"Alms for a Blind Horse ; An Insight”

“I hope the film will mark a new beginning for me, and for the kind of cinema I want to make,"said Gurvinder Singh

^{'Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan' is a symbol of promising beginning for Singh as well as Indian Cinema. Singh’s kind of cinema is twofold; On one hand, Singh deployed the unspoken, hidden realities, On the other, Singh intermixed the marginal voices ( Dalit Narratives) to the dominant Cinematic experience. This is quite a successful experiment as the movie got many International and national acclaims.}

^{The movie depicted the real experience of the marginal communities in Indian villages. Caste based stratification, exploitation of Dalits, problems faced by landless labourers, migration – feeling of nostalgia and so on. Singh’s treatment with the subject made it unique. The way he portrayed the old man Mal Singh; his static presence, silence represented the old tradition and its powerlessness. Whereas, Bathinda thermal plant presented as a symbol of hegemony and progress, cursed by Melu’s friend It provided a critique of society based on appearances, ruled by dominant classes in which these marginal voices remain unheard.}

^{In his work “Simulacra and Simulation (1981), Bauldrillard explained that our society is “Media saturated” where we get all the information by media and advertising msgs , through multichannel., T.V, globalised electronic and cable network., radio station and street billboard. The consequences of these mediums are so profound that we lost our ability to distinguish between reality and its image. Unlike his fellow makers, Singh delineated the reality which is beyond our perceived notion of Punjabi Cinema (Jatt and Juliet, Carry on Jatta etc.).Singh painted the plight of unheard communities through his images, gestures, silences, fog (in village) and lights (in town), demolished house, tattered kite hanging on cable wires. Melu’s injured head symbolizes fragmented, alienated Dalit self. Even town could not provide any solution to the injured mind..It has to come back and meet the other disquietude self (Dayalo). Singh’s choice of an abrupt end, forced his audience to think, to find solution and give meaning to his efforts.}

^{To my mind, Melu moved to the village cause he could not survive peacefully in town with his ‘injured head’.Melu’s internal wounds brought him to his roots where he met Dayalo, other restless soul  tried to find answers and meanings in the darkness with the help of torch. On her way, Dayalo encountered two ideologies via two men from her community and flashed light on them.One was to accept and follow the old tradition or other was to stop this “Anhey ghorey da daan”. Dayalo rejected them and continued her search where she met Melu. This sudden meeting gives some rays of hope for the bright future as every revolution begins with sense of realization. Singh made an intelligent movie and left us with enormous thoughts.}