M A I N   N E W S

Film relives trauma of Partition
Bury the past, says ‘Pinjar’ star Urmila
Varinder Walia and Ashok Sethi

Actress Urmila Matondkar (right) and Ishaa Kopikar go to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Saturday. — PTI

Wagah, September 6
Even as the holocaust of Partition continues to haunt the mankind, the film ‘Pinjar’ (skeleton) makes an effort to relive the trauma of atrocities committed on millions of women.

The director of the film, Dr Chander Parkash Dwivedi, said the makers of this film based on a novel by Amrita Pritam have decided to approach the Government of Pakistan for arranging a premier show across the Wagah. The music of the film was released at the Wagah joint checkpost today.

It is perhaps for the first time that the music of an Indian film has been released here. Hundreds of film lovers thronged the line dividing the two countries for a glimpse of the Bollywood stars. The Pakistani Rangers came forward to accept a bouquet from Urmila Matondkar and Ishaa Kopikar amid a thunderous applause from the huge crowd.

Newsmen jostled with this enthusiastic crowd to savour the music by Wadali Brothers and Uttam Singh. The checkpost was decorated with film posters and hoardings, which turned the Radcliffe Line into a spectacle of colours.

The director of the film presented the CDs and audio cassettes to officers and jawans of the BSF and posed for photographs with them.

Urmila, who has a lead role in the film, said it had been an amazing experience visiting the border and reliving the pain of her character — Puro. Later, at a press conference in Amritsar, Urmila said: “Let the past be buried.”

She said ‘Puro’, her character in the film, was a symbol of undaunted strength and women’s struggle during the Partition. Puro refuses to become a hapless victim to the communal politics. The present woman, she said, was more strong and liberated, though she still continued to suffer.

Urmila said she had learnt that a group of women who had been persecuted during the Partition still lived in isolation at Jalandhar. “I was keen to visit them, but could not do so,” she said.

The film is likely to be released nationwide on October 10.