Comments on: Amu

By: filmiholic

filmiholic — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:15:39 +0000

Raj, I am so sorry to hear that you had to live through that. If you really are keen to see the movie and are based in the US, you can buy it from a company called Nehaflix or you can rent it from Netflix.

Thanks for visiting.

By: Raj

Raj — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:10:55 +0000

I was 6 yrs old and in Delhi when 84 happened. I watched and am still haunted by all those unfortunate moments. I would like to see this movie, but it’s not available in the US.

I think a movie needs to be made about ’84 as a movie called ‘Bombay’ was made abt the muslim/hindu issues. The new generation needs to know what happened in the past to get them to where they are today.

I am a proud sikh and will always be one. May a painful death fall on those beasts that left so many children/mothers/fathers/sisters/brothers/friends scared for life.

By: sikhism pictures

sikhism pictures — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:50:19 +0000

Finally we acknowledge that it is equally as important to recognise and respect those people/individuals who have no religious belief.

By: yves

yves — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:06:03 +0000

Hi Maria,
I’ve added a link to your article on my blog, because of Shonali Bose’s comments on the censorship Board position, and also for the very intereting comments it has elicited.

By: Amu - Movie « Snap Judgment

Amu - Movie « Snap Judgment — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 03:53:30 +0000

[...] Filmiholic Â» Blog Archive Â» Amu [...]

By: solarider blog » Nov84 survivors blog

solarider blog » Nov84 survivors blog — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:27:55 +0000

[...] They also highlight a link that contains a description of the difficulties that Shonali Bose the maker of the film Amu had in trying to get her film past the Indian censors. Not because it contained nudity or violence but because the censors decreed that: Why should young people know a history that is better buried and forgotten? [...]

By: mai

mai — Thu, 24 May 2007 09:04:33 +0000

I am also a survivor of Delhi ’84. My husband, my son and six other members of my family were killed.

The censors are very stupid. This happened and it will never be forgotten. In my experience, young Sikhs, especially, are starving for this information, and nonSikhs are appalled when they learn about this.

The truth will be known. It won’t bring back the dead or unbreak our hearts, but it will never be forgotten and their deaths will not be meaningless.

By: Shashikant

Shashikant — Thu, 24 May 2007 05:23:54 +0000

I wonder why Shonali Bose took so much time for the movie release, assuming they, actually, are releasing. I watched this movie in Jan 2004. Four months later the Cogress came into power with the help of Karat’s party. Film has been critical of some of Congress’ leaders. Releasing the movie would have squarely jeopardized Karat’s stand.

By: Beth

Beth — Wed, 23 May 2007 20:04:05 +0000

Oof. Reading Simran’s comment leaves me all but speechless…. I am really impressed by Bose’s handling of the “objectionable” lines – silence can be so powerful – and disgusted by the Censor Board’s rationale, which is completely absurd. Thank you for talking about this movie – and some of its important back story.

By: Simran

Simran — Wed, 23 May 2007 13:48:45 +0000

I am Sikh. I was ten years old in November 1984. My father was visiting India to attend to his father’s estate, who had passed away the previous year. He was in Delhi. We lived in London. We didnt hear from him for seven days after Indira Gandhi was assassinated.

When I was old enough to understand he told me of some of the things he had seen, heard of, experienced. How he hid, escaped, heard of what was happening, the smells of fire and burning flesh, all those horrors.

I have since researched the events of those days, and it sent me into a deep depression to come face to face with humanity’s capacity for genocidal violence. The things that happened in those days of pogrom, as the police and Congress politicians let them happen, were so bestial and evil that to even describe them makes you feel a complicity with the Satanic. Women raped in front of their children then cut open with knives, women raped with knives and sticks, children’s heads smashed to pulp on the floor in front of their parents, housing blocks where hundreds of Sikh men were slaughtered in the space of an hour, blood dripping off balconies for hours like a waterfall, Sikh men women and children burnt alive, Sikh men set on fire as the pogromists laughed as they screamed and ran in pain trying to extinguish the flames, Sikh men having their intestines ripped out and their children pointing at their fathers asking their mothers ‘Why are there rassi (ropes) coming from Daddy’s tummy’? William Dalrymple describes how in the days afterwards the dismembered and mutilated corpses of hundreds of Sikhs lay decomposing in the Delhi sun as dogs grew fat eating their flesh.

All of these things happened, and more. I have wanted to watch Amu ever since I first read a review of it a couple of years ago. But I have never been able to, because I am too frightened of the pain, horror, sadness and anger that it may trigger inside me. I don’t want to be reminded of those things again.