WEBVTT - Partition in Film & TV 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:11.400 Warning the following episode contains sensitive material. Film is an 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.720 essential part of my everyday life. I studied it in 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.759 college along with journalism, and for a time reported on 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.319 local film events and wrote reviews. Now in addition to 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.000 trying my hand at writing films, I programmed movies for 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.800 a few festivals. You could say I was a little 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:29.160 more than excited to talk about film and TV on 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:33.440 this show. In episode one, you heard me say that 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:37.199 my experiences watching Partition portrayed in the media left much 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:40.600 to be desired. I have seen a handful of depictions. 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.280 I'll discuss some of these examples with writers and filmmakers 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:48.400 Chaunty Dcor and Fatima Uscar, both of whom also have 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:54.560 their own work related to Partition. Before recording this podcast, 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:58.120 I had only watched Gandhi directed by Richard Attenborough, Viceroy's 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.600 House structed by Grinder Chad, the entirety of the Crown, 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:05.679 and one episode of Doctor Who. Since then, I have 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:09.760 watched Garum which means Hot Winds directed by m Satu 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:15.240 Commosh Pawnee or Silent Waters directed by Sabia Sumar, and 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.840 of course Miss Marvel. Which one should you skip and 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:27.240 which one should you immediately explore from I Heart Radio, 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.280 I'm Nahasis and this is partition a podcast that will 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:53.440 take a closer look into this often forgotten part of history. 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.560 Gandhi seems like an excellent place to start. It is 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:02.000 your base, sick, run of the mill biopic that starts 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:04.520 out with Gandhi as a young lawyer and how he 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:07.600 then transforms into the benevolent leader we learned about in 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.640 our textbooks. This film was made in two and I 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:14.240 think it's one that older generations tend to cling to 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:17.640 because of how massive this film was in every aspect, 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:22.360 the cast, the costumes, the production value, the sheer amount 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.240 of extras. I'm sure at the time the people of 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.200 India and Pakistan felt like their struggles were being recognized 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.120 by a global audience. In fact, when I asked an 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.040 elder relative if he had any suggestions on what maybe 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:38.120 good examples to watch, he suggested Gandhi. This film is 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.359 considered an epic and movies like this don't really get 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.600 made anymore. It won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:49.240 Best Director, and Best Actor for Ben Kingsley for the 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.280 titular role. It is also probably the most mainstream film 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:57.480 related to partition in terms of availability and so called prestige. 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:00.760 My first viewing of this film, I can say with 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.440 the utmost confidence, will be my last. I don't think 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.680 this film was great to begin with, and I certainly 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.560 don't think as time went on it aged particularly well. 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.320 It was truly a struggle for me to get through it, 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.560 not only because it was three hours long and felt 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:18.640 like it, but the utter lack of nuance is painful. 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.440 We don't really get a critical and honest portrait of Gandhi, 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:24.880 but one that is more filled with hero worship than 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.720 anything else. It is documented that Gandhi was a racist. 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.320 An MPR article from two thousand nineteen states that in 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.880 his early writings, Gandhi made comments that white people should 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:40.560 be the dominant race and black people are troublesome, very dirty, 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:44.720 and live like animals. If a film is attempting to 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.520 paint us a realistic portrait of a man, it must 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:49.920 also include the parts of him that are flawed and 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.600 unethical too. Now we don't have the time in this 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:56.600 podcast to dissect all that is wrong with the film Gandhi, 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.280 but here are a few key points. Ben Kingsley's brown 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.200 Face was truly unacceptable. He maybe have Indian, but that 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:07.000 doesn't change the fact that his skin was made significantly 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:11.400 darker with makeup. Gandhi was directed by a white British male. 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:14.480 I know this film was a passion project for director 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.240 Richard Attenborough, but when you have someone not from the 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.560 effected community at the helm of a project of this magnitude, 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.440 something will usually feel off. We get a finished product 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.720 that is clean and glossy instead of genuine and raw. 