GARM HAWA

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BALtUU SAHMI
In
A FILM BY
M S SATHYU
DIRECTOR M.S. Sathyu CINEMATOGRAPHY Ishan Arya
PRODUCERS Ishan Arya, M.S. Sathyu, EDITING S. Chakraborty
Abu Siwani
CO-PRODUCER Film Finance Corporation CAST
STORY & SCREENPLAY Ismat Chughtai, Balraj Sahni (Salim Mirza}
Kaifi Azmi, Shama Zaidi Shaukat Kaifi (Jameela)
DIALOGUES Kaifi Azmi Farooq Shaikh (Sikander)
LYRICS Kaifi Azmi Gita Siddharth (Aamina)
MUSIC Ustad Bahadur Khan Jalal Agha (Shamshad)
QAWWALI Aziz Ahmed Khan Warsi and Party
 282 tslamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema Garm Hawa 283
ased on a short story by Ismat Chugtai who also co-scripted
the film, Garm Hawa was funded by the Film Finance Corpo-
ration and is one of the early films of the Indian New Wave
to emerge in the late 1960s as an alternative to mainstream cinema.
An iconic film of the period and of the catastrophic experience of
the Partition, Garm Hawa marks a radical departure from the reign-
ing concerns and forms of the generic framework of the Muslim
Social which it at once inhabits and transforms. Abjuring the exotic
ambience of nawabi households traditionally located in Lucknow Fig. 4 Fig. 5
or in Delhi, Garm Hawa is set in Agra and portrays the tribulations quences of the Partition, Garm Hawa is a marked contrast in its
of a middle-class Muslim business family as it confronts suspicion, tone, texture and style from the romantic affect generated by earlier
communal hostility and economic boycott from the larger Hindu examples of the Muslim Social.
community in the wake of the South Asian holocaust. Located within The opening shots are a marked contrast to the openings of
and addressing the social fall-out for Muslims of the political conse- classic films of the genre. The weight of the historical moment is
conveyed by a poignant use of iconic photographs of the experience Fig. 6
of the cataclysm of 1947 (Fig. 1). Images of overcrowded trains, the
exodus of refugees on their journey of exile (Figs. 2, 3), the historic
events that marked the moment (Figs. 4, 5), and animated images
of the assassinated Gandhi's body falling as he dies (Figs. 6, 7, 8) are
used by Sathyu along with Kaifi Azmi's poem about the Partition:
Taqseem hua mulk (When the land was divided
To dil ho gaye tukde Hearts were shattered
Har scene mein toofan A storm raged in every heart
Wahan bhi tha, yahan bhi. It was the same there as here. Fig
Ghar ghar mein chita jalti thi Pyres burned in every home
Lahrate the sholey Flames leapt to the sky
Har sheher mein shamshan Cities became cremation grounds
Wahan bhi tha, yahan bhi It was the same there as here.
Na Gita ki koi sunta No one paid heed to the Gita
Na Quran ki sunta Or to the Quran
Hairan sa imaan A stunned integrity
Wahan bhi tha, yahan bhi. It was the same there as here.)
Fig. 8
Thus, at the very beginning, the film articulates the emotional
texture of the displacements and migrations, the division of hearts,
the storm within and the burning pyres without - all signifying a
disgraced and dishonoured humanity. The evocation of Gandhi
underlines the tremendous irony of the moment when his sacrifice
seems to have been in vain. Gandhi's martyrdom had brought a
sudden end to the communal violence that had continued for months
Fig. 2 Fig. 3 after the bloody birth of the two nation-states, but the prejudices
 284 Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema Garm Hawa 285
Fig. 13 Fig. 14
and, ultimately, despair. Salim Mirza (Fig. 11), a small-scale shoe
Fig. 10
manufacturer, is threatened by the arrival of Hindu refugees from
Fig. 9
Pakistan - those who had been in the shoe manufacturing business
and hostile attitude against Muslims had not really been erased. there, and who, with their sharp business sense, had cornered a large
Caught between the desire to remain rooted in ancestral space share of the market for themselves. The large-scale migration of his
and traditions, on the one hand, and on the other, the need to carve Muslim workers to Karachi cripples Mirza's business even further.
