1984, When the Sun didn't Rise

I live on my own in Mumbai and got touched on reading about the lives of the Single women/widows living in Delhi in a place called Widows Colony.

Every evening in the Widows Colony, women bond and share themselves as they have lost their husbands in the massacre of 1984. After the death of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, people turned hostile and started killing Sikhs everywhere in Delhi and other parts of India. Violence took place for four days till Indira Gandhi was cremated and by that time approximately 30,000 Sikhs were killed all over in India.

This remains the most untalked about state planned massacre in the history of the India. There is little to almost no justice in this case as the Politicians are scot-free along with most of the accused who are lost in the crowd.

The state rehabilitated them in a ghetto called “Widows Colony” but never recognised that it was a massacre. Sikhs form only 1.4% of the Indian population and realisation and the fear of a minority identity dawned on me.
I felt a story needs to be told.
“1984, When the Sun didn’t rise” was born.

The women are courageous and have turned to be the breadwinners and have chosen to battle out life courageously while the pain remains.

Many women were raped but out of the fear of being defamed never spoke about it.

The film follows an observational approach to the lives of three women and a young man on how they negotiate with a lost identity and emotional trauma of a loss in a very positive and a strong way.

Kuldeep Kaur saw her husband being burnt alive by her neighbours. She could not save him. She fought the court case for ten years and recognised the killers of her husband. Eventually, seven accused were given lifetime imprisonment.
Like most of the widows, Meera Kaur was conferred a job by the State after the massacre. She finds solace in office that she works in rather than at home. Her son Mohan Singh is a likeable honest man but takes drugs.
Mohan belongs to the second generation of children who grew up in the Colony. His honest conversations and confessions make me think how deep rooted the impact of violence can be.
Every year a prayer ceremony is held to commemorate the departed.
Harbans Kaur has been waiting for her husband to return till date. She never saw the dead body of her husband and has been a single parent. After the ongoing discussions on massacre she comes to term with his death and puts his photograph in the gallery of the dead men.
It took me five years to actually bond with the women. However, connection with Mohan was instant as he was honest and not shy to show his emotions. After my first interview with Harbans Kaur I could connect with her only after four years. She wanted to submit the photograph of her husband in the gallery of the dead men and claim a closure of sorts.
The film is anchored with my voice over as I connect with different layers in the film from how the incident occurred to the journey of people including my own learning. The journey was fulfilling and I learnt valuable life lessons from the people in the Colony.
In USA, Sikhs are mistaken as Sheikhs and killed in mistaken identity cases. There is violence happening with people who are different in appearance, follow different faiths or religions everywhere in the world. What happened in 1984 is happening even now.
There are millions of survivors of the massacre who left India out of the fear of being killed, many displaced and who have made others parts of the world as their home.
Through this film, I stand for one world, a world without any discrimination of race, color or features. An equal right for everyone to live irrespective of their identity, faith, religion, caste or creed.

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