The Agreement

Iqraar-naama

In the grand narrative of the Partition of Punjab in 1947, Iqraar-naama is a film about the 'refugee', 'migrant', 'displaced person' as the protagonist of his own story. Told through a collection of documents from the personal archive of Charandas Bangia, a Partition refugee from Lyallpur, Pakistan who finally settled in Amritsar, India. The documents preserved carefully for over 90 years set the stage for history to unfold. The film decenters historical narratives from the state to the citizen, from state archives to personal archive, looking at history from the perspective of those who experience it. Using documents, photographs, drawings, text and interviews, the film hangs on a series of dialogues between the state, citizen, allotment officers, ministry of relief and rehabilitation and other such sundry characters encountered in the history of the Partition of Punjab (1947).