Partition
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VICEROY’S HOUSE (Dir. Gurinder Chadha, UK, 2017)
Where to start with Gurinder Chadha’s Viceroy’s House? It is a film that is likely to polarize audiences. Fatima Bhutto wrote a dismissive opinion piece for The Guardian on the film’s supposedly deplorable romanticism of the trauma of Partition, to which Chadha has replied. I saw the film a few days ago at a preview screening Continue reading
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MAMMO (Dir. Shyam Benegal, 1994, India)
When Khalid Mohamed, editor of Filmfare and journalist, wrote a piece on his great aunt in the Times of India he had no idea that Benegal would eventually convince Mohamed to write a screenplay based on the idea. This was made altogether unusual since Mohamed was not the greatest fan of Benegal’s cinema. Mammo (1994) Continue reading
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BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN (Dir. Kabir Khan, 2015, India) – Borders [spoilers ahead]
I wonder how many eager cinephiles spotted the opening intertextual reference to the Manmohan Desai film Chhalia as the Samjuhta Express makes it way from Pakistan to India? The image of Nutan wiping away the condensation from the window of her train compartment (see below) in the 1960 film is eerily resurrected in the cinematic Continue reading
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SEEMA / BOUNDARY – (Amiya Chakrabarty, 1955, India)
Seema was directed by Amiya Chakrabarty and released in 1955. It was the 8th highest grossing film of that year. From 1941 to 1957 Amiya Chakrabarty directed a total of 14 feature films. Most of the films including Seema were social melodramas. Chakrabarty’s training came about during his time at Bombay Talkies and then later Continue reading
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PARTITION (Dir. Ken McMullen, 1987, UK) – ‘What have you done to my world?!’
Commissioned by Channel 4 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the partitioning of India, Partition is more political theatre than cinema. Reassuringly, some of the finest British leftist promulgators were involved in the task of adapting writer Saadat Hasan Manto’s famous short story ‘Toba Tekh Singh’. Produced by Tariq Ali and Darcus Howe, directed by Continue reading
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