Meeting Sarah Singh a couple of days after the screening of ‘The Sky Below’ in Singapore, it is the petite painter-photographer-film maker’s pulsating, animated energy that dominates.
She is casually dressed in a white shirt sleeves rolled till her elbows, jeans and pointed closed shoes. Her shoulder-length hair is tousled, while a friendship bracelet and a large watch are on either wrist as are two square rings on her fingers. And the deep dimples on a face sans make-up complete her appearance. She smiles easily so the dimples come into play frequently.
Why would a young, 37-year old Indian-American be interested in doing a documentary related to India’s partition (62 years ago) one wonders. Sarah delves into her early years which kind of explains her “returning to my roots” philosophy.
“I was born in Patiala (into the royal family of the erstwhile princely state of Patiala which makes Capt. Amrinder Singh, former Chief Minister of Punjab, her cousin). When I was 2-1/2 years old, we (my two older sisters and I) moved to the US. My mother who is American came to India with the Peace Corps when she met and married my father who is from the Patiala royal family. It was quite an interesting mix which did not survive. Since 1974 I have been in North Carolina and went to Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore as I was keen on drawing and painting from the time I was about 11 years old,” Sarah recalls.
After University she came to Mumbai in 1994 and lived there till 1997 as her mother had taken a posting in Mumbai, going back to India almost 20 years after she had left it.
Sarah spent a few years travelling across India, photographing and “exploring my roots”. Her three-years stint culminated in her first solo painting exhibition at Prithvi Theatre in Juhu in 1996. It received excellent response for a new face on the art scene as within the first hour of opening her works practically all sold out. That is where she met Sanjna Kapoor who is the narrator of ‘The Sky Below’ and came in after editing and putting in the sound work in order.
Returning to New York a year later she continued painting, photographing and exhibiting.
“But always at the back of my mind was this idea of working with the medium of film. Obviously the next step was looking for a subject and inspiration for this came from tales heard about the Partition from an event heard at the Asia Society in Manhattan.
“But I never thought I could do it. Whatever genre or type of film, it required attention to so many layers so many aspects and elements that have to come together for it to work. Once having decided on the topic of the 1947 Partition I did view the possibility that like any art form over a period of time it sometimes loses its interest for people, or on the other hand its value sometimes increases. I feel with this particular kind of film actually will increase in interest over time as part and parcel of the film is oral history and a collection of memories of people who lived through a particular historical event of great relevance. Besides what could be a scoring point, but it is hard to say this, is that in a few years most of these people (interviewed and featured in The Sky Below) may not be there and the potential to capture their memories and experiences, in that sense, becomes imperative,” she explains.
Sarah says her first film was “a combination of many different things. One was an interest to go back to the subcontinent, to India, to see and explore the area where I was born and where much of my family is. The other was as an artist, as someone interested in aesthetics and multilayered cultures – this is one of the most remarkable places in the world to work with those layers. The other was that I had a very deep interest in visiting and understanding Pakistan which pre-dated any other impetus. It was also about going and seeing what Pakistan was about, and as an American trying to create a broader portrait of the region for people across the world who know very little about the Partition – and certainly in the case of Pakistan it was a country they would likely not go to.”
She says the seed was sown in 2004, when she attended a talk on the Partition by writer Bapsi Sidhwa at the Asia Society in New York. The subject was alien to her and it was the gut-wrenching experiences a man in his late-70s related that moved her. He talked about how as a 10-year-old he had lived in refugee camps in New Delhi. Sarah wondered: “How come I don’t know anything about this major historical milestone?”
That set the ball rolling and for the next year and half Sarah worked towards putting together the project. And she looked forward to meeting with people, and visiting India and Pakistan.
Her message and motive of ‘The Sky Below’ is of “not particularly about Partition, but whether it was a reasonable political situation over a long term with its fall-out (from Partition). In my mind, I wanted to explore the idea of why, we, with a history of over 5,000 years of civilisation live in the most ‘weaponised’ era in the world.”
The title chosen for her film, ‘The Sky Below’ is “a literal interpretation or perspective of a world turned upside down”.
Her movie raises some important questions and thoughts about post-partition and what is the result vis-a-vis six decades of Independence in India. For example, there is great pomp and show at the Wagah border and frenzied cheering from either side – but today, is this relevant? Should it be encouraged to give an emotional high to people on either side of the border?
A one-woman crew, armed with “two cameras and a backpack”, Sarah filmed her movie “in an unobtrusive way that was casual and not intimidating”. Perhaps that is why she got such candid footage.
She shot 180 hours of footage which was edited down to 75 minutes, and interviewed 75 people from all walks of life but eventually only retained 33 of the men and women she spoke to.
Language was a problem for the non-Hindi speaking director / producer. But that too was overcome with strangers coming to her help.
Funding was a major problem. She says, “I only had a portion of the budget and was on the verge of giving up as I had no prospects for the remainder of the money required to really complete the filming stage. Then a miracle happened – I encountered Siddharth Shriram of the Shriram Group. He obviously believed in my project and offered funding.”
Evidences of the horrors of this needless division are shown through a series of blurred photographs which many of my generation have seen in documentaries on the Partition and even in some Hindi movies made in Bollywood. But combining them with interviews of people who lived through those times makes it more realistic.
The range of people voicing their thoughts on the subject include from the common man to well known and respected personalities – their comments, interestingly depending upon which side of the border they are in now. Among them historian Romila Thapar points out that “ancestors have a way of coming back”, and Ashish Nandy reminds us that historically genocide happened among people who lived together and knew each other well – as in the case of Germans and Jews and Tutsi and Hutu tribes in Rwanda.”
There are many who would agree with the man who remarks “it (Partition) is the best thing that could have happened”.
The last scene is powerful – that of a cyclist pedalling against the wind and the stark black frame of a boatman rowing backwards in the River Sutlej which flows through both India and Pakistan – and you are left with the thought – was this Partition really necessary? And what have we achieved as two separate nations - 60 years later?
Next? Sarah reveals, “It’s a total turn around from the documentary. I want to make a bilingual [Hindi and English] feature film. The storyline and synopsis are ready. Set in pre-partition 1940s, the suspense thriller will focus of certain tenets of suspicion happening within the centre of power – a portrait of decline since the centre of power is obviously shifting at this most eventful of times in the Subcontinent. The character of the princess is inspired by a member of my family.”
