- Meherjaan
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Meherjaan 
DVD coverDirected by Rubaiyat Hossain Produced by Ashique Mostafa (Era Motion Pictures) Written by Rubaiyat Hossain Starring Humayun Faridi
Jaya Bachchan
Victor Banerjee
Sharmili Ahmed
Shatabdi WadudMusic by Neil Mukherjee Cinematography Samiran Datta Editing by Sujan Mahmud
Mita ChakrabortyDistributed by Habibur Rahman Khan Release date(s) January 21, 2011 Country Bangladesh Language Bengali
Hindi
EnglishMeherjaan is a 2011 Bangladeshi feature film. A film about loving the other. This film critiques certain pitfalls of nationalism that create conditions to justify war, killing and violence. Meherjaan attempts to offer an aesthetic solution to war and violence.
Contents
Plot
A war is always made into a glorious narrative with certain male hero and villains. Women mostly appear as sacrificing creatures, mother and sisters who bravely let go of their men for the cause of the nation. Women also appear synonymous to the landscape, ready to be raped, plundered, and give their lives and izzat for the cause of the country.
History is always a creation of the present. We stand here, in our time and space, we look back in search of ourselves in the present time, and we piece together what we call history; stories of people who lived in the past. First of all, no one will ever know what it was actually like if one didn’t live it, however, there is at least one safe way to piece together a good enough contour of the past in order to comprehend the prominent political, socio-economic, cultural and spiritual forces at play during a certain chunk in time. This safe way is about making room for more than one voice. History has to be told, not only from the vantage point of the armed forces, the politicians, the freedom fighters, the men, rather, history has to be told from the voices of every other person that was left out, the old woman, the man who didn’t fight, and maybe a young girl who was coming of age and falling in love while the entire country plunged into hatred, killing, separatist emotions and nationalist turmoil.
The most intense love stories are those that are difficult to consummate. In Sufi philosophy love relationship between the divine and the devotee always remains fueled by the consciousness of the impossibility of union. The love story is driven by such impossible material conditions of union and indefatigable emotional desire to unite. Perhaps, the story of death, violence, trauma and loss can be best told veiled in love and romance. Korean author Noeleen Heyzer, in her writing about Korean Comfort women’s sexual slavery during World War II, offers an aesthetic solution to overcome history of violence. She suggests that we look beyond feminist studies for a “more powerful power,” a “power” which is “life sustaining, liberating, and transforming.”
While the world plunges into unlimited war and terror, we believe there is necessity to look outside the masculine ideology of nation-state and violence, in order to look for a feminine life sustaining language that is related to nature, beauty and love.
Cast
- Jaya Bachchan
- Victor Banerjee
- Humayun Faridi
- Sharmili Ahmed
- Khairul Alam Sabuj
- Monira Mithu
- Azad Abul Kalam Pavel
- Shatabdi Wadud
- Omar Rahim
- Shaina Amin
- Reetu A Sattar
- Rifat Chowdhury
- Iqbal Sultan
Suspension
The film has been suspended from viewing in Bangladesh. The film has been shown in many places worldwide. In November 3, 2011 a show has been arranged sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Boston, the South Asia Initiative at Harvard University, the Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights at UMass Boston, and the CARR Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government. Following the show, a panel of Boston-area academics set the stage for discussion.[1]
Notes
References
- Bangladeshi war film Meherjaan rekindles old enmities; BBC
- 'Meherjaan' a 3-nation film about women; Deccan Herald
- Meherjaan, 2011; FILM.fm
External links
Categories:- 2011 films
- Bangladeshi films
- Bengali-language films
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