FILMS AND INDIA’S PARTITION: 1947 – 2024
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v5.i6.2024.2411Keywords:
Historiography, Cinema, Crimes, Women's Vulnerability, MigrationAbstract [English]
The research paper aims to study the partition films and the developments in the historiography and literature relating to partition, - so that a comparative analysis of both can be carried out. This will help us understand the intricacies of the evolving relationship between cinema and historiographical literature on partition. In the annals of cruelty and goriness, nothing compares to the destruction and theft of property, the abduction and ravaging of women, the unimaginable crimes, and the inconceivable inhumanities committed in the name of religion. Several issues have been addressed in films about the partition of India. These include women's vulnerability, the trauma of uprooting from one's home, the difficulty of mass migration, the difficulty of rehabilitation, the terror of physical violence, and the humiliation of being labelled a refugee. The treatment of women during the split was a significant concern. In recent years, much research has been done on how vulnerable women are to violence. Also, the irresponsible and shameful behavior of the British who shirked their responsibility in maintaining law and order in the country which they consistently looted for nearly 200 years not only tells the story of their rapaciousness and brutality but also but also their nefarious designs of divide and quit.
References
Mushirul Hasan, ed., India’s Partition Process Strategy and Mobilization, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1993, General Editor’s Preface
Partition as an event and the question of its inevitability is discussed in various works. David Page, Prelude to Partition: The Indian Muslims and the Imperial System of Control 1920-1932, OUP, Delhi,2002 (First Published in1982) Anita Inder Singh, The Origins of the Partition of India 1936-1947, OUP, 1987 Penderal Moon, Divide and Quit, OUP, 1961,G.D. Khosla, Stern Reckoning: A Survey of the Events Leading up to and following the Partition of India, OUP, 1989, Mushirul Hasan, ed., India’s Partition, Process Strategy and Mobilization, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1993 have all written from this perspective.
Garm Hawa was based on a story by Ismat Chugtai, Tamas was based on Bhisham Sahni’s novel of the same name, Pinjar on Amrita Pritam’s novel of the same name, 1947 Earth was based on Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel Ice-Candy Man and Train to Pakistan on Khushwant Singh’s novel of the same name.
Stanley Wolpert, Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India, OUP, New York, 2006, Pp. 8-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195151985.001.0001
The term ‘shameful flight’ was used by Winston Churchill, Opposition Leader, in his prophetic warning to Prime Minister Clement Atlee’s government in the British House of Commons during the first debate over Labour’s Indian Independence Bill.
Sumit, Sarkar Modern India 1885-1947, Macmillan India Ltd., Madras, 1983, P. 452
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Kaifi Azmi was a poet and writer who was closely associated with Indian People Theatres’ Association (IPTA) formed in 1943 and aimed at creating a theatre not only for the people but also of and by the people. IPTA also involved itself in production and exhibition of certain films.
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Shyam Benegal’s film Mammo also depicts the pain of partition and his film Zubeidaa is also set in the background of partition.
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Deep Focus Photography /Cinematography DFC or Pan Focus Cinematography. Contribution of Gregg Toland was immense in deep focus cinematography, the individual shot and the action recorded within it came to be of primary importance. DFC tended towards long duration sequences, the avoidance of cutaways and reaction shots, and the employment of a meticulously placed camera that only moved when necessary, and the use of unobtrusive virtually invisible editing. The cultivation of crisp focus throughout an unprecedented depth of field in the scene photographed. Deep focus in Bazin’s words “brings the spectator into a relation with the image closer to that which he enjoys with reality.”
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