Group Discussion (1-2)

Please see the lecture ppt at EngSite.

Basic Info. › Partition & Race relations › Women’s Roles › Kite Festival

Questions about Lenny, Shanta vs. Dil Navaz

Work Cited Next Week

conflicts [see lecture ppt.] film-chap 4 Discussion in the Park : --What's the news from the Viceroy's house?

-- I've heard Gandhi, Nehru, and Mountbatten are really tight.

-- Really?

-- If they are that close, who will champion us Muslims?

-- And who will help Jinnah Sahib?

-- Master Tara Singh and his bleating herd of Sikhs?

chap 2 –cracking jokes chap 6 -- bum licker or invisible

conflicts [see lecture ppt.] film-chap 11

Lahore (where the story took place): › Muslim as the majority; › Hindus owned most of its businesses;

Sikhs seen as “trouble” or “the fighting arm of India”

› When it becomes evident that Lahore will be part of Pakistan, most of the Hindus and Sikhs pick up and leave.

› Lahore – a border city, flooded with refugees

Dil Navaz – associated with poetry, performances

Hassan –quieter – “We lived as brothers…” “Our holy Koran lies in their”

Golden Temple in Amritsar.” -- Pacifism: “Our holy Koran lies in their

Golden Temple in Amritsar.”

Willing to convert

Surfacing conflicts in film-chap 11› Against the British culture represented by

Lenny (“English pudding”)› Stereotypical images of Sikhs (a history of

violence) › worries about Muslims left on the wrong side

–

The only alternatives [besides death and departure]: siding with the powerful› conversion; e.g. Hari convert to Islam

(chap 17), and Pappoo’s family to Christianity (chap 12, chap 20) (ref. Raisinghani 162)

Not always useful – Shanta --[chap 13] the Parsees aren't taking sides. Everyone knows that. As long as I'm with you, I'm safe.

-- [the end] Madame, tell Hasan!

(14 August 1947—Dominion of Pakistan)

Midnight of August 15, 1947Jawaharlal Nehru: “Tryst with destiny” speech

A site of contestation › the refugee scene –the boy’s mother › the life and fate of Shanta

In the novel, the raped women› gathered in a house, and, in case of

attack, burned themselves; › survived with a strong sense of guilt (e.g.

Shanta in a brothel and Lenny) (ref. Raisinghani 164)

In Lahore – “the city’s youth have sent thousands of brightly colored kites into the sky during the festival, held on a weekend in February or March.”

Vicious competition with strings made of wire or coated with crushed glass, which killed a lot of people.

Banned in 2006 because of the number of people dying of sharpened strings (source)

Cancelled last year because of the suicide attacks.

Ref. kite flying in Kabul in 2001, after being banned in 1996. (source)

The Sethna family 1 Narrator-- Lenny

Sethna 2 Shanta, the Ayah 3 Parents -- Bunty

Sethna

  Male characters

Hassan, the Masseur Dil Navaz, the Ice

Candy Man

The others (1) -- Mr. Rogers

The others (2) Imam Din – the cook

Pappoo

Mr. SinghSher Singh-- SikhHari / Himmat Ali

How does the Partition affect Shanta? Why does she get abducted by the mob?

How does the Partition affect Lenny?

1. Shanta2. Lenny3. Dil Navaz

1. Home2. Dinner3. Park (friends)4. Game5. Game (Kite)6. Home (Dance)7. Outside (Protest)8. Park (friends)

9. Wedding10. Meal

(friends)11. Home 12. Train

13. Conflicts on the street/Independence

14. Balcony and Home (Game)15. Birthday--Home (Doll & Refugees) (“Do you want to play marble” “Cake? What's that?”) 16. (Friends) Discussion Shanta with

Hassan

17. Home (Singh hiding)

18. Home (Getting Married)

19. Home (Mob attack )

20. Ending

Lenny - 2Shanta - 3Dil Navaz -5

What do they do? 1) Before the Partition 2) During and After the Partition

What do Others do or say about them?

How do they change

How are they involved in the Conflict

What do they say or think?

Among Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. e.g. fighting, killings, raping “the fallen

women” and ghost train.

Is it correct? It’s not about Muslims and Hindus, but something inside us.

Character Names: Dil Navaz -- the Ice Candy Man, Shanta -- the Ayah;  Hassan -- the Masseur,the Sethna family –as ParseesSingh –the Sikh.

Compare the characters of Hassen and Dil Navaz.

Discuss Dil Navaz’s changes in the film. Why do think the original novel is subtitled The Ice Candy Man?

1. Shenta’s role 2. Children

› The child bride (untouchable) saved by marrying a Christian dwarf;

› The Muslim refugee child (clip 14) › Lenny: unhappy birthday; breaking plate and

doll, nightmare

3. Describe Lenny’s perspective; What do you think about Lenny’s betrayal of Ayahat the end of the film?

Images and symbols: Lion, the statues, the park telephoning Allah, fire

Color – orange, red vs. darkness and fire

Statues the characters’ gazes (at Shanta)

A lively park to a desolate one Friends to enemies: changes of the

different meetings in the park and at night Parsees and sympathetic Muslims

(Hassan and the cook): powerless Poetry and love, to Violence, and then to

betrayal of trust Beauty and Marriage destroyed

Race and Cultural Differences; The roles of children and women. main symbols & Filmic techniques

(contrast and main colors)

Similarities -- partition: experience

something beyond our comprehension (e.g. 921 earthquake, 911)

-- Shenta: someone close (e.g. nanny) but from another class/race/nation

-- Ice-Candy man & love-triangle

--

Differences? -- no brutal racial

conflicts-- The personal

connected with the political

Raisinghani, Neelam. “Wounded India in Deepa Mehta's 1947-Earth.” Films, Literature and Culture: Deepa Mehta's Elements Trilogy. Ed. Jasbir Jain.  Rawat, 2007: 156-67.

“Back out in the open, Afghan kites fill Kabul's sky with colour ” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/back-out-in-the-open-afghan-kites-fill-kabuls-sky-with-colour-618690.html

Violence against Women http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ekGjg1sUw

“Pigs Can’t Fly”