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:32.159 We had the villainization of Mohammad A Llegina, the founder 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:35.440 of Pakistan, so much so that the film was actually 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.080 banned in Pakistan upon its release. Instead of giving us 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.920 an accurate glimpse into the complexities of independence and Burrow, 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.400 along with screenwriter John Briley, decided to create a good 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:50.160 guys Versus Bad guys narrative. In reality, we know that 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.360 every man involved had their own self serving plan with 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:57.760 how they wanted independence to play out, including Gandhi. If 0:04:57.760 --> 0:04:59.560 you're going to make a film with a hundred and 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:02.760 nine a minute runtime, at the very least attempt to 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:05.800 make it more on the mark. The last thing I'll 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:09.240 say is that Attenborough dedicated this film to Lord Mountbatten, 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.800 the man who oversaw partition and is responsible for a 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.200 good amount of the bloodshed. We see this declaration in 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.880 the first minute of the film that, more than anything else, 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.719 should tell the audience what type of film we're about 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:26.120 to embark on. It was Mountbatten's idea to hasten the 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:29.080 original timeline for a partition so the British wouldn't be 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.400 held responsible for the fallout. I don't think any Indian 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:37.280 or Pakistani would ever thank him for his service, which 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.800 brings me to The Crown. Let me preface this by saying, 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.960 I love the Crown. I love period pieces and costume dramas. 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:49.240 I worship Olivia Coleman, I love Corgis. I even had 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:51.600 a Twitter through I devoted to every corgy that appeared 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.760 on the show. Not enough, if I'm being honest. The 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.520 Crown tells the story of Queen Elizabeth the Second and 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:01.240 how she ascended to the throne and the many political 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.600 events that took place during her reign. I didn't watch 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.400 the show for research at all, more so because we 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.960 were sheltering in place and it was on my watch list. However, 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.480 that didn't stop me from noticing the extremely small allusion 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:19.320 to partition. In the pilot episode. Well, I know the 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.039 purpose of the series is to showcase the royals and 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.840 their lives. The British Raj was a major part of 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:29.080 their empire, and the pilot episode takes place shortly after Partition. 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.840 In this scene, we see the wedding of Queen Elizabeth 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:38.000 the Second and Prince Philip Winston. Churchill makes a grandiose 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.919 entrance with his wife and sees Mount Batton across the 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:45.040 church and gives him a very sharp look. As they 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.960 take their seats, Churchill whispers, with much disdain to his wife, 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:54.640 this whole thing is Mount Batton's triumph. He engineered it all, 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:59.680 the man who gave away India. I remember watching this 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:08.320 being like cool, that's a take, I guess. In contrast, 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:12.320 another popular British show, Doctor Who, actually portrayed the story 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:17.360 of Partition with respect. The episode Demons of the Punjab, 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:22.800 aired in and was written by Vinet Patel. Now I 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.119 know absolutely nothing about Dr Who, or the science around 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:28.640 it or what the police Box does. But when I 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.080 mentioned my work with this podcast to a few friends, 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.080 they told me about the storyline from the eleventh series, 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.640 so I decided to give it a watch. Watching this 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.200 one hour episode completely out of context. I was pleasantly 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:46.720 surprised it managed to capture the emotion, confusion, and brutality 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.320 of the situation well because it was told from the 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:54.600 perspective of the people. It directly affected supernatural elements aside. 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.440 We follow a Hindu family in a Muslim family in 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.000 the days leading up to a wedding where their children 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.800 are said to Mary. Tensions arise when the groom's brother 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:08.280 and his nationalist beliefs clash with the community. The audience 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.239 could feel the fear and the unknown future and safety 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.520 of these characters. Best of all, I did not see 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.920 any British characters, minus the characters who traveled with a 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:23.560 Doctor journalist Christian Hello from Entertainment Weekly as Hotel the 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.680 following question. Most Doctor Who time travel stories tend to 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.400 focus specifically on English history and it's great heroes like 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:35.520 Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria. But here the focus is 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:39.199 an event connected to England, but it also challenges English 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.400 assumptions about their own history and their role in the world. 