Gurvinder Singh on ‘Rehmat’: ‘The film is about different migrations, forced or voluntary’

Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga is out on Netflix following its theatrical run. The film’s centrepiece is a heart-rending performance by Naseeruddin Shah as an ailing 95-year-old man desperately clinging to the memories of the woman he had loved as a youngster in undivided India.

In Gurvinder Singh’s Rehmat, Shah once again plays a character dealing with the lingering effects of Partition. This time, Shah is Rashid, who is born in a village in the Indian side of Punjab and returns to his ancestral home years later.

Rehmat is part of the prestigious Locarno Film Festival’s International Competition section. The cast includes Diya Kamboj, Suvinder Vicky, Mita Vasisht, Harwinder Aujla and Jaswant Zafar.

The Punjabi-language feature – Singh’s fifth since his debut Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan in 2011 – is based on stories by the writer Ajeet Cour. Singh’s screenplay places on a continuum the experiences of a young woman who shelters a man accused of and later killed for being a militant, his family’s attempts to make sense of his death, and Rashid’s appearance in the village of his birth.

Rehmat has Gurvinder Singh’s trademark long takes, subtle movements and restrained performances. In its own understated way, Rehmat creates vivid connections between people, places and personal histories through unusual visitations and journeys across time.

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