Mammo : A life burdened under the two nation experiment of Mr Jinnah
Mammo was not the only one whose life was destroyed by this experiment of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and she merely represents several thousands of people who lost the most important aspects and joys of their precious lives because of Mr Jinnah’s cynical experiment based on two nation theory.
Political leader Mr Jinnah was completely failed and so was his experiment. If religion could be the reason to make Pakistan a different nation for muslims then there was no need for Bangladeshis to struggle against the Pakistan and to establish their own country. After all both the countries are muslim countries. Existence of Bangladesh defies and ridicules the 2 nation theory of Mr Jinnah.
Mr Jinnah was sending fear to congress leaders that if Pakistan was not made then muslims would opt the direct action route and millions of people across the country would die in the riots and no street of any city and village would be left unaffected.
Partition was accepted to avoid this bloodshed only but it happened and it happened so brutally that humanity would always be ashamed by recalling this event.
Pakistan’s early childhood was filled with blood, mass murder and inhuman activities and since then nothing has remained as peaceful.
Pakistan’s birth has divided Indian society and its psyche perhaps for ever. People of India are wounded by this experiment and it has been condition of neither it can be swallowed and nor it can be thrown out. In anger its but natural for many people to say that why all the muslims did not go to the Pakistan when this nation was made on the basis of religion only?
Not that after the birth of Pakistan, India has not seen communal riots? When Riots have been the regular phenomena since 1947 then why leaders surrendered before the greedy and stubborn demand of Mr Jinnah?
It was not needed. Division could not stop the riots among Hindu, Sikh and Mulism communities. Pre-cautions did not help anyone.
A united India could have been much stronger, wealthy and prosperous inspite of these riots as then India was not supposed to keep focus on a small but naughty neighbour. India’s happiness, sadness and progress could have been different if it was not divided in 1947.
Partition was a mistake.
It could have become a good decision if Pakistan would have learnt to live like a free and healthy nation which was not suffering from any inferiority complex. But this did not happen and fanatic groups in Pakistan have not allowed peace wanted common people to live normally and they have not allowed people of Pakistan to establish a healthy relation with India and Indian people.
If Pakistan had around 15% Hindus in 1947 then they have been reduced to the level of less than 2% only. In Bangladesh also Hindu population has been reduced to the level of less than 10% only and post 1992 hindus have been facing a lot of brutality in Bangladesh.
Mammo is not made in Pakistan or Bangladesh but in India.
Millions of people were born in Indian territories and later they migrated to Pakistan. India and Pakistan could have remained good neighbours if Pakistan had remained satisfied with its existence but it could not happen and Pakistan always behaved like an enemy and result is the suffering of people like Mammo.
People, who want to travel freely in the territories of both the nations without any problem, suffer because of this enmity between India and Pakistan. Resources of both the countries have been wasted on fights and cherishing this enmity between them. This futile fight goes on and on.
Mammo is the lost connection between human beings. She is the victim of money and power hungry people and system.
In Pakistan Mammo is thrown away by the family of her husband once he is died. She comes to India and takes shelter in the house of her elder sister Fayyaji, who lives with her grand son Riyaaj. Once she is thrown out by Fayyaji and Riyaaj also. She is thrown out of India by police and is sent to Pakistan. There is no clue where she has gone. Many years later she comes back and she takes law in her hand as she has to survive as she likes.
She becomes dead on the papers and before the authorities of India and Pakistan but she lives with now grown up Riyaaj and Fayyaji.
But how long? We don’t know we can guess only till somebody complains about her. Film is having a happy and dramatic and filmy ending where she has come back.
Navman Malik’s TV serial, telecasted on DD, Neem Ka Ped, where Pankaj Kapur had played the lead role of an old man Dukhiya, had shown this angle where a muslim friend of Dukhiya comes from Pakistan to stay back in his village where he was born. Dukhiya’s politician son, sees a good opportunity and he conspires in such a way that old man is arrested and sent back to Pakistan.
Mammo represents that person of a generation who wants to establish connection with every person in her vicinity or coming in to her contact. Her personal grief does not make her permanently a gloomy, bitter or a closed person. Memories of her beloved husband are with her after his death but she knows how to live happily without getting any burden of sad events happened in her life.
