Film screenings at Majha House rooted in sub-continental turmoil

Tribune News Service

Neha Saini

Amritsar, March 22

The second day of Majha House Literature, Performance and Film Festival hosted two short film screenings at Thakar Singh Art Gallery in collaboration with Film South Asia. The two films, one by Pakistani filmmaker Anam Abbas, ‘The Stained Dawn’ (Yeh Daagh Daagh Ujala) and the other, an award winning homage from a daughter to her father, Bani Gill’s ‘Taangh’ (Longing), had narratives that highlighted a shared pain and perspective on things common to both sides of the border in this part of the world, woven with intensity.

The screenings are part of Travelling Film South Asia, a mobile festival which globally hosts screenings of films on tour by acclaimed filmmakers from across the South Asian continent. The festival was opened by Kanak Mani Dixit, eminent Nepali author, editor and publisher, who said that instead of dividing ourselves through geo-political borders, we must see each other as fellow South Asian citizen, showing empathy and celebrating shared history.

‘This Stained Dawn’ by Anam Abbas, a documentary about Karachi’s feisty, spirited women activists, who organise an Aurat March, which has now become a movement against patriarchy and social-political injustice against women in Pakistan, opens with a dialogue on how her country goes through a repeated nightmare, never learning from it once. It follows a group of women, students, human rights activists, lawyers and average citizens, as they negotiate through the dangers and risks of organising the Aurat March, amidst threats from far right religious groups and a politically risky climate in their country. Right from conducting door-to-door visits to engage more women, discussing their demands and negotiating with the security agencies, these women encounter prejudice, backlash and turmoil, but never give up. The issues raised through the documentary regarding crime and

violence against women,

suppression in the name of religion, and economic equality, have been major triggers for the beginning of Aurat March, a movement that started in 2018. By 2024, it has expanded to 11 cities of Pakistan.

The second film, ‘Taangh’ by Bani Singh, is a homage from Bani to her father Grahnandan ‘Nandy’ Singh, Olympian hockey champion, who was part of the gold winning team in 1948. Against the backdrop of Partition, Bani traces the roots of her father, when he migrated from Lahore after Partition to his winning an Olympic gold in 1948. The film shows the trauma the family went through during riots in 1947, the quest to build a new life by her father and the longing that remained till the last, to go back to the place that was once his home.

It also celebrates independent India’s first hockey team win against England, the erstwhile colonial power, to win the gold at the 1948 London Olympics. Bani documented interviews, profiles of her father’s team-mates, his friends that remained in Pakistan and how his life was impacted throughout because of the Partition. The film won the Best Film Award at Film South Asia 2022, and has been showcased in Pakistan.

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