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:52.080 Was that intentional? Potel responded with a lot of Doctor 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:56.160 Who history episodes are focused on these great figures like 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:01.120 Queen Victoria or William Shakespeare, and I liked the idea 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.120 of doing a story about people on the ground were 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.960 affected by a period of history but aren't really rich 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.360 or famous or well known enough where they can just 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.800 shake it off of it, because the greatest tragedy of 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.559 partition is that the people it affected were people who 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:26.520 are not remembered or acknowledged. Making them nobody's to focus 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:30.800 on them felt like a really exciting thing and an 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.280 important thing to do, rather than focus on the viceroy 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:38.080 who would have been in charge at the time. I 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:52.440 couldn't agree more. I met with filmmaker Shanty Decor to 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:56.640 talk about some other films that depict partition. Shanty directed 0:09:56.679 --> 0:10:00.640 a deeply personal documentary about her father titled Terrible Old Children. 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.520 She explores many different facets of his life, including partition. 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:08.839 I discovered this movie when I was submitted to the 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:15.319 Cleveland International Film Festival, where I was curating films. Since then, 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.160 it has gone on to screen at numerous festivals around 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:26.400 the world. So my father got a letter from his 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.480 father who was still in India, and he only opened 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:34.160 the letter twenty years after his father's death. And he 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.160 gave me this letter and said, maybe you can do 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:41.520 something with this. So I read the letter and that 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:43.839 was the beginning of a path to making my film 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.840 Terrible Children. Over the next three years, and I really 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:52.800 learned the challenges that he had, not just within his family, 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:58.000 but living in India during the backdrop of partition, which 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.320 really triggered him to one to leave India to come 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.920 to California where he eventually met my mother. And it's 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.560 an unlikely love story between my father and my mother, 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:13.600 who was from Denmark. And I learned the context for 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:17.200 why my father's family banished my family when my father 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:22.000 married a Danish woman. Shanti is another person who had 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.280 to find out the story of nine herself, and I 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.760 wanted to know what sources she looked into to find 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:33.120 out more. Well, because my father never talked about partition, 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:36.000 I knew I had to learn about it on my own. 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.280 So it was really literature where I was able to 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.120 get like the heart and soul of the stories. Um. 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:47.000 Two books I learned about were Cracking India by bobsy 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.360 sidwa Um that's through the perspective of a party woman 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.920 living through partition, and Midnight's Children of Course by Salmon Rushdie. 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.080 And what I loved about those books was there was 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:04.000 an authenticity about characters and the day to day moments 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:09.240 of living in this environment where people had to make 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.040 very subtle choices which could lead to life or death. 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:16.360 So literature really informed me. And then um, and then 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.200 I saw a documentary, a four part documentary. I believe 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.360 it was from BBC or Channel four, I can't remember. 