Independence Day: 8 important films on partition that one needs to watch

'Chhhinamul' or The Uprooted was the first Indian film on the partition. The 1950 Bengali film was directed by Nemai Ghosh and revolved around a group of famers from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) who are uprooted from their homes and forced to move to Calcutta due to the 1947 partition. The film's accurate depiction of the pain that millions of people went through due to forced migration struck a chord with Russian film director Vsevolod Pudovkin who on his visit to Calcutta watched the film and was emotionally stirred. He eventually bought the print of the film and released it in Russia where it ran in 188 theatres. 

Filmmaker MS Sathyu's 1973 film is considered one of the most important films on partition. Featuring veteran actor Balraj Sahni as the patriarch of a Muslim family which decides to stay back in India after partition, the film accurately depicted the pains of separation from one's motherland and loved ones amid a changing society. The film remains arguably the best films made on partition and also featured Shaukat Azmi and Farooq Shaikh in prominent roles. 
 

Ritwick Ghatak's film in 1960 is considered a text book in filmmaking in film schools across the world. 'Meghe Dhaka Taara' was a story of a family of six who are forced to move into a refugee settlement in the suburbs of Calcutta as they migrate from East Pakistan due to partition. Ghatak's film showcased the human greed amid crisis where all family members gnaw on the sole earning member of the family, the elder daughter Nita who selflessly provides for her family foregoing her own happiness. The film is a masterclass in story telling and acting. 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' was part of Ghatak's partition trilogy and he subsequently made 'Komal Gandhar' (1961), and 'Subarnarekha' (1962), all dealing with the aftermath of the Partition of Bengal during the Partition of India in 1947 and the refugees coping with it.

The only TV show to make it to this list is Govind Nihalani's haunting partition drama 'Tamas' which was based on award winning novel by the same name by author Bhisham Shani. Featuring some of the stalwarts of Indian cinema including Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Dina Pathak, Deepa Sahi and others, the show aired on India's national channel Doordarshan in 1988 and narrated the plight of the Hindus and Sikhs in riot-ridden Punjab during 1947. 
 

Based on Khushwant Singh's famous novel, director Pamela Rooks - the plot has partition as its backdrop. Based on a fictional village on India-Pakistan border in Punjab, the plot has Muslims and Sikhs living in harmony in a village whose fate changes overnight when a train with mutilated bodies of Sikh and Hindus comes in from Pakistan. The film featured Nirmal Pandey, Rajit Kapur and Smriti Mishra in lead roles. 

Deepa Mehta's film was based on Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, 'Cracking India' and featured Nandita Das, Rahul Khanna and Aamir Khan in lead roles. Set in Lahore, it narrated the story of Shanta(Das) - a house maid in a Paris family in Lahore and her two admirers, Dil Navaz, the Ice-Candy Man ( Khan), and Hassan, the Masseur (Khanna) and how their lives change due to the partition. 
 

Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi presented a glossy version of Amrita Pritam's best selling Punjabi novel by the same name. Starring Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpayee, Sanjay Suri in the lead, the film was a romance drama set during the era of partition. It highlighted class divide in rural Punjab and was a story of Hindu woman reluctantly finding solace in the arms of a Muslim man who was once her abductor. 
 

Based on Salman Rushdie's award winning novel, the film helmed by Deepa Mehta, narrated the story of two babies born on the same day India attained independence who are swapped at the hospital. The film travels back in time to tell a haunting story of individuals whose lives change due to the political turmoil in the country.