Khamosh Pani Crosses the Border Noisily

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I have not seen the movie but that does not matter. The important point of the revolutionary movie makers on both the sides of the border is that they are contributing to demolishment of a stereotype of the ``other`` side on the both sides of the border. We need to support them if they criticize their own sides. That is the crux of the matter!
India has made movies lile Fiza and Mission Kashmir that try to wake up the radical Hindus.

Primarily we should try to breakdown the monopoly of India and Pakistan Governments on the India-Pakistan relations. We need to produce more humanistic contacts between the people on both sides of the border. These paths should be independent of the routine governmental propaganda.

No need to worry about the misusers. They do their thing even if Ram and Allah shake hands across the border.

If movies are factual, they should be encouraged. If someone uses it for their propoganda, it is there weakness. In my opinion, it is very difficult to use movies for propoganda purposes if the audience has real information about the other side. For example, movies like Gadar, Mission Kashmir, Pukar, LOC etc. are all anti-Pakistan propoganda movies. Some have been best sellers in India and have won awards.

What is interesting is that they are all available in Pakistan, and Pakistanis watch them. Yet it has had no affect on Pakistanis. I doubt their views on issues have changed. At the same time, I have a feeling that such movies may have some affect on the Indian side, as there is little knowledge of Pakistan in India.

In the end, those who can take the most objective and realistic view of the situation generally end up ahead. Those who allow themsleves to be affected by propoganda, lose out in the long run......

If Khamosh Pani is based on fact, then it should be shown anywhere and everywhere.......In fact, I hope someday realistic and factual movies are made about all the violence going on in every place in South Asia and the world......

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Not only did the movie cross borders it crossed continents. I saw it on channel four here in England. For somebody who is truly homesick right now, it was great to see the soils of the east dazzle in the heat through the camera. However, I do believe the ending could have been worked upon. Though I did enjoy the film; I was concerned about the representations of the Pakistanis. I’m no strong patriot not am I strict Muslim, I’m just concerned with stereotypes.

The movie in the western audiences mind, would be more plausible as there is a Pakistani director credited. Yet the movie only reaffirms their belief ;that is Pakistani’s are essentially fundamentalists.

As the world gets closer so does the international public. People understand each other more when they can relate. That is why if for example Moth Smoke was translated into a credible movie (not the poor adaptation they showed on geo) then I feel we would have a chance to be represented into a more ‘real’ human like manner. Yes, in the book he talks about the cruelties of the elite, but it is a theme which audiences around the world can empathise with.

I’m truly tired of hearing about the partition just as I am tired of hearing about the holocaust and the world war atrocities. The world should get a glimpse on the eastern view on life. That we don’t live in mud huts and women don’t necessarily cover their heads and that we do have microwaves!.

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Ref: Romair #6
Is there someone with a medicine for Romair. This chap has an incurable disease of bringing Kashmir into any discussion. I suspect that when he was born than rather than crying he said ``kashmir`` & when he got married than rather than saying ``I do``, he said ``kashmir``

First of all, this is not the ``first Pakistani film to be released in Indian theatres`` by a long shot. First after a long gap, yes. First on the commercial theatre circuit, yes. But as Indians, we get more than our share of PTV as well as access to Pakistani cinema on the DVD circuit.

Next, how did the author of this article figure out that the people next to him in the theatre were ``many Punjabi Hindu families``? X-ray vision in the dark, or did you suddenly figure out the demographics at PVR?

These two major inacurracies in the first paragraph itself set the trend for what is, predictable enough, to follow. Patronising generalisations in bulk, so, now we have Gujarat as the darker side of only one community. Great, which one community was this, Yousuf? Hindus, Muslims, Gujaratis, ticketless travellers, local hoodlums, how did you decide, infer, come to the conclusion that the Gujarat carnages were the darker side of only one community? Which single community, Yousuf, come on, say it? And then back it.

Oh yes, but I forgot. If the so-called liberal lot ask selective questions about the Gujarat carnages, then they are being very correct, never mind the abscence of any questions and answers on other carnages. But if young children start asking what are essentially simple questions, they, these young children, patronised in the article, become defensive?

But no, our fine writer has a higher intellect, he is a w-r-i-t-e-r. Only some readers are intelligent enough for his w-r-i-t-i-n-g.

So, this line shines through, as an example of the disdain our fine author has for the audience`s intelligence: ````Of course the film’s sentimentality may also make the audience forget that there were similar harrowing Partition stories on the Indian side of the border as well. ```` Great. Author`s bio claims that he is a film-maker AND a writer. And that line is a fine example of the respect he has for his constituency`s powers of understanding.

Maybe they need a couple of classes in humility as a tool for expression at his college. 101 is ``never ever look down on your constituency``. Otherwise you won`t have a constitutency.

And then, suddenly, I see the light. Yousuf has a problem with the European funders! Ah-hah, that explains the angst. And the small constituency he has are at this stage all nodding their heads sagely. US money was bad enough, now the Europeans too? Hai, whatever happened to the castles of Seville and La Sagrita?

The gaps are not there in people`s minds, Yousuf. The gaps are there in the blinkered visions of those who would try to prevent reality from coming through. Are you film-maker or budding censor for some yet in the distance autocracy?

Get out on the roads and the railway stations, Yousuf. Try to rid yourself of the disdain you have for other Indians. This is just another movie, but about time too. And you would want to prevent people from seeing it?

Why?

Because.

I think most Indians would relate intelligently to as many sides of a truth as there are, and then some more, and so they need to see it and then make their choices. That`s also called democracy.

