ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the alienation of the other and its representation in Punjabi cinema. Historically, Punjabi cinema has centred around the landowning Jatt caste, while erasing or appropriating the ‘other’ caste experiences. Through references to Gurvinder Singh’s Anhey Ghore da Daan, Rajeev Kumar’s Chamm, and Randeep Maddoke’s Landless, this chapter, through modalities of the cinematographic time and space framework, will explore different aspects of alienation that the marginal castes are subjected to. We argue that alienation is not just limited to subjective experience, but it is also an objective reality that the mainstream Punjabi cinema often chooses to ignore. While Singh and Maddoke challenge the conventional cultural and cinematic motifs to highlight alienation of the other, Kumar relies on traditional theatrical approaches of Punjabi cinema to accentuate the experiences of the marginalised. We argue that the rural and urban continuum of alienation, while its nature can be different in these films, not only conveys the notion of exclusion but also allows the existing status quo of caste hierarchy to remain in a state of permanence.
