The final film for Partition Week, “Garam Hawa” was screened yesterday at 12.00pm at Independent University Bangladesh.
Based on an unpublished short story by Ismat Chughtai the file was adapted for the screen by Kaifi Azmi and Shama Zaidi, and portrays the turbulence in the family of Salim Mirza (Balraj Sahni), the lead protagonist who believes in the idea of a united India. Though a Muslim, Mirza wants to stay back in post-Partition North India, firm in his belief that Gandhi’s death would act as a harbinger for communal harmony.
As Kaifi Azmi’s voice narrates couplets as a prelude, people at both borders experience much emotional trauma (toofan) and illustrate the crucial point that the common man “was listening to neither Geeta nor Quran” as they killed and displaced their neighbours. So the “Garam Hawa,” the scorching, simmering and debilitating wind is not a climatic phenomenon, but communalism, political bigotry and intolerance.
Garam Hawa was made in 1973 and is set in a small neighbourhood in Agra, North India. It was directed by MS Sathyu.
It was the final film in a series of four films screened in various venues in the capital during Partition Week, an event created by the Bayaan Collective, from August 10-14. Dhaka Tribune was media partner for the event.
