Opinion | Satluj, Jaswant Singh Khalra, And When Disappearance Is The Story

Updated: Jul 06, 2026 11:49 am IST Published On Jul 06, 2026 11:47 am IST Last Updated On Jul 06, 2026 11:49 am IST

Published On Jul 06, 2026 11:47 am IST

Last Updated On Jul 06, 2026 11:49 am IST

Some films are released. Some films are resisted. And some films are released only to be silenced again.

Satluj, the Diljit Dosanjh-starrer earlier known as 'Punjab '95', has now entered the third category. After years of delay, title changes and censorship battles, the film finally reached audiences on ZEE5. But within days, it was taken down or "paused" for viewers in India. ZEE5 has said the film is temporarily unavailable in India "in light of current developments" and that the platform is exploring due process to bring it back at the earliest opportunity.

The removal has invited sharp criticism. Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal condemned the move, calling it an assault on collective memory, truth and freedom of expression. His reaction is politically important because it places the film not merely in the world of cinema, but directly inside Punjab's moral and political debate.

The timing gives the film an added resonance. Punjab is already moving towards the 2027 Assembly election. The bugle has not merely been sounded by political parties; it is being heard in villages, social media debates, diaspora conversations and Panthic spaces. In such an atmosphere, a film on Jaswant Singh Khalra is not just a cinematic event. It becomes part of Punjab's larger political and moral conversation.

Khalra's story carries a message from the past to the present generation. He was the human rights activist who documented alleged illegal cremations and disappearances during Punjab's militancy and counter-insurgency years. For those who lived through that period, his name is linked with courage, fear and unfinished justice. For many young Punjabis, Satluj may be their first serious introduction to a chapter that shaped Punjab's conscience.

The film reportedly revisits disappearances, alleged extra-judicial killings and illegal detentions linked to Punjab's troubled period of the 1980s and 1990s.

A film about history, but also about public memory

Punjab's militancy years are often remembered through terrorism, police operations, security challenges and national integrity. But another story lived beneath that narrative: missing sons, unidentified bodies, cremation grounds, fear and silence. Jaswant Singh Khalra's work emerged from this darkness. He followed municipal records, cremation registers and names of those allegedly cremated without informing families. Human Rights Watch recorded that Khalra exposed mass secret cremations by Punjab Police in Amritsar district, which........

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