International Journal of English and Studies (IJOES)

SP Publications International Journal Of English and Studies (IJOES) An International Peer-Reviewed Journal ; Volume-3, Issue-4, 2021 www.ijoes.in ISSN: 2581-8333; Impact Factor: 5.421(SJIF)

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FILMING THE LINE OF CONTROL: CINEMA IN THE WAKE OF PARTITION LITERATURE ______Dr. Nidhi Sharma, Associate Professor, Department of English, SKIT, Jaipur ______Abstract: cinematic presentation beautifully presents The stark issue of the partition of India the cultural conditions of the small village and Pakistan has ever been a lingering and named Mano Majra, stationed on the border lasting pain for the citizens of both the of India and Pakistan. On the same lines, countries. Talking on the rudimentary the movie Pinjar describes the pathetic grounds, only boundaries were divided but conditions of a girl Puro who becomes the factually speaking even the hearts were brutal victim of the aforesaid cultural divided eventually leading to the divide differences. Similarly, Tamas describes the between the two cultures. Alike literature, conditions of the two cultural communities Cinema is also considered the mirror of at the time of Partition. Indian society, aptly reflecting the socio- cultural and political conditions of the times in which it is set. It deftly describes the Keywords:Partition, Cultural Differences , pains and sufferings of the prevalent and Cinema, Partition Novels rampant cultural differences. During these unprecedented times, movies in both the countries, India and Pakistan have been made on this burning topic and many are “The Political partition of India caused one still in the pipeline. Many writers and of the greatest human conclusions of authors have also portrayed these cultural history.” differences beautifully in their literary -By works. The present paper critically analyses Urvashi Butalia in The Other Side of the three novelists along with the adapted Silence (1983:03) movies based on their works. Those writers and their works are Khushwant Singh’s Reminiscing the incidence of the ‘Train to Pakistan’, Amrita Pritam’s 4th of July 1947, when the British ‘Pinjar’ and Bhisham Sahni’s ‘Tamas’. The Parliament introduced the constitutional bill film makers have skilfully cast the stories of ‘The Independence of India’ of these novels on the Silver Screen with pragmatically formulated on the 18th of July, their original titles. Train to Pakistan as a 1947 resulted into the consequential spilt of

SP Publications International Journal Of English and Studies (IJOES) An International Peer-Reviewed Journal ; Volume-3, Issue-4, 2021 www.ijoes.in ISSN: 2581-8333; Impact Factor: 5.421(SJIF)

RESEARCH ARTICLE the Indian peninsula into two self governing Generally speaking, literature of any genre regions: India and Pakistan. This unwanted is commonly considered as the mirror of the and imposed partition of the Indian Sub- predominant society since it reflects the continent consequence into one of the crude reality of society without a makeover. greatest tragedies of the world history. A Panning the historical ages, we have number of people were killed, kidnapped, cherished literature as a fundamental displaced and robbed. Women were platform that has always been the chief abducted and raped. This brutal trauma of resource of providing the raw material for the partition imprinted deep marks of agony cinema. Categorically speaking, cinema on the minds of people. This partition of also serves the same purpose as literature India and Pakistan gave a never lasting does but the only common difference is that agony for the citizens of both the countries. it is comparatively faster than literature. Speaking on the superficial lines, only Like literature cinema not only reflects boundaries were divided but in reality society but also acts as a reflector to the hearts were divided and with those two society in which it is set. In the cultures were also divided. Thu, even after contemporary times, we can see that cinema achieving the much awaited Independence has become a popular medium of after sweating out immense blood and toil, communication and entertainment. Cinema, the year 1947 proved to be the year of less as the theorists define is a creative joy and more tragedy. Gita Vishwanath and experiment of literature. Ages down the Salma Malik have rightly quoted Mushirul lane, cinema has reflected the pain and Hassan regarding the two parallel events suffering of the people caused by partition making a history of the sub-continent. in very effective ways. Even after many decades of partition movies are made on “No other country in the twentieth this ever burning topic in different century has seen two languages. Even today, in the such contrary movements taking technologically sound world where place at the same time. If numerous themes are available right at the one was popular nationalist click of a button, we can observe that the movement…, the other was the writers of cinema choose this ever burning counter movement of Partition, theme to depict their feelings through the marked by violence, powerful weapon of their pens and directors cruelty, blood-shed, displacement produce this suffering through the lens of and massacres.” camera. (2009: 61)

SP Publications International Journal Of English and Studies (IJOES) An International Peer-Reviewed Journal ; Volume-3, Issue-4, 2021 www.ijoes.in ISSN: 2581-8333; Impact Factor: 5.421(SJIF)

