One is always told not to compare books to films.
The reality of this film is that how on earth would you ever see it without knowing the book. There is nothing in the trailer or introduction to make you think that you would want to watch it.
One would only watch this film on the back of reading the book, or because one is too lazy to read the book.
But if you must know, Pamela Rook’s celluloid rendition of Khushwant Singh’s classic on Partition is a good movie. The village Mano Majra on the border between India and Pakistan suddenly comes to life when the communal ogre raises its ugly head. A trailload of corpses streams in from across the border in the dead of night and scars not only the landscape but also the communal amity of the village where muslicms and Sikhs have been living for centuries. In midst of simmering death and discord, there rises an unlikely hero, Juggut Singh (played by nirmal pandey), a petty dacoit, who chooses to lay his life for love and peace. The foul mouthed, fiery Jagga saves the life of his beloved nooran ( played by smriti mishra) and her brethren while the country burns.
The film is disjointed, and loses the ambiguity implicit in many characters within the book. Particularly Iqbal (played by rajat Kapur), the "social worker" and also the dilemma the magistrate, Chand (played by mohan agashe) , experiences when trying to wrestle with the problems.
The film is sometimes look disjointed, and although the setting is a village, it somehow seems to be unnatural. It might be a function of the acting, but there seems to be a hangover of 'dramatic' bollywood acting seeping through, rather than the acting showing the depth of each of the characters so well drawn in the book.
The film is also in Punjabi, whereas the book I read was a pleasure to read in English.
Trust me on this, read the book.
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