out an alternative trajectory by moving to Pakistan and hoping for With the departure of his brother Halim's family, Salim Mirza's credi-
new opportunities, the Mirza family's tragedies become symptomatic bility with his creditors plummets and prior relationships of trust
of the dilemmas of the Muslim community at the time of Partition. and dependability can no longer be counted on (Fig. 12). It is not
The tongawalla who sympathizes with Salim Mirza (Balraj Sahni) just that Hindu businessmen and financiers are sceptical of Salim's
as he drives him from the railway station after Mirza has seen off his ability to pay them back or even survive in the changed business
sister's family on the train to Pakistan (Figs. 9, 10), has an apt com- environment, but also that that there is back-stabbing within his
ment on the displacements they are witness to that gives the film its own community. Salim's brother-in-law, Fakhruddin, has no qualms
title. The hot winds that are blowing through their lives will ensure about exacerbating suspicions about Salim's reliability in order to
that those who are not uprooted will wither away in the heat. How- garner business for himself (Fig. 13). The economic situation begins
ever, as a choric commentator on the betrayals of the time, the tonga- to close in on Salim Mirza's family.
walla also testifies to the feelings of rootedness and belonging that At the same time, the Mirza family is evicted from their ancestral
have so far prevented people like him and Mirza from leaving for home. Since the house was registered in the name of Salim's elder
Pakistan. brother who has migrated, it passes into the hands of the custodian
Garm Hawa focuses with brilliant clarity on the relentless econo- of the state who has the right to disburse the property of Muslims
mic dislocation and hardship engendered by the Partition experience, who leave for Pakistan. Unlike the opportunistic Fakhruddin who
and upon its human cost: exile, the threat of deracination, suffering decides to join the Congress (Fig. 14) even though he had been a
staunch Muslim Leaguer before, Salim is unable to adapt to the
rapidly changing political circumstances. Leaving his affairs in the
hands of God, however, does not help Mirza. Having to give up
their ancestral home, the family is rendered homeless in their own
country, and forced to move in as tenants into much smaller accom-
modation.
Victims of historical and political forces beyond their control,
the Mirza family finds itself increasingly isolated. Stigmatized by
Fig. I Fig. 2 and alienated from political formations like the Shoe Manufacturers'
286 Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema Garm Hawa 287
Association, Salim is unable to find finance either for production or
to bid for official contracts or to deliver on the orders they have
secured. He also faces division within his own family. His elder son
Bakar Miyan, a partner in the family business, and to whom living
with self-respect and honour is more important than the emotional
claims of ancestral roots, decides to leave for Pakistan, tired of having
to struggle to live a life of dignity and earn his two meals a day.
Fractured families, the fragmenting of loyalties between 'home' in
one country and displaced members of the family in another, and Fig. 16 Fig. 17
living lives of disconnectedness were a central feature of the conse-
quences of the Partition for Muslim families on both sides of the qayamat, the Day of Reckoning, if she deserts her ancestral home
border. (Fig. 15). Her pragmatic daughter-in-law Jameela, with a strong
The economic and social pressures on the JVtirza family gain sense of realities closing in and desperate to keep the family together,
emotional resonance and significance through the experiences and cannot imagine why her husband refuses to understand the relentless
responses of the central women characters of the film, especially logic of the times. By contrast, the old mother's sense of belonging,
Salim's mother (Badar Begum), his wife Jameela (Shaukat Kaifi) while outdated, is deeply affecting; for her there is no future apart
and his daughter Aamina (Gita Siddharth). Generationally, they from the past in which she is rooted, and the move to another house
represent the past, the tortured present and, perhaps, a still-born can only hasten her death. Lying in the alien house next to the win-
future. The old mother is the one who is most rooted in the film. dow from where she can see the old haveli, it is as if there is no
Unable to imagine a context different from the ancestral haveli into meaning in her life any more. Even death must wait, for her life is
which she came as a very young child-bride, she refuses to accept the trapped in the haveli from which she has been separated. It is only
verdict of history. She hides in a small store-room when they have when Salim has her carried to the ancestral home - she enters to the
to move, for she cannot imagine what answer she will give on sounds of her past life rushing back as an entire lifetime of memories,
and then looks around with the camera in a circular point-of-view
shot that follows her look and that of the others - that her soul is
free to be released (Figs. 16, 17).
