Three days before India celebrates the 60th anniversary of its Independence Day, the first ever cinema festival mirroring the country’s struggle for independence and the trauma it faced during partition is being held here.

The ‘Cinema of Independence’ lasting till August 15 at Watermans, features among others ‘Shatranj Ke Khilari’ by Satyajit Ray, ‘Bose - The Forgotten Hero’ by Shyam Benegal, ‘Sardar’ (The Iron Man of India) by Ketan Mehta, ‘Toba Te Singh’ directed by Afia Serena Nanthaniel and ‘Beyond Partition’ of Lalit Mohan Joshi.

Joshi, Director of South Asian Cinema Foundation, the organiser of the festival, said today that the films being screened were Indian cinema’s tribute to the struggle for independence and for ending the British Raj.

“Made between 1947 and 2007 by masters like Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal, these films are Indian cinema’s tribute to the struggle for independence and for ending the British Raj. Sixty years on, it leaves many questions unanswered and these films address them directly or obliquely.”

In ‘Shatranj Ke Khilari’, based on a short story by Premchand, the doyen Ray creates a solid ground for the oncoming 1857 Revolt against the Raj, whereas Benegal’s ‘Junoon’, an adaptation of Ruskin Bond’s heartrending novel Flight of the Pigeons, recreates the rebellion. Ketan Mehta’s ‘Sardar’ reverberates with conflicts that paved the way to partition.

The most recent work of the festival is the ground-breaking documentary ‘Beyond Partition’ (2006) that explores the trauma of partition and how it had an impact on filmmakers from the Indian subcontinent.