No Happy Ending

It has been a while since I've reflected on the films we have watched in class, part of this is due to the crazy class schedule, part of it is due to the frequency at which we are watching these films. One day for the film, and another for discussion provides for a busy week! I feel like the films we have watched since Train to Pakistan are all very familiar, but the film styles are beginning to change and evolve, as well as the topics. Partition still plays a big part in the films, but in Earth and Subarnarekha, it only provides a backdrop for a more personal story, forcing me to look at the details rather than the big picture in order to analyze the film and understand the directors' respective decisions involving cinematography. 

In chronological order : 

Earth is the cinematic adaptation of the book Ice Candy Man. To me the story is divided into two parts, with the crux or center of the story where it all shifts is the train scene. Lenny provides a young childlike view of the world around her, making her the perfect narrator, but she is not a neutral party or omnipotent observer. Lenny is new to the events that are surrounding her, which happen to be scenes of violence and disagreement. An important point that was brought up in class was her ability to sort of move in and out of the adult world and the world of a child. I feel like the film neutralizes Lenny a little bit more than the book did, but with good reason. I feel like the relationship between Shanta and the other adults works much better on film than the childlike workings of Lenny's mind that lend themselves to the written word. 

Having only seen Amir Kahn in one other film (Lagaan) it was still hard to see him as the villain. That's not to say that he was not a good actor. I felt like Ice Candy Man was  a great character for the big screen, despite the few differences that existed between the book's character, and Amir Kahn's character in the film. One important difference between the two that is important to note is that Ice Candy Man in the movie is much more charming and confident, where the book makes him out to be a lot more brooding, shy, and creepy. I feel like this was an adaptation to Amir Kahn's acting style and general good looks, but it also strengthened the idea of the "love triangle" that existed between Ice Candy Man, Shanta, and Hassan, and after all, isn't that what people want to see in the movies? Love triangles, conflict, lovers scorned, lovers reconciled, unrequited love, etc.?

The images of Partition violence in Earth are much more evident and violent than they have been in any other film we have watched. I feel like the harsh imagery is important in order to truly show the conditions of Partition, but I feel like they were a little out of place. Sure this film is about Partition to an extent, but really the audience has to focus on the love triangle, rather than the problems happening to the country. Shanta and her group of male friends provide a kind of microcosm that represents the country as a whole. The earlier scenes are of tranquility and tolerance, where after the train scene the friends are never seen again in a large group without a sense of difference. If there was an American film to compare Earth to it would have to be Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor at first sounds like a historic retelling of the famous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, right? But really what we care about is weather or not Josh Hartnett, Ben Affleck and Kate Bekinsale will ever resolve their love triangle, and the attack on Pearl Harbor is just the backdrop for this romance.
Overall I enjoyed Earth and viewed it differently once we took into account some of the subtleties in the film. I would go about listing all of these but each one calls for an explanation which would prove for a very long blog post. So in the spirit of laziness I move on to.....

Silent Waters (or Khamosh Pani) is a film that provides a look at Partition involving Sikhs and Muslims. Until this film I felt like the Sikh population had been underrepresented, but what do I know? I've only seen 5 or 6 Indian / Pakistani films in my entire life, all of which are from this class. My inexperience in Indian cinema aside, Silent Waters was a great film. I feel like there was a proper representation of Partition violence without being too explicit. It was also interesting to view Partition from the Pakistani point of view, since until now we have only really examined it from a Hindu/Indian standpoint. I feel like I'm being redundant when I specify Indian, but whatever.
The most interesting thing about the film to me was the prominent representation of moderate Muslims. In America there is almost no voice for moderate Islam and to see a somewhat critical view of militant Islamic people is very stimulating and provides for an interesting movie experience. I feel like the "happy ending" was something that Indian cinema never really mastered, and Silent Waters definitely strengthened that for me. What a bummer this movie was. Though there is some comic relief in the beginning of the film, its very relentless in it's seriousness.
Ayesha is a complicated character with a disturbing past as she is forcibly assimilated into the Muslim community by radical Muslims only to be attacked and rejected years after her devotion to Islam by radical Muslims, one of which being her own son. What this film brought up that I don't think any other film has is the fluidity of religion during Partition. There were a lot of forced conversions from Hindu to Muslim, Muslim to Hindu, Sikh to Muslim, and every other religion. This conversion supposedly made you safe among whatever governing group was staking claim to the land you occupied, but in Silent Waters it does not protect Ayesha, despite her devotion. Her son, Saleem, plays out a typical role of young impressionable male swept up in the wrong crowd. It's like something from The Outsiders or The Lost Boys, where the young men are swept up into a crowd for a cause and never look back but once. Unfortunately for Saleem, this means sacrificing a lot of what he believes and cares about in his life. It was like any other political or religious fanaticism where they prey on the complacent and the lazy and give them purpose through rewarding them with compliments, hard work, and responsibility.
The topic of honor violence was lingering in my head when you find out that not only was Ayesha forced to convert to Islam by extremists, but it was in the stead of killing herself to preserve the honor of her Sikh family. This is a little disheartening and makes the viewer care more about poor Ayesha, especially when she returns to the well that she was faced with at 16 to ultimately kill herself. The last well scene was very understated and calm, making the imagery of her jumping in much more powerful in my opinion. Overall a great movie. The romances are not played up at all, and the topic really is a critique of radical Islamist society through the view of a small family (which is kind of related to my thesis for my research paper!) *taking mental notes*

So from one sad story to the next...

Subarnarekha is one of the few art house films that doesn't have a lot of the Bollywood flare that Earth or Lagaan has, but that doesn't make it a well thought out film. It was a little hard to follow because it moved so fast. I felt like the director didn't take enough time developing the story before Ishwar takes in Abhiram under his wing. Being made in the 1940s, it is replete with choppy theater style acting, and usual poor editing, but this doesn't really distract from the essence of the film. I think the black and white made the landscape of the story feel even more mundane than it was intended to be. Short, controlled speech make the characters seem very matter of fact and not very emotionally accessible. The timeline jumps around skipping years at a time so some of the critical character development we get in more recent films is replaced by short quick character interactions that give the audience understanding of their feelings towards one another but not much else. You really only know what any of the characters feels about one another, but really I couldn't tell you what Abhiram is like on his own, nor Ishwar or Sita. The characters are overacted and intense, but this helps to provide some comic relief in this otherwise bleak story. I don't have as much to say about Subarnarekha, because there isn't much that rests below the surface. With an abbreviated understanding of Bengali Partition, one can decode this film with ease.