Vancouver, Canada (June 25, 2014): Singer-turned- actor Diljit Dosanjh starer up coming Punjabi movie “Punjab 1984” was written and shot in India, but was produced by Vancouver-based White Hill Productions.
Anurag Singh, the writer-director of Punjab 1984, maintains the film is not political.
Set against the backdrop of the unrest in Punjab between 1984 and 1986, the movie is about “a mother’s search for her missing son,” he said.
Punjab 1984
“The story I have tried to tell is a story that is not part of headlines anywhere,” he says.
“It’s a story that maybe the larger media is not interested in. For them, these people are just figures – so many people are missing, so many people died.”
“Nineteen-eighty-four was a watershed year for Punjabis,” says Anurag Singh.
“I still remember Operation Bluestar. We used to live in a rented place close to the Darbar Sahib. I was on the terrace playing, and it was growing dark, when I started to hear noises. Then I saw the sky lighting up, traces of light criss-crossing the night sky. I thought it was firecrackers”, he said.
Many families still have no news of sons and fathers who went missing during the time, says Mr. Singh, who conducted extensive interviews with victims’ families.
“It was emotionally wrenching, listening to those stories,” Anurag Singh says.
“The grief, hurt, and even anger, it’s still there … They have tried to move on with their lives, but they still carry the photographs of those they lost in those times.”
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NOTE: Above write-up is based on excerpts from a detailed story published by the Globe and Mail. It’s published as above for the information of readers/ visitors of Sikh Siyasat News (SSN). Readers/ visitors may read also check full news-story published by the Globe and Mail at source page: “Vancouver-produced film Punjab 1984 seeks to humanize history”.