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Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA)
Partition-Related Films and Documentaries
* Rabba Hun Kee Kariye: Thus Departed Our Neighbours (65 minutes/2007/DVD with English Subtitles) Directed by Ajay Bhardwaj jayunmukt@gmail.com ,+91-9968283665 ( New Delhi/ India) While India won her independence from the British rule in 1947, the north western province of Punjab was divided into two. The Muslim majority areas of West Punjab became part of Pakistan , and the Hindu and Sikh majority areas of East Punjab remained with, the now divided, India . The truncated Punjabs bore scars of large-scale killings as each was being cleansed of their minorities. Sixty years on, Rabba Hun Kee Kariye trails this shared history divided by the knife. For the first time a documentary turns its gaze at the perpetrators, as seen through the eyes of bystanders. While East Punjabis fondly remember their bonding with the Muslim neighbours and vividly recall its betrayal, the film excavates how the personal and informal negotiated with the organised violence of genocide. In village after village, people recount what life had in store for those who participated in the killings and lootings. Periodically, the accumulated guilt of a witness or a bystander, surfaces, sometimes discernible in their subconscious, othertimes visible in the film. Without rancour and with great pain a generation unburdens its heart, hoping this never happens again. *The Sky Below (75 Minutes), Sarah Singh temporarypassenger@gmail.com Cutting across borders !, Divya Unny u_divya@dnaindia.ne , DNA India, August 15, 2007 http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1115797 Film-makers may have dwelled and re-dwelled on the relationship between India and Pakistan, but this one looks at it from a whole new perspective. Here’s an Indian-American telling a story about the history, culture and political happenings of India and Pakistan through words of people who have actually lived through and been a part of the mammoth 60 year long struggle. Sarah Singh’s film ‘The sky below’ takes us through unexplored locations, fascinating locals and a million little stories that give us a contemporary portrait of this region from Kutch to Kashmir and from Karachi to the Khyber Pass. Says Sarah, who was born in Punjab and now lives in the USA, “I came back to India after ten years; my initial curiosity to explore the culture and regions of the two countries led me to this film. It’s a philosophical and historical look at the past of India and Pakistan.” After having travelled to the remotest villages and the hilliest terrains, Sarah managed to encapsulate diverse experiences from people who have been gravely affected by the sourness between the two countries. “I have former terrorists, politicians, royalties, ordinary citizens, historians, and many others who share their insights of the past, present, and future of this volatile, yet emerging, South Asian economic bloc. For instance, I met Hashim Kureshi, a former terrorist and now chairman of JKLDF, who shared with me his transformation from a man encouraging violence for an independent Kashmir to someone who now believes that there is no goal that can be pursued through violence,” she reveals. More importantly she believes that the film will broaden horizons about Pakistan as a country, for Indians as well as non-Indians. “ Pakistan is always portrayed by the media as country full guns and goons, but I have tried to showcase that there is so much more to the place than just that.” Though there isn’t a specific message Sarah tries to offer through the film, she hopes that it will get people to observe and explore the countries better. “Isn’t it ironical that after 60 years of Independence, a British citizen can walk around in India and Pakistan more freely than people from the very two countries? I just hope I am able able to open mindsets of people and give the entire Indo-Pak scenario a more humanitarian touch through this film,” she ends. Good neighbours ,Expressindia, August 16, 2007 http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=251161 Travelling from Kutch to Kashmir and from Karachi to the Khyber Pass, Sarah Singh, a one-woman army who shoots, directs, edits, scripts interviews and sound-mixes her 75-minute documentary on the India-Pakistan partition The Sky Below, is a woman with a mission. The 36-year-old with a Masters in Painting from the Maryland Institute believes that India is at a critical time. “One can no longer claim ignorance about diverse cultures; the world is smaller,” she says. “Yet we seem to be losing huge segments of our cultural history. Insanity is described as motion without memory, which is why it’s important we don’t lose our past.” The urge to revisit Pakistan sprang from an Asia Society event in Manhattan, where the future of South Asia was discussed and partition survivors shared their stories. “Their recollections were so vivid, it inspired me to delve into the subject and see if I could come up with a visually inspiring account,” says the Patiala born, US-based artist whose film was screened at the Asia’s Art Society’s Pakistan package on Saturday. It begins by revisiting the Harappa site of the Indus Valley when India and Pakistan were culturally one. Quick cuts present a fragmented feel of a nation torn asunder in 1947, as stock footage represents the carnage and despair of forced migration; slain bodies lie in pools of water and abandoned stations. Clips of Pandit Nehru, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the last viceroy Lord Mountbatten, play with voiceover recordings. Then we meet people—Inderjit Singh Khalsa who extended himself beyond religion and region to shelter people who would have been slaughtered. Suraj Nehru, who watched from the safety of her home as people fought. Tirath Ram Amla, one of the oldest serving members of Rajya Sabha, recalls the gory past. Pandit Yashpaul—one of India’s leading singers from the Agra gharana—yearns to perform in India, while musician Raza Kazim talks of multiple identities as a citizen and as a human being. The film also offers breathtaking landscapes, the dusty barb-wired LOC where a dog slips through to be fed by Indian and Pakistani soldiers, while the local music of travelling minstrels’ underscores the entire film. Singh also delves into the Kashmir issue. At the end, it’s the voice of the people calling for peace, including politico Natwar Singh and historian Romila Thapar. “It isn’t a simple winding up of the film but a broader philosophical concern,” she explains. “After 5,000 years of being at war, are we at a point where we can negotiate peace?”
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