The historic and political vocabulary of Partition appears inadequate in capturing the fractured memories; separated hearts; nostalgia and a sense of futiliity. A more affect-driven and less historic, partition in lower case, imbues a range of articulations - graphic novels, cinema, art, painting, and of course literature. This course is interested in navigating the terrain of affect and partition through discussions on language; space; geographies but by focusing almost entirely on cinema. This provides the course focus on both the historical backdrop in the background; as well as the slow-moving processes of memory and lexicon-making that partition has affected. This course must be taken only if both things; partition and cinema interest students. We will watch films that foreshadow partition such as Padoson, to those that show the cleavages of self and community after partition (Garam Hawa), but also discuss the embedded sentiment of partition in themes of lost and found or broken families; and in more recent times, Salman Khan films such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
rita.kothari@ashoka.edu.in