Punjab Talkies

But amid all this,there’s also some positive change. Breaking the commercial clutter are a clutch of creative film-makers who are focusing on the “real” Punjab — one that’s suffocating with class divide,drug menace,farmer suicides and corruption. Refreshingly,it’s not big banners or big budgets or the cash-rich NRI base that they are pandering to. Instead,they are following their hearts and telling stories that need to be told. For instance,film-maker Gurvinder Singh has come up with Anhey Ghorey Da Daan (Alms of the Blind Horse),which will be showcased at the 68th Venice Film Festival in the competition category.

A National Film Development Corporation production,the film,based on Jnanpeeth award winner Gurdial Singh’s novel,is the first Punjabi film to be shown at the festival. It captures the lives of those living on the margins,the lower caste. “It’s about these people silently witnessing the invisible violence of power equations,devoid of the power to change or influence the course of destiny,” says Singh,who leaves for Venice at the end of this month.

From NRIs to NGOs to commercial film-makers,Punjab talkies is getting a fresh start. If Mukesh Gautam’s Ek Noor was about organ donation,New York-based Tirlok Malik’s Khushiyaan,also screened at Cannes this year,is about Punjabi families settled abroad.

After taking permission from the supreme religious body of the Sikhs,Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee,film-maker Harjit Ricky is making a movie titled Vadda Ghallughara,based on the historic fight between Ahmed Shah Abdali and the Sikh community. Cosmic Fighters Production House is working on a telefilm titled Sardar,on the Sikh turban,its history and importance. “Because there is little documentation on Sikh history,it becomes all the more important to talk about it and to create awareness among people about their heritage,” says Ricky.

Agrees Jarnail Singh from Cosmic Fighters,whose team has been making telefilms on Sikhism such as Mai Bhaago,Sant Sipahi,Sikh Itihas and Bole So Nihaal — Saka Nankana. “For us,it’s not about the budget,it’s about narrating our history and letting people know about it,” he says.

Film-maker Amarjit Virdi is working on an animation feature based on the Battle of Saragarhi. He has done illustrations for a Sikh comic by the same name,and two others,based on the lives of Guru Tegh Bahadur and Baba Deep Singh. “There is a film on drugs in the pipeline too,” says Virdi,whose period film Kirpan,about Punjab post-Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s era is also under way.

It was the issue of farmer suicides in Punjab that got US-based film-maker Harpreet Kaur to record these tragedies in a documentary titled A Little Revolution — A Story of Suicides and Dreams. Produced under Sach Productions,it talks about the children of farmers who have committed suicide. “We are not here to give solutions or answers. We want to provide a perspective about these children,about their education and hope in their lives,” says Kaur,who claims that the film made the state government grant Rs 1 lakh to each victim’s family.

California-based filmmaker Ish Amitoj Kaur’s Chhevan Dariya (The Sixth River) captures drug addiction,drug mafia and female foeticide in the state. “I want Punjab to be known beyond makki di roti,sarson da saag,giddha,bhangra and loud music,” she says.