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:23.079 And it was a very you know, it was a 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:26.120 journalistic you know, give me the dates, give me the 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:30.240 politicians name of what happened. And of course I watched 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.360 it because I wanted to learn as much about the 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.360 politicians who were involved and so forth. But there was 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:39.679 really something lacking. It seemed really one dimensional around these 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:44.960 kind of almost arbitrary conversations between politicians, but not like 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:46.640 what was happening in the hard and soul of the 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:50.880 people on the street. I asked her how she prepared 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:55.920 to talk about partition in her documentary. So the first 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:57.880 thing I did when I was preparing to make the 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:00.880 film was I started to write the vice over. I 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:02.800 had to make sure all the facts were in place, 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:05.400 but I also had to get to the emotional truth 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.280 of the story, which was my father's story, which I 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:12.760 was telling. I went to the National Archives to see 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.439 what I could use for my film, and there were 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.120 just incredible images that, um, you know, it's true that 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.000 that an image can tell you a thousand words. And 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.320 I didn't know what was possible because I had to 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:27.160 figure out, how am I going to tell this story? 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:32.120 How can I represent the unrepresentable about these stories if 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:36.360 I don't have the footage right? So, um, there's a 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.120 part in partition where I found this footage in the 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:45.920 National Archives. It was footage of demonstration um in India 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:51.679 and where British soldiers were essentially beating Indians out right. 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.439 So I looked in the US for footage, and then 0:13:55.480 --> 0:14:00.080 I also looked in the UK for footage. It's she 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:06.600 discovered something that shocked her. What was so interesting was 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.640 this particular section of footage which was so important to 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:12.680 tell the story. Of course, you want to see, like 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:15.320 here's the tension between the colonialists and the Indians, right. 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.920 And then when I was looking at exactly the same 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:24.680 footage from the UK, it had deleted. It had taken 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:29.240 out the shots where the British soldiers were beating up 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:32.640 the Indians, And it was so fascinating to think well, 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:36.520 this is supposed to be the quote objective history of 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:40.840 a country that is saved in the archival footage. And 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.120 I thought, well, that's really interesting. And of course you think, well, 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.880 what in America are we not showing this our national history? 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.320 But that's another conversation. But it was so it was 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:54.280 very interesting to see how different countries represented their relationship 0:14:54.720 --> 0:15:01.680 to partition, as well as taking these epic stories and 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:06.520 turning that into a micro event. I think his children 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:11.520 of parents who went through partition and who won't talk 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:16.240 about it so much, a part of our healing is 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.120 to understand what happened on a micro level and a 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:23.200 macro level. You know, how did this affect our family 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.080 in ways that we have to investigate when they won't 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:30.920 talk about it. Shanty then describes walking in the streets 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:37.120 and neighborhood where her father witnessed violent attacks. So when 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:39.160 I went to India to shoot the film, it was 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:43.520 just myself and my cinematographer, and I met my cousin 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:48.000 who is my father's nephew, and he brought us through 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:51.640 the neighborhood where my father experienced partition. It was an 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.240 interesting neighborhood. Um, it was in Old Delhi. My father 0:15:56.040 --> 0:16:00.920 ran away from home at sixteen. Tolaeth's grandmother and she 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:03.640 lived in this building that was just on the edge 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:09.400 of the Muslim section in Old Delhi, and she ran 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.200 an a or vetic business. She had her doors open 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.360 to everyone. She was a healer, right, And so my 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.680 father has this memory of waking up in the middle 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.960 of the night to the sounds of slaughter, and that 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:26.920 was Muslims passing through the street unaware it was a 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:30.200 Hindu neighborhood. And this is what he woke up to 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:36.880 as a teenager, and it haunted him. One Terrible Children 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.320 premiered in Cleveland. There was quite a few audience questions, 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:47.280 mainly from older viewers. I really appreciate people's curiosity and 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:51.200 willingness to learn, and whether they come from a South 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:55.680 Asian background or a Jewish background, or you know. I mean, 0:16:55.800 --> 0:17:00.880 I just think that that reverberation of trauma translates on 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:05.400 so many different levels. So if people have never heard 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:09.439 of partition before, that's cool. Let's have a conversation and 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.600 let's start to make observations and share these observations with 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.439 each other about how this affects us and how this 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:20.240 