Darkness
Synopsis:
Tamas ( Darkness) (1987) is a period television film directed by Govind Nihalani, based on the Hindi novel of the same name written by Bhisham Sahni (1974), which won the author the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975.
The film was first shown on India's national broadcaster Doordarshan as a mini-series and later as one-off 4-hour-long feature film. It was also shown on History TV18 as a series in the month of August 2013.
The film is about the massacre and exodus of Sikh and Hindu families to India, in the backdrop of riot-stricken Pakistan, at the time of Partition of India in 1947. It shows a gruesome side of politics, and the compassionate side of humanity that survives any carnage.
Pre-Independence India, on the cusp of freedom; suspicion, pent-up ire, religious fervour fills the air, & then the unthinkable happens; a dead pig is found at the doorsteps of a mosque in, Jalalabad, propelling a frenzy of seamless violence that engulfs scores of Hindu, Muslim & Sikh lives in its ravages. In spite of the best efforts of the well meaning from the warring communities to salvage the situation the spark soon morphs into a huge, wild fire that claws into the fragile communal situation. Bestiality prevails as man slays man with all the ruthless energy in him. Tamas, throws light on how communal prejudice can scar generations of lives throwing them into a bottomless abyss of physical and psychological agony recovery from which is slow and excruciating.
Starring:
Om Puri
Deepa Sahi
Amrish Puri
Ila Arun
Surekha Sikri
Uttara Baokar
Others
Director: Govind Nihalani
