Of a home left behind

McCluskiegunj, a small town in Jharkhand, is the setting for Konkona Sen Sharma’s well-appreciated debut directorial feature, A Death in the Gunj. The place is also the focus for Australia-based film-maker Paul Harris, who almost accidentally came across it while researching for a project for his documentary End of the Raj. Fascinated by this tiny little world of old Anglo-Indians who settled down here many years ago, he decided to make another film, Dreams of a Homeland.

Harris himself is an Anglo-Indian now settled down under. He became a documentary film-maker by choice. “In 2010, while I was researching for End of the Raj – A History of Anglo-Indians, a long documentary, I visited McCluskiegunj. I was curious about the history of a section of my community that had migrated to this place. I decided to make a film about the gunj as it is fondly called by the locals,” says Paul.

McCluskiegunj was the brainchild of Ernest Timothy McCluskie who created this homeland for members of the Anglo-Indian community. Between the 1930s and 40s, scores of Anglo-Indians from all parts of the Indian sub-continent came to settle in this remote location.

Going back in history

Harris’s film explores the historical context for the creation, development and eventual failure of the town now almost bereft of the community. It no longer throbs with the exclusive lifestyle, noise and music of the Anglo-Indians who gradually shifted to discover fresher pastures leaving a handful of senior citizens behind who have no wish to go elsewhere.

Harris chanced upon fantastic archival material from The Colonization Observer, an old journal. “I wanted to make a film which is part travelogue and part history to document what the town is like today,” Harris says.

It is an honest film stripped of glamour or cultural pretensions. Paul wanders across old homes, captures a construction in total decay, and stands against a backdrop of hoardings inviting boarders to the many of the boys’ hostels in the town. Surprisingly, the small town boasts of a good number of boys’ hostels.

 “The Colonization Observer, published by the Colonization Society of India, was a historical treasure trove and an excellent record for the period 1934-1944 and all that happened in the colony. I spoke to locals, read some more books, and then cross-referenced them to material from the magazine,” explains Harris.

Harris had heard about McCluskiegunj from his parents and elders. He grew up in Gomoh, a town about 100 miles from McCluskiegunj.

Challenges to face

Filming on a shoe-string budget made Harris decide to be the anchor, commentator and interviewer himself. He trained a friend to operate a camera, drove from Patna to McCluskiegunj to shoot the film. It was difficult to locate specific places, like an old bungalow too deep into the forest. “It was physically challenging because there was a lot of walking and hiking involved. I had to practice my narration in front of the camera, review it and then go for a final take, sometimes doing the same shot nine times to get it right,” says Harris.

Another big stumbling block was the heat. “Shooting at the height of the Indian summer was almost impossible. The temperature varied between 40 and 44 degrees Celsius during the day. We would rise early and shoot between 7 am and 11 am, rest in the afternoon, and then resume shooting in the afternoon till it got dark. There were other interruptions such as the traffic of both people and animals, and road traffic we had to contend with,” Harris recalls.

 “For me, documentary film-making is about learning something and then sharing it with others. I was fortunate to visit McCluskiegunj, and more fortunate to make a film about its history and get access to some fantastic archival material,” says Harris.

Harris was struck by the mystery of what made a group of Anglo-Indians set up their home in the middle of a dense forest and even made it work for some time. “I have dedicated my film to the spirit of those settlers who dared to dream of a homeland,” he sums up.


Trans World Features