In an exclusive interview, filmmaker M S Sathyu reflects on the relevance of his film, ‘Garm Hava’, the politics of identity, and the challenges of filmmaking
“M S Sathyu reveals an acute eye for specific realities of the Indian experience, simply and directly registered,” wrote Verina Glaessner in the July 1977 issue of Monthly Film Bulletin (UK). Nearly five decades later, that precision remains intact. Mysore Shrinivas Sathyu, who turns 95 on June 6 this year, is still sharp, still asking difficult questions. Counted among one of the iconic filmmakers of Indian cinema, Sathyu’s most celebrated film, Garm Hava — his defining work — will mark its 50th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, the 16th edition of Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes), which begins from March 1, will be screening Garm Hava under the curated section of Indian films.
Garm Hava, which marked a significant milestone in Indian cinematic history, remains disturbingly relevant. Ask Sathyu, who was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 15th edition of BIFFes, about the film’s continued urgency in present-day India, and he answers without hesitation. “We are deep-rooted in religion, and our identity is invariably linked to it. Earlier, the problem was fundamentalism among Muslims. Today, it is among Hindus. The situation has not changed.” The clarity is bracing. He has never indulged in rhetorical flourishes or softened the truth to make it more palatable.
At an age when most retreat from public life, Sathyu remains engaged, a filmmaker who refuses to be reduced to nostalgia. His name still sparks curiosity, especially among those who seek him out for conversations on art and politics. He insists that the performing arts must remain a site of confrontation. “The performing arts have a responsibility to create space for debate on socio-economic and political issues. Otherwise, we will become completely immune to the crises the country faces,” he tells The Federal.
A man travelling through time
Cinema, for Sathyu, has been a method of intervention, a way of speaking when others choose silence. He still wants to make films, though funding remains an issue. “I want to keep making films as long as I can. The only problem is financing — it’s still hard to find after all these years,” he says, matter-of-factly. The irony is hard to miss. One of India’s most important filmmakers is still searching for resources, while lesser work is endlessly bankrolled.
Sathyu, along with Mrinal Sen, Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, helped reshape the landscape of Indian cinema. Incidentally, Ghatak’s film will also be screened along with Garm Hava at BIFFes this year. When he received the Lifetime Achievement Award last year, his reaction was simple: “I am delighted to receive the award for my little contribution to Indian cinema.” Sathyu smiles, exuding a strange, child-like quality — totally without guile. There’s a melancholic charm to him, a curious, enigmatic presence. Mystifying. His white beard bears the traces of a lifetime’s trials, and his face, ravaged by time, is almost beautiful — the face of an artist. Or a philosopher. Intensely shy yet provocative. A very private person, yet one who espouses the most public of causes. Given to politicising but steering clear of politics. This is Sathyu at 95. His persona has remained unchanged over more than six decades of engagement with theatre and cinema.
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Though he has made eight feature films, three telefilms, and four television serials, besides directing nine plays in his 60-plus years of creative work, Sathyu is best known for his post-Partition classic Garm Hava, a film that ushered in a new wave of art cinema in India. A post-Partition drama, Garm Hava resonates more than ever in our polarised present. Recreating the real world against a historical and political backdrop is Sathyu’s quintessential strength. He can only be compared to Mrinal Sen, who also dealt with issues that were essentially political in nature. Masood Akhtar has made Kahan Kahan Se Guzre (A Man Travelling Through Time, 2012), a documentary on Sathyu’s life and work.
Garm Hava, Sathyu’s first directorial venture, is based on an unpublished short story by noted Urdu writer Ismat Chughtai, with lyrics by Kaifi Azmi and a script by Shama Zaidi. It remains the most compelling cinematic exploration of the human aftermath of Partition. Nearly four decades after its release, Garm Hava was restored and re-released in 2013 across more than 100 screens in India. (The film was digitally restored, with its soundtrack remastered in Dolby stereo format.)
Exposing games politicians play
Garm Hava, in a way, is one of the most controversial films in the history of Indian cinema. Aandhi (Storm), directed by Gulzar, a timeless classic released around the same time, is also a political drama that faced controversy due to the lead character’s resemblance to Indira Gandhi, which led to a temporary ban and political backlash. Garm Hava, then, was promptly branded as pro-Muslim without even being watched. A fanatic organisation demanded the immediate arrest of Sathyu. Shiv Sena called for a pre-release screening to allow the film to be shown in Bombay (now Mumbai). Anticipating communal riots, the producers withheld the film’s release for a while.