The salience of place as an objective correlative of loss is also
evident in the story of Aamina through whom the gendered narrative
of the Partition experience is related. That women - their souls and
their bodies - bore the brunt of the horror of the holocaust, has
been established by researchers and oral narratives of the Partition
period. Unlike the recounting of acts of physical violence, torture
and rape that signified the typical experience of women during the
Partition, Aamina's is in many ways a very ordinary, though no less
moving, story. She is in love with, and engaged to be married to, her
cousin Kazim (Jamal Hashmi), Halim Mirza's son. But her dream
of having a simple home of her own is brought to naught with
Halim Mirza's family migrating to Pakistan. Even when Kazim goes
against his parents' wishes and returns secretly, hoping to marry
Aamina (Fig. 18), their union is prevented by the new laws of the
Fig. 15 Indian state according to which Kazim, now a foreign national, Fig. 19
288 Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema Garm Hawa 289
cannot come into the country without the required documents. He and personal,'the mise-en-scene charges individual loss and emptiness
has to be deported immediately (Fig. 19), leaving Aamina stunned with intense spiritual significance and comes to stand for the threat
(Fig. 20). Once she discovers that Kazim will have to marry in Pak- of the tragic deracination of a whole culture. It was not just place
istan after his deportation and will never return, she falls into a but an age-old cultural and spiritual heritage that was denied and
depression which is difficult for her family to address. After several lost during the displacements of the Partition.
attempts at diverting her and winning her confidence (Fig. 21), her In a grotesque replay of her earlier experience, Aamina once
other cousin Shamshad (Jalal Agha), who has been in love with again faces betrayal (Figs. 26, 27) when Shamshad is forced to leave
Aamina all along, is able to pull her out of her emotional nadir. for Pakistan with his parents, Fakhruddin and Akhtar Begum, who
Set against the breathtaking environment of Fatehpur Sikri, the depart under a cloud and to escape the law. She realizes that her
Panch M.ahal (Fig. 22), and the love story of Salim (Akbar's son, aunt has a double wedding planned in Pakistan for her son Shamshad
later Emperor Jahangir) and Mehrunissa (later Empress Nur Jahan), and daughter Mohsina; shattered by this second betrayal, Aamina
the nascent relationship of Aamina and Shamshad is touched with has no more hope. She shuts herself in her room and, placing her
a grandeur that history, ironically, will not uphold. They walk into wedding chunni on her head, imagining Shamshad in his wedding
Salim Chisti's tomb (Tig. 23) to the strains of a beautiful qawwali sehra (Fig. 28), and the strains of the qawwali resounding in her
(written by lyricist Kaifi Azmi, set to music by and sung by the well- ears while the memories of her love overwhelm her, she slashes her
known qawwal Aziz Ahmed Khan Warsi) that celebrates the Sufi wrist and lies down to die (Figs. 29, 30). The lyrics of the qawwali
saint Shaikh Salim, worshipped by Akbar and known for his power Fig. 27
to gift the desires of the heart. There is a poignancy to this relation-
ship underlined by the lovers' favourite meeting place, monumental-
ized in the grand image of the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan's memorial to
his love Mumtaz Mahal (Figs. 24, 25). Will the times allow for the
fulfilment of the lovers' desires? While the love story is individual
Fig. 22 Fig. 23
Fig. 24 Fig. 25 Fig. 29 Fig. 30 Fig. 31
 Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema Garm Hawa 291
290
evoking hope, abundance, joy, and a plea for honour and dignity The departure is not easy, and while the struggle may have been
are tragically ironic and ring hollow as her life ebbs away (Fig. 31). an internal one before, ironically it is physically difficult for the
With Aamina's death, Salim Mirza's powers of endurance are at tonga to pass through as well, for the road is blocked by a rally
their lowest. Prior to this, he had been able to stoically endure the against the economic indifference of the government (Fig. 36).
