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Salman Rushdie
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Winter 2003 Course Offerings
Film
CENTER FOR SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES FILM SERIES:
“Who are the ‘Midnight’s Children?’ ”
January–March 2003
Saturdays, 6:30–10:00pm
Natural Science Auditorium, 830 N. University Ave.
With the RSC production of Midnight’s Children as the centerpiece,
this January-March film series, also offered as a mini-course by the Center
for South Asian Studies, thematically delineates the cultural, political,
and religious background to contemporary South Asia in film.
The introductions and Q&A sessions that accompany the screenings will
lay the foundation for a complex understanding of how popular cinema may
indirectly contribute to widespread public perceptions of historical events
and political trends.
A website will be available for the series as well, which will include
stills from films, other visual resources, essays, newspaper articles,
and links to related sites.
All films have English subtitles. The course, Asian Studies 492, will
be taught by Poonam Arora, Co-Chair, Department of Humanities, UM–Dearborn.
All films and course discussions are free and open to the public. For
more information, contact the U-M Center for South Asian Studies at 734-764-0352
or
visit the CSAS film series web page.
January 11
Shatranj ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) (1977)
129 min/Directed by Satyajit Ray (India), English/Urdu
Shatranj ke Khiladi is included in this series for its representation
of feudal governance in 19th-century India and how the British East India
Company designed a “federalist” role for itself in South Asia
by wresting control of underdeveloped institutions such as a system of
uniform taxation and a standing army.
January 25
Garam Hawa (Hot Winds) (1973)
146 min/Directed by M.S. Sathyu (India), Urdu
The film depicts the critical choice that the Muslims of Agra (and by
extension, of northern India) confronted in 1947: whether to relocate
to the “promised land” of the Muslim state of Pakistan, or to
remain in the professedly secular state of India as a minority community.
What may be regarded as a virtually existentialist choice has vexed not
only the Muslims of South Asia in the mid-20th century, but also every
diasporic and Balkanized state since then.
February 1
Train to Pakistan (1998)
111 min/Directed by Pamela Rooks (UK/India), Hindi
A quiet village on the border of India and Pakistan in 1947 has an integrated
population of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs that has lived peacefully and
interdependently for generations. The partition of the subcontinent not
only makes this community rethink its identity, but also compels its citizens
to reevaluate their civic responsibilities and obligations to each other.
February 15
Bombay (1995)
130 min/Directed by Mani Rathnam (India), Hindi
A Hindu man and a Muslim woman get married against their respective families’
wishes and relocate to Bombay, a cosmopolitan city. The time period is
December 1992 when Bombay—along with many other urban centers—burst
into Hindu-Muslim riots over the demolition of the ancient Babri Mosque.
The film attempts to redefine the religious and political climate of the
times through the romance of a Hindu-Muslim couple. The film raises important
issues about the role that Bollywood plays in the management and resolution
of political conflict.
March 1–Part I
March 8–Part II
Tamas (Parts I and II) (1986)
297 min/Directed by Govind Nihalani (India), Hindi
Based on a story by Bhisham Sahni, himself a refugee from West Punjab
(subsequently Pakistan), Tamas was an important TV mini-series in the
mid-1980s. The series defied the collective amnesia about the partition
of the subcontinent into which popular culture had lapsed. The success
of the TV mini-series may be ascribed to the fact that it facilitated
the creation of a “healing” domestic space (where TV is usually
viewed) wherein the trauma and guilt of immigrant families could be revisited
after the repressive silence of four decades.
The film series is a UMS collaboration with U-M Center for South Asian
Studies, International Institute, and Film Studies.
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