In the grand narrative of the Partition of Punjab in 1947, Iqraar-naama is a film about the 'refugee', 'migrant', 'displaced person' as the protagonist of his own story. Told through a collection of documents from the personal archive of Charandas Bangia, a Partition refugee from Lyallpur, Pakistan who finally settled in Amritsar, India. The documents preserved carefully for over 90 years set the stage for history to unfold. The film decenters historical narratives from the state to the citizen, from state archives to personal archive, looking at history from the perspective of those who experience it. Using documents, photographs, drawings, text and interviews, the film hangs on a series of dialogues between the state, citizen, allotment officers, ministry of relief and rehabilitation and other such sundry characters encountered in the history of the Partition of Punjab (1947).
Priyanka works as a film director and editor, exploring themes of memory, landscape and relationships of people to places. She articulates her practice as an archaeology of silences, digging at sites characterised by trauma; physical and emotional. Her recent work focuses on reconciling memories and experiences of the Partition of Punjab (1947), Iqraar-naama (supported by IFA, Bangalore) being her most recent work on the subject. She has also worked as co-director on Ye Lo Bayan Humare (And We Were There 1967-1977), a film on female political prisoners directed and produced by Uma Chakravarti and A Migrant Walk directed by Soumyabrata Choudhury. Other works include Pichla Varka (The Previous Page) and A Summer Flu. She lives and works in Delhi.