tremendous setback he suffered earlier during a communal clash Calling for the completion of the revolution, for ensuring employ-
when he was badly hurt (Fig. 32), and which resulted in his factory ment, food and shelter for the entire nation, the procession includes
being burnt to the ground and the fabricated charges of being a all of Sikandar's friends who accost him and demand to know why
Fig. 32
Pakistani spy. Despite his wife's urging, he had refused to leave the he is not with them. He looks to his father for tacit approval, jumps
country, saying that if he did, it would only confirm people's suspi- off the tonga and joins the crowd, shouting slogans with the others
cions. But with the death of his beloved daughter, it is as if his last (Fig. 37 ). Watching his son, Salim realizes that it is not possible for
emotional link with his homeland has ruptured. The smallest taunt a human being to struggle all by himself, and that he is fed up with
from bystanders in the market results in Salim suddenly deciding to the claustrophobia of his lonely life (Fig. 38). Asking the tonga-
leave for Pakistan. While Jameela can only mourn for the daughter walla to take his wife back (Fig. 39), Salim joins the procession and
they have lost, feeling that had they taken the decision earlier, Aamina
may well have been alive and settled in her conjugal home (Fig. 33), Fig. 37
Fig. 33 their younger son Sikandar (Farouque Shaikh) is against the decision.
From the very beginning Sikandar had been committed to staying
on, initially to complete his education and then as part of a larger
struggle against unemployment. Despite his lack of a Job and the
taunts he has had to face about his imminent departure for Pakistan,
Sikandar feels that the family must remain committed to fighting
shoulder to shoulder with the ordinary people for basic and funda-
Fig. 39
mental rights. But Salim can endure no more; wiping his tears as he
bids farewell to the Taj (Fig. 34) and his beloved homeland, he
locks up (Fig. 35) and gets into the very tonga that had taken him
to see off so many others.
Fig. 40
Fig. 34 Fig. 35
292 Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema
mingles with the crowd (Fig. 40) while Kaifi Azmi's voice recites the
final lines of the opening poem:
Jo door se toofan ka karte hain nazara
Unke liye toofan wahan bhi hai, yahan bhi SALIM LANGDE PE MAT RO
Dhaare mein jo mil jaoge, ban jaoge dhara
Yeh waqt ka elan wahan bhi hai, yahan bhi. 989
(For those who view the storm from afar
The storm exists both here and there.
Those who join the flow will become part of the struggle
This is the call of time, both here and there.)
The economic crisis that had begun to be strongly felt during
the early 1970s and the communal tensions resulting from riots like
those at Bhiwandi in 1970 were clearly important, though unstated,
motivations for this retrospective glance at what the Partition had
meant for inter-community relations, and for the pressure on and
hostility against the Muslim community. Yet, in 1973 it was still
possible to imagine the Muslim as part of a joint, democratic political
struggle for basic rights against a corrupt and inefficient state. After
G arm Hawa and as the decade of the 1970s progressed, this vision
became more and more difficult, and with the Hindutva movements
of the 1980s, it lay in complete shreds.
DIRECTOR Saeed Akhtar Mirza CAST
PRODUCER National Film Development Pa van Malhotra (Salim Pasha)
Corporation (NFDC) Makarand Deshpande (Peera)
WRITER Saeed Akhtar Mirza Ashutosh Gowariker (Abdul)
DIALOGUES Hriday Lani Rajendra Gupta (Aslam)
LYRICS Kaifi Azmi Neelima Azim (Mumtaz)
MUSIC Sharang Dev Vikram Gokhale (Salim's father)
CINEMATOGRAPHY Virendra Saini Surekha Sikri (Salim's mother}
EDITING Javed Sayyed
ART DIRECTION Gautam Sen
Women bore the brunt of the Partition: Aamina and her mother Jameela