I think some Indians would rather prevent democracy, and too bad, Yousuf, I think that`s where you are coming from. You would rather try to justify your own narrow vision reasons for what people should watch and should not watch.

Veeresh bhai
Did I ever slap you in the face or humiliate you publicly that you have to be so acerbic with me. I wrote these views to generate a healthy debate, not to get attacked personally. Or maybe that`s your style - I have seen your earlier reactions too on various forums and they can be very caustic.

This being the `first ever Pakistani film in India` maybe an incorrect fact, and I accept it. Maybe you could tell us about other Pak films released in India - since you seem to know. As for my assumption about the Punjabi Hindu audience: whatever little I know of Delhi (I was born here, and have lived 35 years in Punjabi Hindu neighborhood), there are not very many Punjabi non-Hindus here - 80 percent of Delhi`s Hindus are originaly refugees from Punjab. I know its a stereotype but when you see Punjabi-speaking families in the PVR`s ticket counter, cafeteria, and then in the auditorium, talking, watching, relating to the film, and sobbing, I don`t think I could call them Czechoslovakians Catholics.

By `darker side of only one community` I don`t mean only Gujarat - it could be anything - even a film about Taliban or Lashkar-e Toiba or whatever. For many years, I and many of my friends (both Hindus and Muslims) have been involved in campaigns against communal prejudice and have been using documentary films and popular cinema in schools and other public places in India to discuss these issues. And I was only writing from my experiences that how careful we have to be while showing such material in the public - its not censorship. My daughter who studies in one of Delhi`s `eclectic` schools was told one day by her classmates that she is a Muslim, therefore a Pakistani, and therefore a terrorist (This has happened with other Muslim students too in Delhi). I don`t blame those classmates because they have been conditioned by their family, and I don`t blame the families, because they have been conditioned by years of stereotyping by the media, the educational system, and the past memories. Even a film such as Khamosh Pani was playing its role in this. What I was simply trying to say: today, we cannot afford to take part in this stereotyping any further. As media practitioners, we have to careful. But this does not mean censorship.

I am sorry, but your personal attack has sort of put a full stop to so many things I could discuss here to carry this debate forward.

Cheers

Yousuf

Is it possible to make a film like this without international participation? I remeber seeing an Egyptian film on the same theme, a mother-son being torn apart by politics and religion. That too was made with international aid.
The point is the time is right for films based on partition and its terrible consequences to be viewed by a new generation with a certain amount of objectivity, and to be able to say, ``never again.``
Khamosh Pani needed someone of Kiron Kher`s ability and sensitivity to portray the mother`s role.
Why did no character in the film speak of history tearing apart whole families?

Arjun-m # 9

Gadar is not a fictional work; it is based on a true story. Unfortunately, I cannot recall the actual name of the woman at this time but the male character, as played by Sunny Deol, had the name Boota Singh. The real story goes like this that as the bloody dust after the carnage that followed 1947 settled down, the governments of India and Pakistan conducted a joint investigation to find out the whereabouts of the thousands of women on both sides that were missing or kidnapped during the debacle. One such woman was recovered from the custody of Boota Singh who was a resident of a city in East Punjab at the time. Over the course of 2 to 3 years she bore 2 or three children from Boota. Indian authorities returned the woman along with her children to her parents who managed to reach Lahore during 1947.

Soon after the handover Boota crossed the border and filed a case in a Pakistani court in Lahore and claimed that he had legally married the woman - lets call her Fatima - and she had been living with him on her own accord. The case soon became a newspaper sensation and whole nation was focused towards it. In the court Boota recorded his testimony that he saw Fatima in a caravan that was headed towards Pakistan during 1947. He and some of his friends started flanking the caravan to keep them safe from the looters and murderers. Over the course of 2 to 3 days she had been looking at him and they sort of found soft corner for each other. Then one night some Sikh looters attacked the caravan and in the chaos and imbroglio that followed she lost contact with her parents. He took her home. She converted on her own accord. And they got married.

The issue was so sensationalized that people were taking out processions in support of Boota Singh for his courage and sacrifice for coming all the way here to claim his family back. The most sensational part of this story is the testimony of Fatima when almost whole city of Lahore was present at the city court. Fatima recorded her testimony amid a pin drop silence in the court. She said that she was leaving for Pakistan along with his family when she saw Boota Singh among other looters who were following the caravan like dingoes. As some weak and old people would fail to keep up with the caravan they attacked them and killed them on the way. As a child strayed they would kill him too. Then a big attack came one night amid which Boota Singh kidnapped her from the caravan and raped her in a field close by. Many other young girls were also raped and kidnapped by his friends. He took her to his home in (I forgot the name) his town and since then he has been raping her without her consent and although she had resorted to her fate, she never converted nor did she ever find a soft corner in her heart for him.

The court disregarded the claim by Boota Singh and he was ordered to leave Pakistan as soon as possible. The next day Boota Singh got killed at the Lahore Railway station while waiting for a train to Amritsar. There are varying accounts of his death since there was no witness. Some say he jumped in front of a train in desperation and some say that someone pushed him. Anyway to this day the real cause of his death remains a mystery.

As people of Lahore came to know about his death, the mirasi class in our society took out his corpse in a sort of funeral procession and named him ``Shaheed-e-Mohabbat``. These mirasis buried this m/chod rapist in Miani Sahib graveyard with a tombstone that named him ``Shaheed-e-Mohabbat`` and related a brief account of his ordeal. This tombstone was later removed by people who considered it an eyesore and an attack on their ghairat and rightfully so.

The actual movie, however, was spiced up for commercial reasons and to make Hindus feel better about themselves.