The Punjab Trilogy by Ajay Bhardwaj

The Punjab Trilogy: Directed and Produced by  Ajay Bhardwaj.

1) The Punjab Trilogy ONE

Kitte Mil Ve Mahi / Where the Twain Shall Meet                                                                             

Year of Production: 2005/ Duration: 70 minutes /Documentary/India
Language: Punjabi with English Subtitles

It explores for the first time a unique bond between Dalits and Sufism in Punjab. In doing so it unfolds a spiritual universe that is both healing and emancipatory. Journeying through the Doaba region a window opens onto the aspirations of Dalits to carve out their own space. This quest gives birth to ‘little traditions’ that are deeply spiritual as they are intensely political.

2) The Punjab Trilogy TWO:

Rabba Hun Kee Kariye / Thus Departed Our Neighbours                                                              

Year of Production: 2007/ Duration: 65 minutes/ Documentary/India
Language: Punjabi with English Subtitles

It captures feelings of guilt and remorse about the genocidal violence of the partition in 1947 in Punjab’s countryside. For the first time a documentary turns its gaze at the perpetrators, as seen through the eyes of bystanders. While East Punjabis fondly remember their bonding with the Muslin neighbours and vividly recall its betrayal, the film excavates how the personal and informal negotiated with the organized violence of genocide.

3) The Punjab Trilogy THREE:

Milange Babey Ratan De Mele Te / Let’s Meet at Baba Ratan’s Fair                                                                                                                                          

Year of Production: 2012/Duration: 95 minutes/Documentary/India
Language: Punjabi with English subtitles

The film moves fluidly across time, mapping organic cultural continuities and a most imaginative transgression of rigid identities at the local level in Punjab. It’s a cultural terrain strewn with haunting memories of the violence of 1947; of separation from one’s land; of childhood friends lost forever; of anonymous graves in fields. Simultaneously, it resonates withan idea of Punjabiyat-a shared way of life in the average Punjabi’s everyday life. Nothing represents this more than the Qissa Heer, a love balled exemplifying a unique Punjabi spirituality identified with love, whose multiple manifestations richly texture this landscape. A caravan of seekers and lovers is joined by ascetic non-believers. A yearning for love and harmony turns into poetry against war and aggression.