by NAYANIKA MOOKHERJEE
On 24 January 2011, while forwarding a set of email exchanges to me, relating to a recently released film in Dhaka, Meherjaan, my friend Khaleda exclaimed that I should watch the film. A three-nation film (including Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani actors), with a budget of Rs 2.5 crore, it starred Jaya Bachchan and Victor Banerjee from India, Omar Rahim from Pakistan, and Humayun Faridi and Reetu Sattar among others from Bangladesh. Directed by a young Bangladeshi female director, Rubaiyat Hossain, and billed as “loving the other”, the film depicts the lives of three women and their different trajectories during the war of 1971. Central to these three women is Meher who falls in love with a Balochi soldier of the West Pakistani army during the liberation war. The soldier rescues her from falling into the hands of the Pakistani troops and deserts the Pakistani army and the war. Neela, who is raped during the war, is outspoken about her experience of wartime rape and seeks revenge and fulfilment by joining the liberation movement. Salma, a clairvoyant, ultimately marries a liberation fighter. All these three women reside within the household of their grandfather – nanajaan – in a rural area while the war is being fought in Bangladesh. The film is remembered by the middle-aged Meher when Sarah – a “war baby” – Neela’s child born as a result of rape and given up for international adoption – returns from Germany to Bangladesh and starts asking Meher questions. Reactions to the Film Meherjaan was premiered on 18 January 2011, thereafter released on 21 January and screened to packed audiences in six theatres all over the country, and was finally taken out of the theatres on 2 February. The movie was sold out on all the days it had a chance to run. While a minority supported the freedom of expression of the director to show this film, viewers across generations– those who had experienced 1971 and the younger generation which had not experienced 1971 – responded to this film vociferously, particularly in response to the relationship between the Pakistani soldier and the Bengali woman in the midst of the liberation war.
Economic & Political Weekly for more
(Thanks to Robin Khundkar)