Political leaders such as L.K. Advani accused Sathyu of receiving Pakistani funds to make the film. Garm Hava depicted the anti-Muslim hysteria that swept the country (in a manner similar to what is happening now under the current political dispensation) in the months following the Partition of India and Pakistan. “Anticipating communal riots, producers withheld the film’s release until after the elections. Despite the financial strain caused by the delay, Sathyu was unperturbed. It was his intention to expose the bogey, all sham of secularism,” wrote Arun Sachdev in an article published in 1981.
Sathyu’s reaction was also similar at that time. What he really wanted to expose in Garm Hava was the games that politicians play. However, Garm Hava did not unleash violence or resentment as anticipated by many. On the contrary, it left audiences more chastened and sympathetic to communal sensitivities. The film was a competitive entry at the Cannes Film Festival in 1974, becoming the first Indian film to feature there after a gap of ten years. Garm Hava won the National Award as Best Feature Film on National Integration.
Humanistic perspective
Garm Hava means ‘scorching wind’ that affected both India and Pakistan, which were carved out of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. The film, set in the microcosm of a Muslim family in Agra, gives a human dimension to our understanding of the larger event. It also has universal implications, reflecting the personal tragedies of lands and families, the questioning of loyalties, the inflaming of deep-rooted prejudices, and above all, the tearing out of centuries-old roots. Garm Hava is a powerful socio-political statement on the impact of Partition on Indian Muslims. It is one of the first Indian films to depict the social and psychological impact of Partition from a humanist perspective.
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“Wafaaon ke badle jafa kar riya hai/ Main kya kar riya hun, tu kya kar riya hai (You torment me in exchange for loyalty, what am I doing and what are you doing?)”. This meditative remark by a Muslim tangawala creates a spectrum of moods that the sequence encompasses at the very beginning of Garm Hava and leaves it as an open-ended question. From the very first scene, where Salim Mirza (Balraj Sahni) sees off a train with a hand gesture, somewhere between benediction and goodbye, the film inserts the audience into a world in which people are either leaving or thinking about leaving it — and if they are not, then there is someone telling them they ought to. Nevertheless, the film doesn’t for a moment suggest that all those who left after Partition were somehow opportunistic. Garm Hava is astute enough to show us multiple points of view.
An affecting portrayal of Partition
Unlike the corpse-filled trains that have become numbingly overused to symbolise Partition, given the country’s history of violence, Garm Hava shows how enmeshed religious identity is in the socio-economic climate. It is because of this vision that Garm Hava remains, nearly 50 years after it was made, the most affecting and nuanced film about the experience of Partition. There are many reasons why the film stands apart. First, there is sadness, but no rancour, and there are no villains. No one is portrayed as wholly evil. The film’s treatment is restrained, and the characters — mostly victims of circumstance — are real, vulnerable, and humane.
Garm Hava is not only Sathyu’s first feature film as a director, but also Farooque Shaikh’s first film and Balraj Sahni’s last. Sahni delivered an exceptionally subtle performance as Salim Mirza, an aging shoe manufacturer, who is the pivotal character around whom the film revolves. Though the film is set in Agra, it is framed through the idea of Pakistan — Pakistan here is an empty signifier, denoting nothing except departure. “Before shooting Garm Hava, I went to Agra, a place I had never seen before. This historic city, with its narrow lanes and bazaars, provided the perfect backdrop for the film I conceptualised,” says Sathyu.
Sathyu was inspired by Italian neorealism, especially the works of Vittorio De Sica, and this is evident in the use of real locations, a non-professional supporting cast to provide authenticity, a muted, earthy colour palette that reflected the bleakness of the story, and employing a semi-documentary style to capture Partition in its rawest form. For a generation, Garm Hava is a historical document, a piece of art, and a powerful social critique. By capturing the pain of Partition without excessive sentimentality, it remains one of Indian cinema’s most emotionally impactful and intellectually stimulating films.