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Literature lovers, these days, have The present paper proposed to by their side umpteen novels, short stories discuss these movies sharing the common and prose writings on partition in different titles of the novels on which they are based languages: R. K. Narayan’s Waiting for the on: Train to Pakistan by Khuswant Singh, Mahatma (1955), Khushwant Singh’s Train Pinjar by Amrita Pritam, Tamas by Bhishm to Pakistan (1956), Attia Hossain’s Sahni Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961). Manohar Malgaonkar’s A Bend in the Train to Pakistan: A Cinematic Ganges (1964), Chaman Nahal’s Azadi Review: (1975), Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Khushwant Singh, one of the Children (1980), K. Abbas’s The World is Pakistani migrants, was born on 2nd my Village (1984), Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice- February 1915 in Hadali British India now Candy Man (1988), Amitav Ghosh’s The in Pakistan. He was a renowned novelist, Shadow Line (1988) 2,Shashi Tharoor’s lawyer, journalist, politician, historian and The Great Indian Novel (1989), Shiv K. critic. After the Independence he joined Kumar’s A River with Three Banks, Urvashi Indian Foreign Service in 1947. He was Butalia’s The Other Side of Silence. encouraged to pursue a literary career after We, as readers, are quite aware that the experience of journalism in All India partition became the most alluring theme Radio in 1951. He started his journey with for directors just within the first two years ‘Pen and Paper’ and attached himself to of Independence. We have many examples Yojana, The Illustrated Weekly, The of films based on partition just as the film National Herald and The Hindustan Times Lahore (1949) is the first film on the silver and worked in the department of mass screen that showed the glimpses. After that communication of UNESCO at Paris in the theme of partition was repeated on 1956. He served as the Member of cinema screen in the form of many films Parliament in upper house from 1980 to like Azadi Ke Baad (1951), Kashmeer 1986. He was conferred the Padam Bhusan (1951), Kartaar Singh (1959), in 1974 but he returned the award in 1984 Dharamputra (1961), M.S. Sathyu’s being grieved with the Sikh riots in Garam Hawa (1973), Tamas (1987), Train Amritsar. In 2007 he was awarded the to Pakistan (1998) 1947 Earth (1998), Padam Vibhushan. Shaheede Mohobbat:Boota Singh (1999), Refugee (2000), Gadar (2001), Pinjar Train to Pakistan by Khushwant (2003), Partition (2007), Midnights Singh is accepted to be the first Children (2012-released in Cannada), comprehensive treatment of the Bharat (2019). Partition in Indian English literature.

SP Publications International Journal Of English and Studies (IJOES) An International Peer-Reviewed Journal ; Volume-3, Issue-4, 2021 www.ijoes.in ISSN: 2581-8333; Impact Factor: 5.421(SJIF)

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Khushwant Singh was the sufferer, The adept characterization and himself and also a close observant of cinematography portrayed on the screen this tragic event. In the current novel, aptly swayed away the watchers to the he depicts the impact of Partition on a actual time of the Independence as the village named Mano Majra set on the picturisation is so exact and real that the border of India and Pakistan. The peace people actually experienced the the and harmony of this village was same agony as the people felt at that disturbed by the arrival of train from time. Many famous artists from Pakistan which carried dead bodies of Bollywood essayed different roles in innocent people. This arrival of train this movie: Nirmal Pandey, Rajat brought an abrupt end to a long Kapoor, Mohan Agashe, Smriti Mishra, communal harmony of the village. Divya Dutta, Mangal Dhillon, M.S. Singh also created the plot of love and Sathya, Suresh Jindal and others. romance as Juggat Singh alias Jugga, a local robber, fell in love with a Muslim Pinjar: Mourning of the Nation girl, Nooran. To save the life of his Amrita Pritam, the leading 20th beloved, Jugga sacrificed his own life century poetess of Punjabi language, was and fought with the people of his born on 31st August in 1919 in Gujranwala, community. British India (now in Punjab, Pakistan). She The film Train to Pakistan wrote in Punjabi and Hindi. She was the directed by Pamela Rooks rolled out as first woman to win the Sahitya Akademi a film nearly four decades after the award for her long poem ‘Sunehade’ publication of the novel and almost five (Messages) in 1956. For her famous work decades after this particular horrendous ‘Kagaz Te Canvas’ she received one of incident of partition had happened. No India’s highest literary awards Bhartiya one had ever imagined in one’s wild Jyanpith in 1982. She was honored with dreams to display it on the silver screen many awards as she got Padam Shri in until a long time but at last in the year 1969, Padam Vibhushan in 2004 and the 1998 Pamela Rooks decided to Sahitya Akademi Fellowship to the showcase the pains and pangs and the Immortals of literature. She left this world sufferings of the partition on the silver forever in 2004. screen. She not only took the plot but characterized them with fine dialogue Pinjar is the story of love and hate. delivery in the movie. She became It unfolds the complexities and intricacies successful in displaying the events held of the inner recesses of the human mind. in the novel in a fine and exact way. This is the tale of an abducted woman