She knows how to enjoy this very moment. Other people are not like her and they don’t understand her so after a certain time they try to drag her down by insulting her. She denies to be dragged down.
Only legal issues are not there but in social and personal life also others can not bear such a cheerful person among them because her very presence brings frustration to them. Why she is not like others, becomes the big issue?
Be it Riyaaj or her own elder sister Fayaaji or family of her in laws in Pakistan, she is insulted time and again by her relatives because she is not selfish person like them.
Love and possessiveness walk with matching steps and they often come in a single package and then jealousy and other weaknesses appear as aftermaths.
Fayyaji fears that Mammo may replace her place in the heart and mind of Riyaaz. She witnesses that Riyaaj has started enjoying Mammo’s company and she becomes jealous and hence violent in her approach towards Mammo.
When Riyaaz insults Mammo under his anger then Fayaaji gets a good opportunity and she also attacks on Mammo and insults her.
Fayaaji and Mammo are real sisters but life has brought them at this stage where first Fayaaji comments,” In chhote flaton mein itanee jagah kahan hotee hai” and later she insults Mammo by saying,” Ye tumharee shuru se kamee rahee hai ki tum jahan jaatee ho wahan apna haq jatane lagatee ho. Tum yahan mehman ho”.
Mammo is a big and kind hearted woman and she does not take much impact of Fayaaji’s sayings and tries to calm Fayaaji down.
Riyaaj comments,” Tum dono ajeeb ho, ek minut mein ladtee ho, ek minut mein phir se sulah kar letee ho”.
Fayaaji says,“Tujhe nahin pata, upar tale ke bhai behanon mein aisa hee hota hai“.
Fayaaji wants to help Mammo but she does not want that Riyaaj should love Mammo in equal manner as he loves her.
This fear results in a conflict inside her and her feelings are divided.
Casting is superb.
Fayaaji’s character is quite complex and Surekha Sikri simply lives the character so beautifully.
Himani Shivpuri as Anwari, who is the rich sister of Mammo and Fayyaji is good choice. Anwari takes air and is busy in showing off her attitude and wealth.
Amit Phalke as a boy Riyaaj and Rajit Kapur as a grown up Riyaaj have made Riyaaj live before us in a fictionary story.
As always Vallabh Vyas is effective in small role.
Farida Jalal as a good hearted and cheerful Mammo is fantastic. She often had played a bubbly girl who was either sister of hero or heroine or who was friend of heroine during first phase of her acting career.
In her second phase in early 90s she started playing mother of hero or heroine. She displayed her comedy skills in TV serial Dekh Bhai Dekh also.
In Mammo she gets a career defining role. It can be said that before Mammo came her way she was doing riyaaj (Practice) in the field of acting. This role was waiting for her.
Mammo and Farida Jalaal share same bond as Balraj Sahni and Garam Hawa share. Both the actors have become synonymous with their respective films.
It was not going to affect reputation of Farida Jalaal if she had left working in films after Mammo. An actor has to move ahead his career by doing films and this is the source of his earning also.
It may always be difficult for Farida Jalaal to get another role of such a calibre as she had got in Mammo.
Birds don’t divide the sky. They cross the boundaries when climatic conditions become adverse for them.
Somewhere Mammo is forced to break the law. She can not understand that she can not live in a country where she was born because she had migrated to other place which is now a different nation.
Not a great story and script but Mr Benegal’s deft direction successfully makes it visually a good film. Hitchcockian references don’t appeal much. It looks forced to see Riyaaj getting Truffaut’s book on Hitchcock. These portions look like imposed on the story for the sake of some childhood memory or by taking a clue from somebody’s teenager days.
Film excells like other films of Shyam Babu in the meritorious depiction of human behaviour in different circumstances.
Mammo’s never tiring attitude is so visible in the scene where she tries to make a connection with the police inspector also and tries to win him by her good behaviour and sweet talks. Inspector does not want to be cordial with a woman belonging to Pakistan but her persistent and genuine efforts force him to smile.
