favourites is the soft loving Sikh family man turning the epic hero of the film rescuing his wife from Pakistan. Again, this film as most of the partion films, deals with the complex subject of love between communities which was a taboo then. The Punjabi munda has a one-sided love to the Muslim elite girl, which he keeps to himself. The complex angle is worsened when the Punjabi munda marries her infront of a group of Sikh rioters who try to rape and kill the Muslim elite girl. Although this was solely meant to rescue her, eventually she falls for him and after marrying; have a child. She also is accepted by his community. The feathers of their settled life get unruffled when she comes across the news of her father becoming the PM of Pakistan. She gets the urge to meet her father but little does she know that he will not be allowing her return. In the process of remarrying his daughter in the Muslim community within Pakistan, the new PM tries his best to prove her husband in bad character that forcefully made her bear him a child. He also tries to get him killed along with his child and his friend when they come to Lahore to take his wife back. Eventually the obvious but the beautiful happens. The Sikh husband succeeds in taking his wife back home through some usual action scenes and her father finally accepting defeat. This film highlights how humans who look alike, feel alike, but belong to different religions can at times go to any lengths to prove their superiority. The PM father makes the Sikh husband convert to Islam and tries to humiliate him and his country but his plans backfire as the Sikh husband refuses to accept such inhuman treatment and decides not to convert. It also shows how painful was the impact of partition on the people who were uprooted, be it a Hindu or a Muslim or a Sikh. The PM father and his family tried their best to get their daughter married within Pakistan and did not even consider the fact of her being happily married with the Sikh husband.
The Partition episode had painfully blinded and deafened them towards their daughter’s happiness. The interesting fact about this film is that it is loosely based on the life of Boota Singh, who in reality could not succeed in getting back his wife and ended up killing himself in Pakistan on being rejected by his wife Zainab. The film chose a happy ending probably because as people of the sub-continent, somewhere we still try to find solace in a happy ending implanted with the backdrop of the bloodbath called the Indian partition. I do wish that the life of Boota Singh would have been the way it has been portrayed in the film Gadar. The traumatic ending of a real story has been transformed into a happy one by cinema which is a way of make-believe for the people who wish the pain of the partition could be undone.
Poor Boota Singh could not even get a proper grave (though it is said that the present generation in that village is trying to make a memorial of his for the symbol of love, but are getting tremendous opposition) and talking about him around that region is still a taboo; such is the extent of bitterness in Pakistan post partition. Meanwhile, the daughter, that Boota and Zainab brought to this world while they were in India, was adopted by a lawyer and currently is married of to someone in Africa. The daughter had witnessed her dad's suicide and also the rejection by her mom and her family in Pakistan post conversion.
Garam Hava is a 1973 Hindi- Urdu film directed by M.S. Sathyu. The story is based on a Muslim family engaged in shoemaking business for generations in Agra. the story takes off just after the partition of India. This film showcases the circumstances that led to the migration of Muslims even after the partition episode was done with. The film shows how the social environment in certain areas of India had become hostile post partition towards the Muslims of India and as such they were cut off from the social circle of every kind. Despite all odds and relatives leaving one after another for Pakistan, the Mirzas lead by their head, Salim decide to stay back in Agra in the hope of social change and things getting back to normal as they were pre-partition.
But circumstances become tougher and the business suffers to the extent that the Mirzas have to give away their ancestral house and move into a make-shift house. Salim’s son finds it difficult to get a job as a practioner of law. His only daughter slits her wrist and dies and being ditched by two of her lovers who migrate to Pakistan following the way of hostility in India post partition. This final jolt makes Salim take the stand of taking his family, the Mirzas, to Pakistan. But on the way he and his family see a crowd of students who Muslims, carrying a procession of peace demanding equal rights as others in the society. He decides to tells his wife to go back home and joins the march along with his only son. This leaves a positive not towards the end of the film. A note that social change has finally ensued that the bridge between the communities owing to the aftermath of the Partition is going to fade away gradually. Garam Hava is one of those cinemas that encompass the social environment of bitterness that the Partition had left in India and that it was eventually fading into the past, slowly and gradually.
Border:
J.P Dutta’s 1997 film Border is a favourite amongst Indians even to this date. It is still aired on television on national holidays like Republic or Independence Day. This film shows the attitude of both the countries towards each other during a war. As has always been in reality, even the film portrays Pakistan as an aggressor. This film is inspired by the 1971 India-Pakistan war where Bangladesh was freed. This kind if cinema pours light on the bitter fact of enmity between the two countries. The partition left both the countries with hatred for each other which eventually volatized out for India, though Pakistan still chooses to hold the bitterness of the partition.
The dialogues, inspired by real war conversations, easily point out the fact that even though Indians choose to put the past of the partition behind, the Pakistanis choose to re-open old wounds. The film chooses clearly to stick to the facts that happened in Longewala, Rajasthan in 1971. Despite decades have gone by, people on the other side of the border continue to live in the past which not only keeps them behind in today’s world but also makes it easier for their politics to control them. The unfair tact used by Pakistani army during wars is again highlighted in this film. Border is one of my favourites as it keeps the facts as they are, for the most part of it.
Chandra Prakash Dwivedi’s 2003 Hindi film Pinjar is an adaptation of the Punjabi novel of the same name. It mainly showcases how women were the ones who suffered the most atrocities during and after Partition of India. The story revolves around a chirpy Hindu girl, Puro and her family living in a village which was to be a part of Pakistan post-Partition. But due to some family feud with a Muslim family, she is kidnapped by a Muslim youth, Rashid, from the latter and he defiles her and then releases her. On returning back home, poor Puro is told to go back as this would settle score between the two families. As she goes back, Rashid keeps her and eventually she learns that he loves her and repents for his hideous deed. She conceives out of the defiling and eventually marries him unwillingly. Meanwhile, the Partition ensues in. Puro’s family prepares for migration into India and in the process encounter a riot where Puro’s Hindu fiancé’s youngest sister is kidnapped by Muslim mob of men. Somehow Puro is able to rescue her and keep her hidden at her home.
Rashid helps Puro take her to her brother (Puro’s fiancé) near the border and reunite them. Puro’s Hindu fiancé wishes her to come back with him to India as he decides to forget the past she has had to deal with. But brave Puro takes a stand and decides to stay back with Rashid as he by now becomes the world for her. She bids her family a last tearful farewell forever. The entire film is clearly woman-centric. It is something that I really appreciate. Not many of the Partition films have focused the event from a woman’s point of view. They have either had threads of events loosely bound or have had put them as episodes within the film, their theme being different. But Pinjar is one of those rare films that touch the soul of the pain that was Partition. the women suffered the most in the lot and were the ones who had to sacrifice the maximum. It was expected in a society of that kind for women to sacrifice. It was one the worst times for women. The cinema dealing with films like Pinjar highlight this fact.
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