Churning the past again
SURESH KOHLI
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The documentary "Beyond Partition" deals with one of the most unforgettable periods of Indian history.
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After editing the Partition issue of the South Asia Cinema Journal in 2004 what struck me was the attitude of reluctance of the popular filmmakers to deal with tragedy in cinema. - JOSHI
PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA
HEALING TOUCH Shyam Benegal with Lalit Mohan Joshi.
"Beyond Partition", a 66-minute documentary by Lalit Mohan Joshi, is a fairly satisfactory document.
It is not only a compilation of scenes and sequences from short and feature films from the Indian sub-continent that look back at partition, it also tries to delve deep into the mindset of those who sought to redeem the nostalgia. It may be lacking in perspective but the sincerity and the effort shows. And that makes the film an important documentation of one of the most unforgettable periods of Indian history.
Different takes
The documentary has clips from films like Govind Nihalani's "Tamas", M.S. Sathyu's "Garam Hava", Saeed Mirza's "Naseem", Shyam Benegal's "Mammo", Richard Attenborough's "Gandhi", Tanvir Mokammel's "Chitra Nadir Pare" (Bangladesh), Chandraprakash Dwivedi's "Pinjar", Sabiha Sumar's "Khamosh Pani" (Pakistan - which takes a look at the whole issue from the other side), Kamal Hasan's "Hey Ram", Deepa Mehta's "Earth", Anil Sharma's "Gadar: Ek Prem Katha", as also the whole world of Ritwick Ghatak's cinema in Bengali, besides others.
Apart from documenting the views and perspectives of most directors, it also records comments of writers like Kamleshwar and Gulzar on Partition literature in various Indian languages. It also documents archivist P.K. Nair, academic Satish Bahadur, and young filmmaker Meghna Gulzar. While Nair and Bahadur put into perspective the entire gamut of films on the subject, Meghna tries to look at the whole issue from a distant, unseen and unlived angle.
Premier screening
M.S. Sathyu.
In Delhi for a premiere screening of his first independent venture, "Beyond Partition", London-based film historian and a former BBC producer, who has also produced a major 19-part series on the History of Indian Cinema for BBC World Series, Joshi sums up his reasons for taking up the venture: "After editing the Partition issue of the South Asia Cinema Journal in 2004 what struck me was the attitude of reluctance of the popular filmmakers to deal with tragedy in cinema. Literature dealt with it, but cinema shunned it until Sathyu made `Garam Hava' which dealt with the issue head on. `Beyond Partition' is not merely a story of Partition films, it also deals with the undercurrent of the on-going Hindu-Muslim tensions in India, and Indo-Pak conflict on Kashmir."
Govind Nihalani puts it aptly when he says "it divided our minds, divided our psyche and turned what we called a free country into a fragmented country."
Joshi, who has also edited the definitive best-selling coffee table book `Bollywood, Popular Indian Cinema', further clarifies, "I have tried not to be judgmental. As a filmmaker I have tried to be dispassionate over a subject where I too have an opinion. It was not easy. Are we going to rise above it? `Beyond Partition' raises its doubts and hope. So the documentary looks at the trauma of Partition through the eyes of filmmakers. As a filmmaker I am positive. That's the whole point in being an artiste, a journalist or a filmmaker. The year 2007 will be significant for my documentary as we complete 60 years of independence and Partition."
Indeed, despite inherent limitations, "Beyond Partition" is an important document.
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