Director m sathyu
writer ismat chughtai
cast balraj sahni gita jalal agha shaukat azmi
language urdu
duration 135 minutes
black and white
awards special jury recommendation for peace at cannes film festival
a great honour for indian cinema
it is impossible to write a review on a movie which deals with so many controversial subjects like religion, politics and partition but yet remains essentially a very humane piece in its narration
so I am only going to restrict to one political comment
this movie is a tribute to the great concept of secularity which both gandhi and jinnah believed in firmly, my purpose is to pay tribute to a movie that satyajit ray described as a milestone for indian cinema
the story is an account of the anguish and sufferring which millions underwent at the time of partition, yet essentially its a mataphor for the disintegration of the country with the depiction of the breakdown of the joint family system in context to a upper class muslim family living in agra involved in leather trade, when the younger brother decides to immigrate to pakistan as he is a muslim leaguer while the elder brother [balraj sahni ]is a congressmen who believes this to be his homeland .
the turmoil shown by this disitegration is infernal both at communal and individual levels, sahnis daughter gita is betrothed to his younger brothers son since childood [jalal agha, ] sahnis wife is in favor of immigrating for her childrens future but his own ideals are against the decision to go to pakistan
the rest of the story concerns the plight of the family as they slowly start to loose everything while the uncle flourishes in pakistan to become a political figure, its a subtle hint at the moral degradation our social values went through after partition and the sort of indiduals who came to political power
the movie is shot in the narrow streets of agra on origonal locations for authenticity and no sets were used at all, the solo background qawalli is shot at the shrine in ajmer sharif to depict the pledge between gita and jajal which he callously breaks later as his fathers poltical ambitions demand he weds a ministers daughter in pakistan
the beautiful qawali shows the short but beautiful spiritual love gita feels for her cousin , but the great deception is yet to come as she entrust her honor to him with her body, her sheer innocence is heartbreaking yet convincing
but then starts the disaster, the family home is lost as the uncle took the legal papers to pakistan and there is no document to prove the heritage, the shoe factory is burnt in a riot brilliantly staged to show local politicians exploiting the innocent majority
the eviction from the haveli is brilliantly shown with the grandmother mouthing the immortal lines
"jab me sola saal ki biah kar is ghar me ayi thi to maine ek hi dua mangi thi ke mera janaza yahin se nikle,
the subsequent heartbreak and her death is harrowing as her son takes her back to the family home with his cap in his hand he requests the new owners to let his 90 year old mother look at her home before breathing her last
even the owners are in tears, but what is the alternative, they can feel her loss as much as their own dislplacement, a human dilemma which has no answer
the sequence of a dying old woman being carried through narrow streets on a charpoi is brilliant
but the best is yet to come, the most gruesome moment when the letter arrives from karachi inviting them to their nephews wedding, their daughtrers fiancee,
the symbolic tearing of the bridal dopatta by the mother as she says
[allah usko kabi khush na rakhe jis ne is burri tarah se meri beti ka dil tora he ]
its not just a sheared veil but a split land, a broken society and a human heart which is bruised beyond repair
as the mother wails and balraj comforts her, gita ascends the short flight of stairs to her room, her life is worthless now, she unlike her father has lost faith and her expressions depict her intentions
the deed is never shown but the sequence where sahni breaks the door down to find his daughters corpse with her wrists slit open, lying in a pool of blood is a landmark in indian cinema, never in world cinema have I seen a father express his anguish with the subtlety sahni does and hes not even tearful, but then its sathyu .
. the director, he is a master storyteller at work, he doesnt need costumes or setpieces, hes armed with great dialoguess penned by inimitable ismat and a sense of realism which is impossible to attain in cinema,
its not for nothing this was rays favourite indian movie and inspired shatranj ke khilari
the movie is a tale of human optimism in the face of the most deplorable desperation and does full justice to its theme
this is balraj at his best and thats no mean feat, remember he won international awards for do bigha zamin, a masterclass in natural acting, ha was a spontaneous actor as is gita and she has immortalised her role by her death in this movie
the rest of the cast and crew are brilliant, its also does urdu language proud by being the medium of its instruction I believe both kaifi azmi and shaukat were involved in its making as well, in fact shaukat azmi is part of the cast as well
finally it restores your faith in humanity by its message of hope as sahni and his son refuse to go to pakistan and leave their homeland, you salute their optimism
ismat went onto write the brilliant junoon for benegal, I have great anticipations for lajoo, her book being adapted by mani ratnam but I have my doubts too
never mind at heart im an optimist and I hope lajoo is just as good, but
shukriya for reading