Very special scene and there are quite a few of such memorable scenes in the film.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I remember watching this film long time back in Doordarshan.The boy who played the young Rajat Kapoor was also good.This one is my personal favourite of Shyam Benegal only after Suraj Ka Saatwan Ghoda.Farida Jalal was good in the author backed role but according to me Surekha Sikri was brilliant.I have always been her fan.But apart from the Shayam Benegal movies she is not seen much.She got the national award for this movie.I also wanted Farida ji to get the best actress national award.Too bad she missed it.
farida jalal won the filmfare in the critics best actress category. the film also won the national award for best film.
it was a gr8 movie depicting the impact of partition on common lives, how relations get strained b’cos of decisions taken by leaders who only think of immediate gain and not the long-term misfortune :(
@Anindya,
True Surekha Sikri is not seen much but whatever little work she has done in the films is noticeable.
Leave alone her work in the films of Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Prakash Jha she was so good in Raincoat and one film (I cant recall the name of the film) where she had played the grandmother of Imran Hashmi.
The way she said, dambuk, and all other abuses in her dialogues was hillarious.
Few people like her are more in to the theatre world and less into the cinema world.
Hopefully she also gets some title role in coming years.
@crazyrals,
Jaisi praja waisa raja or vice versa,
Kou nrip hoyee hamein ka hani, can harm sometimes.
Present remains confusing and only few can see through it in a sane and wise way but times come when these guys are in absolute minority and crowd takes the central stage. Something like this might have happened in those years also.
could not really tell whether it was a film review or just an opportunity to express political opinions on the partition.
As far as the partition is concerned, I think we are being very immature and naive if we blame the whole fiasco on one person..a more balanced view based on different historians and their accounts is what is required. This kind of character assassination and silly jingoism is not going to help anyone’s cause.
@Faraaz,
You could not differentiate because you remained hooked on the name of Mr Jinnah, Who might be a hero for you so after reading that reference you could not see the connection between the background of the birth of Pakistan and story and life of the character Mammo.
I dont know you belong to India or Pakistan as that may make a lot of difference in your reading things as they are.
Mr Jinnah was a political leader and his actions would have given political results and hence opinions have to be political.
I dont know if you have seen the film. If you have seen the film and still cant see the connection between two things ( Mammo and birth of Pakistan) then its futile for me to mention anything.
If you have not seen the film then:
Mammo describes to Riyaaj about partition and the horrible things she had seen during the riots. She motivates Riyaaj to write from his observation and experience in life.
Mr Khalid Mohammad, the writer of the film, has left this area while dealing with such a sensitive topic.
Why Mammo was ousted from India?
Same story could have taken place in Bombay before 1947?
What was the basis for such a story to happen in the horizon of India (and Pakistan).
What is the basic point?
It was not Hindu and Muslim issue. Fayyaji lives in India. Anwari lives in India and does good business and enjoys richness. Why on earth only Mammo, who is the best humanbeing among three sisters, had to face the consequences of partition?
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What is character assassination?
Would you take responsibility of Mr Jinnah’s call for direct action which resulted in the killing of many people across the country, (then united India).
If someone writes about Mr Jinnah’s life and writes that he married to Ratti, who was the daughter of his friend, then will it be false?
Its a fact.
He did many things which are said to be Haraam, in Islam,
if someone writes about his personal life, then will it be an attempt to assassinate his character?
Am I (or anybody can be) responsible behind his revamping after 1927-28?
Is it others fault if he left moderate and sensible route and became a fanatic political leader?
If account of his last 20 years will be written then they will be assessed as per his actions done in those two decades and his so called liberal attitude, which he maintained till 1927, can not be superimposed on his later years. That is not an honest evaluation.
One of my PFCian friends, sent following story to me.
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NAKED LUNCH: Blow Daddy
Daddy?
Yes, son.
Are we going to have a war with India?
Perhaps.
Oh, goody. We will thrash them, right? Like we did in 1857!
It wasn’t in 1857, son.
Oh, okay. But whom did we thrash in 1857?
The British, son…
And the Hindus too, right?
Well…
Did Quaid-i-Azam fight in that war along with Muhammad bin Qasim and Imran Khan?
No, son. The Quaid and Imran were born much later and Muhammad bin Qasim died many years before.
Then who ruled Pakistan in those days?
