Synopsis

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'Inn Pannon Mein' sifts through the pages of a woman's diary who has recently begun to write her memoir. As she looks back at her life and some of her memories, the film explores the ordinary act of writing and the value and meaning it may hold in mundane everyday life

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Filmmaker's statement

 

The film’s process began with wanting to explore the idea of a woman’s work that one finds time for— one that is personal and provides a space for expression. What is the value of this work and a space which is for oneself, and perhaps even private? How would we define an ordinary act that doesn’t hold economic or familial merit, and how does it relate to, or emerges in the midst of the other work that we have to do? 

 

These were some questions that I started with when I began filming my friend’s grandmother, whom I had known for a long time, and who had recently started to write her own autobiography. This act for her seemed political, in which she was taking stock of her own life, memories, and her feelings as she looked back. Writing was something she had engaged in much more before her marriage, and through this project of the autobiography it seemed like she was also returning to it at this stage of her life. 

 

On one level, the film attempts to look at an internal space, through some of the pages, excerpts of her narratives, and her articulation of some relationships. On another, it also looks at the physical space of the home, co-inhabited by her daughter and granddaughter, a space shared by three generations of women. It became interesting to explore how the space, her everyday routine, and rhythms of the home inform this very personal and internal act, and vice-versa. The film largely moves through her voice, which reads some snippets of her writings, marking certain phases of her life, and interspersed with events that may seem mundane, yet respond to the structures of a domestic life that shape us.

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About the filmmaker

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Gurleen Grewal is a filmmaker and editor, interested in examining the various structures and narratives found in the everyday. She graduated from the Creative Documentary Course at Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication, where she made Somewhere Near and Far as her graduate diploma film. She currently works at the feminist think tank The Third Eye as an assistant producer and video editor, powered by Nirantar Trust and based in Delhi.

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Credits

 

Featuring | Maya Sen, Bishakha Sen and Oindrila Sen

Camera, Sound, Script and Direction | Gurleen Grewal

Editing | Gurleen Grewal

Translations | Rafina Khatun, Bishakha Sen and Oindrila Sen

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