FTII alumnus Gurvinder Singh’s film Anhe Ghore Da Daan (Alms for the Blind Horse) won three National Awards -- Best director, Best Punjabi film and Best cinematography -- last year. The film, which had the late Mani Kaul as its creative producer, is based on a novel by the same name by Punjabi writer Gurdial Singh. The movie, which was recently shown at the Habitat Film Festival, has won critical acclaim for its portrayal of a Punjabi village, the depiction of caste issues and the craft of its visual narrative. Singh spoke to TOI about the making of the film and about working and researching in Punjab.
Where does the title of your film come from?
It is derived from a mythological tale pertaining to the lunar eclipse. In certain parts of Punjab, the tradition is that those from the ‘lower’ caste go around asking for alms during an eclipse. They ask for alms in the name of a blind horse. That’s what the book by Gurdial Singh, on which the film is based, is titled. The film opens on the night of a lunar eclipse with a man asking for alms.
You travelled with a group of nomadic folk balladeers in Punjab for some time before you made the film. Did that influence your film?
I travelled with them between 2002 and 2005. I got a grant from the India Foundation for the Arts to document their ballads. Most of these balladeers come from lower castes. I had, by then, read the Gurdial Singh book. As I stayed on with them, the characters of the book started becoming more and more tangible to me. The linguistic and cultural nuances and dimensions of Punjab became clearer to me. I was born and brought up in Delhi so I did not know about the different dialects in Punjab. This film uses the Malwai dialect of Bhatinda. Not many Punjabi films deal with dialects like this, or even caste relations, for that matter. It was an eye-opener for me to see that the lower castes live separately and even have a separate Gurudwara.
How did the international and national response to the film differ?
At national festivals, people said they were expecting songs, dance or something about a marriage since this is a Punjabi film. The story is set in a village. All this cannot happen in one regular day. I can only include things that retain the mood of the film. This was the first film in Punjabi to make it to international festivals. In Munich we had four house-full screenings. People came up to me and said they had never been moved like this. They asked me how I managed to capture the inner anxieties of the characters. I could do that because the film moves at a very calm pace. Normally, you give information and quickly move on to the next piece of information to move the story forward. But something moves on after the information dies and the film keeps going.
In view of the expectation that people had from your film in the national circuit, what would you say about the way the Punjabi community is depicted in our pop culture?
Pop culture has its space. I don’t have a problem with it. Punjab was crying out for an alternate depiction. Such faces have never been shown before. These are regular villagers’ faces. I have never seen people spontaneously breaking into bhangra in a village. These are all clichés and stereotypes. My next film too is gritty and hard-hitting. It deals with the phase of militancy in Punjab in the 1980s. The balladeers I travelled with traditionally performed at night around a bonfire. But after the phase of militancy in the 80s, it became impossible for them. It’s not a subject that has been explored much. You could maybe count Maachis. But that also functions in a certain genre. As for the violence and riots during the Partition, Tamas is the only film that comes to mind.
We don’t have much on that, surprisingly.
The Partition has harmed Punjab so much. It was more a partition of Punjab and Bengal than anything else. When I went to Lahore for a screening I felt in sync with the rhythm of that place. The food was like home food, I was very comfortable with the way the language (Punjabi) was spoken there. Most of Punjabi culture and Punjabi intellectuals, the writing in Gurmukhi moved across the border. The state is still reeling under the blow of the Partition. There is still a nostalgia for undivided Punjab. People kept asking me when the border would be razed. The falling of the Berlin wall shows a political maturity. I don’t feel our political class is mature enough to ease movement across the border, allow a freer cultural exchange. We have to get over our paranoia.
There is also a clear Mani Kaul influence on the film in the way you use silences.
Mani Kaul always used to say that cinema is not a visual medium but a temporal one. He would always give examples from music – you need that to understand the concept of duration. As creative producer of the film, he saw the first 10 minutes of the edit without the visual track and suggested edits. And then when he watched it with the visual track, he said it was perfect.
At any point during the making of the film or after you got the first few reactions, did you feel that it could win national awards?
No. I was expecting best Punjabi film, but not best director. Our cinematographer has done a fantastic job, he too won an award for this film. It is not an easy film for many people. When people ask me what the film is about, I say it is about cinema. It is a serious way of looking at cinema and representation.

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