There was no Pakistan in those days, son.
But there was always a Pakistan! It has been there for 5,000 years!
Who have you been talking to, son?
No one. I’ve just been watching TV.
It figures.
Daddy, why are all these people against us Arabs?
Arabs? But we aren’t Arabs, son.
Of course we are because our ancestors were Arabs!
No, son. Our ancestors were of the subcontinental stock.
Sub-what?
Never mind.You seem to like wars, son.
Yes. I like to watch them on TV.
But real wars are fought outside the TV, son.
Really? How is that possible? What sort of a war is that?
Never mind.
Daddy, you look worried.
Of course, I am, you little warmongering punk!
Daddy! Why are you scolding me?
Because TV is talking rot and so are you!
Daddy, are you supporting Hindus?
No!
Daddy, have you become a kafir?
Keep quiet! No more TV for you! Go watch a movie on DVD or listen to a CD.
Can’t do that.
But we have so many DVDs and CDs, son.
Not any more.
What do you mean?
I burned them all.
What?!
I burned them all.
I heard that! But why?
They spread obscenity.
Oh, God. Son, go do your homework. What happened to that science project you were working on?
It’s almost complete.
Good boy. What are you making?
A bomb.
What?!
A bomb.
I heard that! But why?
Because I am a true Muslim who hates America.
But only last week you wanted to go to Disney Land.
That’s different.
How come?
Mickey Mouse is Muslim.
No, he isn’t.
Is so. He converted when he heard azaan on the moon.
On the moon?
Yes. Because the earth is flat and…
What??
The earth is…
I heard that!
Daddy, do you want to see my science project, or not?
Gosh, that bomb? But your science teacher will fail you.
No, she wont.
Really?
Yes. I plan to blow her up as well.
God, what is wrong with you? Go call your mother!
She can’t come.
Why not?
I’ve locked her in the kitchen.
But what for?
A woman’s place is in the kitchen. I will not let her out until she covers herself up peoperly!
But she’s your mother!
She’s also a woman!
So?
So she should be hidden.
Hidden from whom?
The whole world and Tony.
Tony?
Yes, Tony.
But Tony’s a cat.
Yes. But he’s male.
Son, have you gone mad?
No. By the way, I’ve made sure Kitto starts covering up as well.
Kitto?
Yes, Kittto.
But Kitto’s a cat!
Yes. But a female cat.
But she’ll suffocate.
Oh, she’s already dead.
What?
She’s already dead.
I heard that! But how?
I buried her alive.
You what?
Yes. To avenge Tony’s honour. But now I will behead Tony.
But why?
To save mom’s honour!
Oh, God!
Don’t say that. Always say Allah.
What’s the difference?
Daddy, do you want to be beheaded too?
No!
Do you want to be stoned to death?
No!
Do you want to be flogged?
No!
Do you want to get your arms chopped off?
No!
Then stop asking silly questions. By the way, I won’t call you daddy anymore.
What will you call me then?
Whatever that is Arabic for daddy.
I don’t know any Arabic, son.
That’s because you are a kafir.
Who the heck are you to tell me who I am, you little fascist twit!
What’s a fascist?
An irrational, violent, self-righteous mad man!
W… aaaaaaa…
Why are you crying?
You scolded me.
Okay, I’m sorry. You have to be tolerant and rational, son. Now be a good boy and go read a book instead of watching TV.
I have no books.
Of course, you do. I bought you so many books.
I burned them.
What?
I burned them.
But why?
They were all in English.
So?
It’s a non-Muslim language!
But we are speaking English, aren’t we?
W… aaaaaaa…
What now?
Zionists made me forget my Arabic.
But you never knew any Arabic, son.
W… aaaa… yes, I did until you and mommy gave me the polio drops… aaaaa…
Okay, tell me, can you do me a favour?
Sure, dad.
Can you blow up something for me?
Oh, goody! Of course, dad. What should I blow? A CD shop, a hotel, a school…?
No, no, something a lot more sinister.
Mom?
No, no…
What then?
The TV set!
What?
Blow the TV set.
I heard that! But why?
Just do it!
I see. Dad?
Yes.
You’re so unconstitutional!
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