affects our families. Moreover, how do we survive it and 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:24.760 how does it make us stronger? I wanted to know 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:29.960 how Shanti's father felt about the seventy anniversary. Yeah, I 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.080 brought it up to him, and it was obviously something 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.840 he was very uncomfortable about. But what I do see 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:42.480 is that he is deeply, deeply affected by seeing what 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:46.080 was happening in the Ukraine, seeing what was happening in Rwanda, 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:52.840 seeing the same cycles of this belief of racial purity 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:58.600 and ethnicity and how that destroys people. So he kind 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:03.400 of sees these goes of partition throughout his lifetime, which 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:07.320 is really haunting. And I think that's something that everybody 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.120 needs to listen to about partition, because it is yet 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:16.199 just another example of how history keeps repeating itself. You 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:19.080 can learn more about future screenings and bookings for Terrible 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:33.320 Children on Shanty's website shanty decor dot com. I thought 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:36.280 Shanty would be a fun and interesting person to discuss 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:38.560 the last three films on my list, so I asked 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:40.480 her to watch them so we could talk about it. 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:44.560 All of these films were directed by South Asians. Up 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.560 first is Vice Roy's House, which was released in and 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:51.480 based on the books Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.480 and Dominique LaPier and The Shadow of the Great Game, 0:18:55.800 --> 0:19:01.520 The Untold Story of Partition by Norandera Singh Sarila. Like Gandhi, 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:04.359 this film was also been a Pakistan due to its 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:09.080 characterization of Jinna Viceroy's house. Follows Mount Batton and his 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.880 family while he oversees the disillusionment of the British Raj 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.800 in India. There is a downton abbey upstairs downstairs like 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.080 way of storytelling where you see the Indians, Muslims and 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.840 Sikhs serve Mount Batton's household as they talk amongst themselves 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.040 about the issues going on as they overhear possible outcomes 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:30.520 of partition. A felt filmmaker grew in their child A's 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.159 heart and intention were in the right place, but the 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.240 general consensus for Shanti and I was that there was 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.680 too much information being squeezed into the film. Both of 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.440 us greatly admire Childa's work, but here we get a 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.800 cliffs notes version of events, fragments of stories that ultimately 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:53.560 leave us with nothing. It's so interesting trying to judge 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.280 films on a historic event. We're going to be looking 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:00.600 at several different films that portraying Partition. But for me, 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:04.480 the first question is who is the audience? Whoever the 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.199 writer director is, they have to think about who the 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:12.720 audience is, who's funding it? Right? So I mean it's 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:17.359 a vice stories house. It's showing both the British and 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:22.000 the South Asians, but it's pretty clear that the primary 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:27.120 and protagonists are the Mount Mountains and we're following their narrative, 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:31.480 We're following their point of view, and the secondary story 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:36.240 is about you know, Lord Mount Battons, Indian valet who's 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.600 falling in love with the Muslim woman and the loss 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:42.479 of his family during Partition. But that's just structurally in 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:47.000 terms of the script. That's how it's created, and we're seeing, 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.199 which I think is good. We're seeing both positive and 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:53.680 negative characters in both the British and for the South 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:57.639 Asian characters, but essentially we are being asked to emphathize 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:02.320 with the Mount Battons. This was another point of contention 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.639 for me. Mat Baton was portrayed with an exuberant amount 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.320 of sympathy. I have not read Phenom at Midnight. My 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:11.439 father had read it when he was in school, and 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:13.480 I did consider looking into it as a part of 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:17.000 my research for this podcast. I had asked several historians 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.280 and other academics about their thoughts. But this book wasn't 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.440 held in very high regard because it's mostly a firsthand 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:27.520 account from Mobaton. Combine this with the fact that Viceroy's 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.720 House was in part produced by BBC Films and the 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:33.800 British Film Institute, I can hazard our guests as to 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:40.359 why his character isn't judged too harshly. But it would 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:44.959 have been very different if the primary story was about 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:47.520 this Hindu man falling in love with a Muslim woman, 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:50.720 seeing what she had gone through in the refugee camp 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:54.960 with her father, etcetera, etcetera. So I mean the structure 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:57.680 of the story I would imagine I have not read 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:01.159 the book that is based on, but the writers and 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.719 the director had to follow that particular story. So I 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:07.879 don't want to ask a square to become a circle. 