SP Publications International Journal Of English and Studies (IJOES) An International Peer-Reviewed Journal ; Volume-3, Issue-4, 2021 www.ijoes.in ISSN: 2581-8333; Impact Factor: 5.421(SJIF)

RESEARCH ARTICLE neglected by her own family. The novel Tamas: An untold Saga of the Pinzar was written in Punjabi but later on it Partition was translated into English titled The Bhishm Sahni, the younger brother Skeleton by eminent writer of that time of popular film actor Balraj Sahni, was born Khushwant Singh. This novel was on 8th August 1915 in Rawalpindi, British published in the year 1950 soon after the India. He is a famous writer, playwright and partition and describes the suffering of actor of Hindi language. He got master’s women’s abduction, dislocation and loss of degree in English literature from identity her debut novel is a saga of pain Government College Lahore and Ph.D. and pangs experienced by women at the from Punjab University, Chandigarh in time of partition. A girl named Pooro 1958. He was an active member of the became the victim of the religious and Indian National Congress at the time of communal conflicts during partition. She partition and he organized relief work for faced love and hate of her own family refugees at that time. In 1975 he got Sahitya members and at last left herself in the hand Akademi award for his novel ‘Tamas’. He of fate and chance. was awarded the Padam Bhushan in 1998 and Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2002. Pinjar directed by Dr. Chandra In 2003, he departed away from this world. Prakash Dwevedi is a full length Tamas by Bhisham Sahni is commercial film describes religious considered to be one of the most touching slits, age old customs and traditions and and important literary documents on their bad effect on the life of people. Partition. In it he has defined in detail the This wonderful movie was released in actual events of that time. Cultural 2003 after many years of publication. differences, class conflicts, communal riots This movie beautifully reflects the are so beautifully presented in the book that dogmatic beliefs based on religious they seem to be exact and real. In those boundaries and its worst effect on times the atmosphere was coloured with the generation mostly female. Many famous pangs of misery and agony to that an extent artists played different roles in this that only on the basis of the rumors doing movie: Urmilla Matondkar, Manoj the rounds, the religious fanatics used to Bajpai, Sanjay Suri, Priyanshu burn the whole town and turned the whole Chatterjee, Isha Koopikar, Lilette atmosphere from bad to worst. Dubey, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Farida Jalal, Alok Nath, Sima Biswas and Tamas, a successful film by Govind others. Nihlani is one of the best movies on partition. It not only enriched the original

SP Publications International Journal Of English and Studies (IJOES) An International Peer-Reviewed Journal ; Volume-3, Issue-4, 2021 www.ijoes.in ISSN: 2581-8333; Impact Factor: 5.421(SJIF)

RESEARCH ARTICLE theme but also modified it on contemporary time. Tamas focuses on the communal lines. In this movie incidents are presented violence and the effect of rumor on the well so that they seem more real. Many people. It also underlines the stark reality of famous artists have played roles in this life that at the end of the day it is only the movie: Deepa Sahi, Om Puri, Bhisham poor who become the victims of society at Sahni, Virendra Saxena, A.K.Hangal, large. Manohar Sinh, Dina Pathak, Uttara Bookar, Surekha Sikri, Pankaj Kapoor, Amrish Puri, References: Harish Patel, K.K. Raina, Ram Gopal Bajaj, Butalia, Urvashi. The Other Side of Silence. Barry John, Karen Smith and Saeed Jaffrey New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1998. and others. Partition has, no doubt, rendered print unforgettable pains to the people of both the Pritam, Amrita. Pinjar. New Delhi: Hind countries. The more they try to forget it, the Pocket Book, 2003. r.print. more it becomes the cause of suffering. Sahani, Bhisham. Tamas. Trans. Jai Ratan. Writers, time and again have tried their best New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2001. to present that sorrowful event in the form Print of words and directors after a long time Singh, Khushwant. Train To Pakistan. New converted that written material into audio- Delhi, 1994. r.print visual medium. Train to Pakistan as a novel Vishwanath, Gita and Salma Malik. and as a movie have both , represented the "Revisiting 1947 through Popular border conditions of that time so Cinema: A Comparative Study of beautifully and the effect of those events India and Pakistan." Economic and on the people and like as the novel and Political Weekly 05 movie Pinjar describes the condition of September 2009: 61-67. women who were the most sufferers at that