Shanti as a site of trauma and oppression in Manmohan Desai’s Chhalia

Partition of India is a watershed moment in the history of the Indian subcontinent which resulted in great human tragedy where millions of people displaced from their homes a innumerable brutal killings, along with abduction and rapes of women and their subsequent ostracization. Anupheaval of this magnitude led to its explorations in the field of cinema with focus on themes of displacement, separation of lovers and nostalgia for the lost home. The film Chhalia(1960) also falls into the category of a partition cinema and explores the trauma and oppression of women. This narrative brings to the fore the trauma that Partition inflicted on women and how Shanti becomes its symbol of ostracization when disowned by her own people.