Train to Pakistan (film)

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Movie
Original title Train to Pakistan
Country of production India
original language Hindi
Publishing year 1998
length 107 minutes
Rod
Director Pamela Rooks
script Pamela Rooks
production Ravi Gupta , RV Pandit, and Pamela Rooks for National Film Development Corporation and Pan Pictures Rooks AV
music Kuldip Singh
camera Sunny Joseph
cut Sujatha Nirula
occupation

Train to Pakistan is a 1998 Hindi film by Pamela Rooks . It is based on the novel of the same name by Khushwant Singh .

action

The story takes place in the summer of 1947 during the partition of India in Punjab in the village of Mano Majra, which is part of Punjab , which is now part of India . Muslims , Sikhs and Hindus still live peacefully together in the district headed by Hukum Chand. The Muslim girl Nooran lives with her blind father Imam Baksh and has a secret affair with the local bandit Juggut Singh. The district magistrate Hukum Chand is entertained with music and dance and the physical virtues of the young Haseena.

Unrest creeps into the village when the moneylender Lala Ral Lal is murdered in his house and foreign Muslims warn of a pogrom in the village mosque. The murderers are rival gang members of Juggut Singh, who throw bloody bangles as evidence of the crime at Juggas homestead.

The next day, the communist social worker Iqbal from Delhi arrives in the village to prevent the bloodshed and killings between the religious groups. He finds accommodation with Brother Meet Singh in the Gurudwara of the village and finds that neither the Sikhs nor the Muslims have any hatred for one another. Because of the murder, Jugga is arrested the following day, and Iqbal, a non-resident, too. Although the district police inspector realizes that neither Jugga in his own village nor Iqbal, who arrived later, committed the murder and he is upset by the stupidity of the local police chief, he has them both jailed. He considers Iqbal to be an agitator for the Muslim League , as a physical examination revealed that he was circumcised . Under torture, Jugga expresses that he believes his rival, the bandit Malli and his men, to be the murderers of the moneylender.

There are more and more trains crowded with people who come with Hindus and Sikhs from the area of ​​the future Pakistan to India and with Muslims in the other direction through Mano Majra. When a train full of slaughtered Hindus and Sikhs reaches the place, the army takes over and sets up a refugee camp. Malli is arrested, but Hukum Chand has a different idea to solve the murder and the other problems all together. According to the motto “in order to achieve great justice one sometimes has to commit a little injustice”, the gang of the Muslim Sultana, who is said to have gone to Pakistan in the meantime, is said to be the murderer of the moneylender; Iqbal is Muhammad Iqbal, who as a member of the Pakistani Muslim League wanted to instigate a riot and the Pakistani border forces should be asked to pick up all Muslims from the area. Malli and Jugga are released. Muslims and Sikhs from Mano Majra assure each other of their solidarity, but for the safety of the Muslims it is agreed that they will go to a camp for the time being and that the Sikhs will take care of their houses and cattle. Nooran asks Jugga's mother to tell him that she is pregnant.

The next morning the situation is no longer peaceful. Pakistani security forces transport the Muslims to the camp without any belongings, after which they are supposed to be taken to Lahore on the next train . On the same day, the abandoned Muslim homesteads are ransacked by Malli's bandits. In the evening armed Sikhs from the Pakistani part of Punjab arrive in the village. They have experienced atrocities and intend to attack the next train to Pakistan in revenge and kill the Muslims in it. When Hukum Chand learns of this, he orders the release of Jugga and Iqbal, because he hopes that Jugga, who is in love with Nooran, would try to prevent the massacre. Jugga learns that the bandits want to stretch a rope across the bridge, which will tear down all 300 to 400 people sitting on the roof, and then shoot at the windows of the stopped train.

Jugga manages at the last moment - shot by the bandits - to cut the rope. He falls from the bridge onto the tracks and is run over by the train, which drives off unmolested.

background

The film was supposed to be shown on the television station STAR Plus on the 50th anniversary of Indian independence, but the shooting was not finished until July 1997 and the post-production and editing requirements of the Indian Censor Board delayed completion and approval by the censor until December 1997. After its world premiere in early 1998, it has been shown at various film festivals, including the 1999 Cinequest Film Festival in San José .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Note: the name can be found among members of all three religions
  2. ↑ Interview with Pamela Rooks