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.760 It is what it is. But what was interesting was 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:17.119 the scenes that were supposed to be so dramatic that 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:19.960 was happening on Partition, with the riots and the trains 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:27.240 and and the violence. It somehow did not fall to 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:32.360 me as horrible as it actually was. Whereas when I 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:36.560 see the suggestions of it in other films and how 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:40.720 it's absorbed by the families on an intimate day to 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:44.360 day level or moment to moment level, when we're invested 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:49.399 in those characters, that's a whole other experience. So you know, 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:52.960 here in the Viceroy's House, it felt more just something 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:57.320 to keep the plot moving. There were a few scenes 0:22:57.359 --> 0:22:59.879 that planted seeds for what was going to come with partition, 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:02.320 but they don't really grow in the way that is 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:08.560 needed to showcase the gravity of the situation. When the 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:13.080 filmmaker makes it very clear that this is a story 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:18.040 about a Muslim patriarch and his family, like in garm 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:22.240 Haaba or Silent Water, where it is a story about 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:27.160 the matriarch of her family and her very problematic son, 0:23:27.840 --> 0:23:30.959 we are clear from the get go this is who 0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:34.280 we're following, and we get their subjective point of view, 0:23:34.280 --> 0:23:37.080 whether we agree with it or not, that's what it is, 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:42.240 and I think with the Viceroy's House we were getting 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:44.760 his point of view, but there were just too many 0:23:44.760 --> 0:23:48.800 things going on. At the end of the film, there 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:52.320 was a message where Chada, the director notes her own 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:55.760 partition story about her grandmother who fled to present day 0:23:55.800 --> 0:23:58.920 India and was reunited with her husband after a year 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:01.879 and a half at a refuge camp. That is a 0:24:01.920 --> 0:24:04.560 story I would have liked to have seen. When you 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:07.120 can put a phase to an event like this, that 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:09.399 to me is where the audience is going to really 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:14.960 resonate and connect with the story and characters. I had 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:18.119 the same reaction when I saw the kind of biographical 0:24:18.520 --> 0:24:21.280 summary of of who she was as a director. I 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:23.760 was like, Oh my gosh, I would love to see 0:24:23.760 --> 0:24:26.760 the film that she would write from the beginning. That 0:24:26.800 --> 0:24:40.320 would be amazing. Unlike Gandhi and Vice Rays House, which 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:43.760 can easily be found on a variety of platforms to stream, 0:24:43.760 --> 0:24:47.400 rent or buy, that was not the case for Garamhava 0:24:47.800 --> 0:24:50.880 or Silent Waters. I could not find either of them 0:24:50.920 --> 0:24:55.600 on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO, Max or the countless other 0:24:55.680 --> 0:24:59.320 streamers we have at our fingertips. For Silent Waters, I 0:24:59.359 --> 0:25:01.960 was able to find and its streaming online on Canopy 0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:05.520 from my local public library, but different libraries have different 0:25:05.520 --> 0:25:09.000 content available. They luckily also had a DVD I could 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:12.240 check out if I needed. When I looked for garamha 0:25:12.760 --> 0:25:15.399 The only copy I could find was a VHS at 0:25:15.400 --> 0:25:18.440 the UT Austin Library, where it certainly was not going 0:25:18.480 --> 0:25:22.119 to work. I miraculously ended up finding it on YouTube, 0:25:22.359 --> 0:25:24.919 but it is unclear if that was purely by chance 0:25:25.200 --> 0:25:28.000 or was vetted to be on the platform. It's no 0:25:28.040 --> 0:25:31.720 wonder many don't know about partition or the tragic details 0:25:32.160 --> 0:25:36.240 the widely available examples I came across given incredibly condensed 0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:39.439 version of events. We live in a world where if 0:25:39.480 --> 0:25:42.000 something isn't available in an instant or at the push 0:25:42.040 --> 0:25:44.240 of a few buttons, we are less likely to seek 0:25:44.280 --> 0:25:47.880 it out. Accessibility is a big problem when it comes 0:25:47.880 --> 0:25:51.560 to finding more accurate depictions of partition and it's lingering effects. 0:25:53.840 --> 0:25:57.840 Silent Waters takes place in nine nine. We follow Aisha, 0:25:58.119 --> 0:26:01.000 a widow who survived the violence of part Visition, going 0:26:01.040 --> 0:26:05.440 about her life in a Bakisani village. She has a son, Selene, 0:26:05.840 --> 0:26:08.199 who is lost in more ways than one, and in 0:26:08.240 --> 0:26:10.800 the process of trying to figure out his future, get 0:26:10.840 --> 0:26:14.560 swept up in extremism when some Islamic activists come to 0:26:14.600 --> 0:26:18.880 their village. Her son's new erratic behavior triggers a lot 0:26:18.920 --> 0:26:24.480 of painful and traumatic memories for Aisha. This film took 0:26:24.520 --> 0:26:28.600 the well known European Film Festival Locarno by storm, taking 0:26:28.600 --> 0:26:32.080