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Sanjha Punjab: Stories of a United Punjab by Punjabi Men

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Date

2025

Authors

Mukhtar, Asim

Supervisor

Brown Pulu, Teena
Singh, Harminder

Item type

Thesis

Degree name

Doctor of Philosophy

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Publisher

Auckland University of Technology

Abstract

Sanjha Punjab: Stories of a United Punjab by Punjabi Men merges fiction and documentary filmmaking styles to create a hybrid documentary, a term that I use interchangeably with nonfiction film. This artefact along with the exegesis, or the written explanation of the filmmaking process, together form a practice-oriented doctoral thesis. Made in several dialects of the Punjabi language with English subtitles, the visual language of the film is shaped by social realism cinema seen in a selection of works by Punjabi film artist Gurvinder Singh, and Iranian film artists Jafar Panahi, Abbas Kiarostami, and Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Social realism reflects a visual style seeking to be culturally authentic by showing the reality of ordinary people’s lives in minimalist cinematography and sound. However, the storywork of Sanjha Punjab draws inspiration from Punjabi social memory in the fiction writings of Nadir Ali, Zubair Ahmad, Khushwant Singh, and Waryam Singh Sandhu. Sanjha Punjab is structured by eight arrangements assembled into Punjabi short stories on-screen. These stories contribute to a larger narrative of Punjabiyat or the Punjabi spirit after the 1947 partition of the Punjab, much of what exists beyond the screen, but is encapsulated here in conversations and creative performances of poetry, music, song, and dance. Seven stories show migrant Punjabi men of India and Pakistan living in South Auckland and speaking and performing as themselves. The eighth story is a non-narrative interpretation of visiting Lahore city and Chiniot district in Punjab, Pakistan, as experienced by the filmmaker. Two themes are explored in the collective expressions of Punjabiness. First, the meanings and significances of Sanjha Punjab, a term for united Punjab seen in the everyday lives of migrant Punjabi men who believe the Punjabis are an ethnic and cultural community. Second is a broader reflection of how living beyond the India-Pakistan border rekindles social connections between Punjabis whose relationships might influence their land of origin. Could it be said that upon return visits to the Punjab, migrants see their homeland in a new light because they have built up a repertoire of experiences by existing beyond a linear border?

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http://hdl.handle.net/10292/18933

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Doctoral Theses