The partition of India was one of the bloodiest events in history, thanks in parts to the imperialists British, and thanks in part to our own fanatic differences between religious communities. Scores and millions of people lost their lives, while tens of millions were displaced in one of the biggest exodus in history. Houses burnt, children killed, women raped, women disgraced, everything was in a state of conundrum. The horrors of partition have lived on tell gory tales in magnificent works like Train to Pakistan, Tamas, Freedom at Midnight and many other celebrated works. Anita Pritam’s Pinjar too happens to be the less famed one of them.
Most of books implode on a similar theme – describing the horrifying the events of partition with an element of hope within. Pinjar looks at the society during the partition from a woman’s eyes. And thus lives on to tell a tale of a woman, Puro, and her life.
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Puro is that everyday girl who lives a life that every girl normally would do. Her father is about to get her married to a family in nearby village, while at the same time accepting a bride for his son. Things turn sour for Puro when an age old enmity between two families enforce Rashid to kidnap Puro and keep her a slave for 15 days; a favor which Rashid returns for having to bear the stories of his women ancestors having the same fate at the hands of Puro’s ancestors.
Deprived, Repressed and Rejected, Puro has nowhere to turn to except Rashid, who by then realizes that an eye for an eye only made each other blind. He marries Puro and accepts her in his life as the woman of his life. To keep things safe between the burgeoning trifles between Hindus and Muslims, they change villages, and Puro becomes Hamida, thereby deleting the very identity of her. What is left of her though is her Pinjar (Skeleton) trying to bind her life.
There on, it’s a story of Redemption and Acceptance between two people bounded not by love, but by fate. However its not her too who tries to tie her life up, but its Rashid too who tries to make amends for his ghastly mistake. It is in Rashid’s redemption and Hamida’s acceptance of her life with Rashid that simply drives home the point – beyond the boundaries of crumbling society lost within itself trying to stabilize itself, lies love.
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Much has been said about women’s plight and Pinjar being about a woman’s social status and plight of women in the era; however I view the movie differently as a movie about redemption and acceptance. Pinjar may show the women’s