“Scorching Winds” is a film set in post-partition India, that follows a well-off Muslim family and their struggles during partition. The primary theme of the film is that of loyalty and survival. Despite Gandhi’s sacrifice Muslim-Hindu relations in India break down. Muslims slowly become more and more marginalized causing more and more of them flee to Pakistan. Of course, it should be noted that one of the reasons this marginalization was occurring was because Muslims had become unreliable as both employees and debtors as many of them were migrating to Pakistan leaving both their work and their debts. This marginalization then caused, even more, muslims to migrate to Pakistan and formed a kind of cycle of oppression and migration.
The film addresses the socio-political conditions of the time and place via the conditions of the Mirza family. One of the first themes it addresses is the feeling of abandonment many of the Muslims still in India felt, as they are people who can not or will not migrate, however, the leaders of the Muslim league had left for Pakistan. Seemingly abandoning them in a country that they were being told was no longer theirs despite having lived there their entire lives. Many Muslims refused to leave their homes and travel to an unknown land until circumstances forced them to. This is further emphasized in the film when “Halim Mirza”, a leader in the Muslim league who claims to want to never leave India, leaves India. This creates some rumors and unrest within the Muslim community and marks the beginning of the unrest that continues to build as the film goes on and the oppression increases.
Another very important issue that is addressed in the film is the injustice faced not just by the Muslims but also the Hindus who lost their land and factories when they had to leave Pakistan. The movie makes it a point to show that it wasn’t just the Muslims who were marginalized and suffered heavy losses, despite focusing on a Muslim family. This then leads into another very prominent theme in the film, uncertainty. As everyone seems to be suffering the consequences of partition, no one can be certain that they will be financially stable in the near future.The film stresses the volatility of the situation in many different ways. The first being the uncertainty of moving to Pakistan and whether or not there is enough land and money for everyone, despite the seemingly endless stream of good news coming from Pakistan throughout the beginning of the film Salim Mirza remains uncertain, unwilling to risk his ancestral home and factory by moving to Pakistan. The second way the film makes this point is via the economic situation of the region, banks are doing poorly, unemployment is high and loans aren’t coming easy. Everyone seems to be trying to play it safe in order to make it through these times of upheaval with minimum loss. The third source of anxiety and tension in the film is that of family and marriage, where extended families seem to be very divided and marital arrangements remain highly uncertain.
The final theme the film touches upon is that of protest. Where instead of fleeing the country Salim Mirza decides to stay and fight the injustice. This is the very climax of the film, however, it is the most interesting. The entire movie builds up to India becoming near unbearable for Salim forcing him to leave, which was why many of the Muslims and Hindus living in India and Pakistan migrated. With this scene, the film seems to be suggesting putting up with the injustices and cruelties inflicted by the country and its people simply because it is one’s “home”. It seems to be putting nationalism over survival. Of course, it could also be interpreted as suggesting that abandoning the country will not stop the injustices, however staying and fighting just might.
Foundations of South Asian Histoty 