When Pomegranate Turns Grey: A Story of Resilience

As I sit down to write the review of When the Pomegranate Turns Grey, I am struck by a sense of silence. Not the deafening, uncomfortable kind, but a silence that was beautifully conveyed throughout the film. I sit here not knowing how to put it into words, or rather, how to make it make sense.

We are shaped by our memories and experiences. I believe we behold our pasts in bits and pieces, as if our lives are dependent on them. A conversation at the dinner table, a silent nod of acknowledgment. An unknowing familiarity with a life you once lived.

When Pomegranate Turns Grey is exactly that. It is a 2024 Indian documentary film, directed by Thoufeeq K and Khurram Muraad, in Dakkani Urdu. It follows Muraad’s journey to uncover the traumatic memories of Hyderabad’s annexation (Police Action) in 1948. Through his grandmother, Gulnar, a living repository of time, he connects to a violent past and becomes the medium for Gulnar to tell a story, a very important one.

We are taken to their sunlit patio where they water the plants, and we’re there, listening to the conversations between Muraad and his grandmom. As she slowly recollects the pieces of a forsaken chapter in the history of the subcontinent, the past, present, and future are interwoven.

After all, what is the present if not a collection of the moments that have been?

The stories of the Police Action of Hyderabad in 1948, likewise, have become part of the daily comings and goings of the Muslims of the Deccan. Also known as Operation Polo, the entire event was a significant military operation initiated by the Indian state to annex the princely state of Hyderabad, which had opted to remain independent after British rule ended in 1947.

Tensions escalated as the Nizam of Hyderabad resisted integration, leading to the rise of armed groups such as the Razakars, who aimed to establish a separate Muslim state. The operation, launched on September 13, 1948, by the Indian Army, was an intensely violent affair, easily and effectively overpowering all the local forces. It lasted for about five days and resulted in the surrender of the Nizam and Hyderabad’s integration into India.

Needless to say, this action was marked by significant loss of life and property, leaving a complex legacy of political and communal tensions in the region. Gulnar recollects the haunting past with a broken voice. After all, how can one talk about the number of deaths that took place before their eyes?

She narrated one instance where all of them were hiding from the forces, and a few-month-old baby started crying. The mother had to keep the mouth of the baby closed for so long, he died on her lap.

We get to relive moments of her traumatic past through her accounts in a way that makes us realise the kind of history textbooks never talk about.

Gulnar's meeting with her sister, who fled to Pakistan during the Police Action, is one of the most beautiful scenes in the film. A meeting between Gulnar and Noor-ul-Nahar, a union of flower and light as described by Muraad, is a touching and heartfelt reunion of a bond lost within the borders.

Gulnar, an epitome of resilience, and Muraad, a curious storyteller, present us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to listen to someone who has witnessed the bloodshed of history.

If the film leaves me with one unanswered question, it is this:

How does one remain resilient when life upturns everything that was once yours, your home, your people, your very sense of belonging, and takes it away without warning?

Maybe that’s the whole point of the film, not to provide an answer, but to ask the question loud enough for us to carry it forward. Maybe it’s something I’m meant to figure out slowly, in silence, just like Gulnar did.