Sanjam Preet
Singh
Through the
movie, Daljit crosses the regional barrier and sheds light on global
scenario of heritage conservation, which is no different from Punjab.
The filmmaker says, “At the screening of Seva in Bengaluru, a
scholar from Myanmar said it was a film about his country.” And why
not? Daljit crosses the regional barrier to talk about the global
scenario.
Documentary filmmaker Daljit Ami’s latest
creation, Seva, brings to light the unexplored field of conservation
and digitization of heritage
Bhangra, giddha
and phulkari and that’s all. This forms the popular narrative of
Punjabi culture. But there is more to the heritage of Punjab that has
been lying in oblivion. The crude reality is that manuscripts,
paintings and religious texts — the tangible heritage — never
become the points of reference to the rich Punjabi culture. What to
talk of their conservation and digitization.
Well,
documentary filmmaker Daljit Ami’s latest creation Seva, which was
screened in Chandigarh on Sunday, brings into focus this very aspect.
“The film is an introduction to the unexplored field of
conservation and digitisation of heritage and I act as a medium to
initiate a dialogue on the issue,” says Daljit. Indeed, he does so
by threading together different narratives.
The film
documents the untiring work of heritage conservationist Namita
Jaspal, who has been working to preserve old texts and manuscripts in
its original form. These days, she is working on an old text of Guru
Granth Sahib. Making an equivalent contribution is the Panjab Digital
Library (PDL), Chandigarh, working to preserve the information in
texts. Since its inception in 2001, the PDL has digitised and
uploaded on the Net nearly 8 million pages of manuscripts, paintings,
rare books, photographs, archives of magazines and newspapers, and
other rare books that were earlier in the private collection of
individuals.
Then there is a
narrative of those in Angitha (crematorium) Sahib gurdawars, where
old texts of any religion are ‘cremated’. Those managing the
Angitha Sahib gurdawars believe that religious texts are living
beings and so they have a lifetime. Once they are old, texts need to
be consigned to flames. Be it Guru Granth Sahib or Gita or Puranas,
religious texts from states such as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra
are sent to such gurdwaras near Paonta Sahib (Himachal Pradesh),
Patiala (Punjab) and Goindwal Sahib in Punjab’s Tarn Taran
district, to name a few, for their ‘last journey’.
Through the
movie, Daljit crosses the regional barrier and sheds light on global
scenario of heritage conservation, which is no different from Punjab.
The filmmaker says, “At the screening of Seva in Bengaluru, a
scholar from Myanmar said it was a film about his country.” And why
not? Daljit crosses the regional barrier to talk about the global
scenario.
The film refers
that the loss during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is not only in
terms of human lives but also in terms of heritage. The destruction
of Lord Buddha’s sculptures in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s
regime and further damage to heritage during the ‘war on terror’
is vivid in the memory of those keeping track of global events.
And those who
have forgotten such events, Seva invokes such memories and forces us
to think that our present is governed by the past and it is important
to preserve the sources of our identity (read historical evolution of
humankind).
(With Thanks from Hindustan Times, HT City, Chandigarh, July 1, 2013)
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