SAC Journal – Partition Films Issue

Partition Films Issue: £5

SAC – Partition Films – No. 5-6

SAC’s issue on Partition looks at the Partition of India from the filmmakers’ point of view. It raises questions why cinema shunned films on Partition for a long time after independence. It also analyses the sub-text of popular cinema which in a guarded way talks of Partition without its mention.

The first significant film on Partition, Nimai Ghosh’s Chhinnamool (1951) has been discussed in detail which became the first film that used the real footage of Partition as it was happening. India’s seminal film on Partition, M. S. Sathyu’s Garm Hava (1973) has been analysed with rare interviews with filmmaker M.S. Sathyu and screen writer Shama Zaidi. The issue carries in depth interviews with Govind Nihalani, Bhisham Sahni on another Partition epic Tamas (Darkness, 1988) and Shyam Benegal on Partition films in general.