Plot
Gian Singh is a Sikh who goes off to war in the British Indian Army with his two best friends Andrew and Avtar. The three are being seen off by Andrew's sister Margaret and Walter. Gian promises to look after Andrew only to resign after Andrew is killed. Gian is tortured by the guilt of not being able to save Andrew. The young Muslim woman Naseem (Kristin Kreuk) is separated from her family in riots and unaware that her father has been killed, hides in hope that the Sikh mobs won't find her.
Gian finds Naseem in the woods, having just returned to his home town near the Pakistani border. Their efforts to hide are foiled; Naseem and Gian are forced to bargain for Naseem's life with money. The townspeople, although initially resenting her presence, begin to accept Naseem, and it seems that the bad parts of their lives have faded away until night when both Naseem and Gian suffer from tortured visions of their past. These visions ultimately unite the two and they get married and have a son they call Vijay.
In love, the world seems perfect until Margaret shows up on Gian's doorstep with news that Naseem's family has been found in Pakistan. Naseem leaves to see them in Pakistan. She is to return in a month but does not arrive. Her two brothers, discovering her marriage to a Sikh, lock her up in her room and forbid her to ever return to India. Akbar, the eldest, is particularly stubborn, and vows to keep her away from her husband at all costs. Gian, tired of waiting, sets off on a trip to Pakistan to retrieve Naseem. He disguises himself as a Muslim, cutting off his hair and donning a Kofi. Even with the disguise he has to sneak across the border as his papers are not sufficient.
Gian meets with Walter and Margaret, who barely recognise him without his turban, and leaves Vijay with them while he goes to get Naseem. When he arrives, still dressed as a Muslim, Naseem immediately recognizes him. As they run toward one another they are stopped by her brothers and Akbar beats Gian. To explain himself to his neighbors he tells them that Gian is a Sikh. Meanwhile, Naseem has been locked up by her brother Zakir. Gian is hauled to jail and there he wallows in the darkness, refusing to return to India until he remembers that he has a son who needs him.
Naseem's mother, realizing that the couple are truly in love, frees Naseem, who runs to the train. She recognizes Vijay immediately and hugs him, unaware that Gian is just on the other side of the tracks. When he calls her name, they begin to fight through the crowd to reach one another. Just as they meet Akbar pulls them apart and begins a struggle with Gian. Gian is pushed over the railing onto the tracks just as the train arrives and is killed. Naseem sobs hysterically as she slowly collapses to the ground.
Naseem and Vijay escape on the train as the police arrive for Akbar. With the help of Margaret and Walter they move to England and Avtar spreads Gian's ashes given by Walter over a banyan tree.
Kristin Laura Kreuk is a Canadian actress. Debuting on teen drama Edgemont, she became most known for her roles as Lana Lang in the superhero television series Smallville (2001–2011), Catherine Chandler in The CW sci-fi series Beauty & the Beast (2012–2016) and as Joanna Hanley in the CBC legal drama series Burden of Truth (2018–2021).
The Partition of India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent and the creation of two independent dominions in South Asia: India and Pakistan. The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan—which at the time comprised two regions lying on either side of India—is now the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The partition was outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947. The change of political borders notably included the division of two provinces of British India, Bengal and Punjab. The majority Muslim districts in these provinces were awarded to Pakistan and the majority non-Muslim to India. The other assets that were divided included the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Royal Indian Air Force, the Indian Civil Service, the railways, and the central treasury. Provisions for self-governing independent Pakistan and India legally came into existence at midnight on 14 and 15 August 1947 respectively.
The Radcliffe Line was the boundary demarcated between the Indian and Pakistani portions of the Punjab Province and Bengal Presidency of British India. It was named after Cyril Radcliffe, who, as the joint chairman of the two boundary commissions for the two provinces, had the ultimate responsibility to equitably divide 175,000 square miles (450,000 km2) of territory with 88 million people.
Sheikhupura also known as Qila Sheikhupura, is a city and district in the Pakistani province of Punjab. Founded by the Mughal Emperor Jehangir in 1607, Sheikhupura is the 16th largest city of Pakistan by population and is the headquarters of Sheikhupura District. The city is an industrial centre and satellite town, and is located about 38 km northwest of Lahore. It also borders Sialkot, Gujranwala, Nankana Sahib and Kasur districts of Punjab, Pakistan.
Sharif Hussain, who used the pseudonym Nasīm Hijāzī, was an Urdu novelist.
The Partition of India and the associated bloody riots inspired many creative minds in the republics of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to create literary/cinematic depictions of this event. While some creations depicted the massacres during the refugee migration, others concentrated on the aftermath of the partition in terms of difficulties faced by the refugees in both side of the border. Even now, more than 60 years after the partition, works of fiction and films are made that relate to the events of partition. W.H. Auden in his poem "Partition" showed the dilemmas of Cyril John Radcliffe, 1st Viscount Radcliffe, responsible for deciding which parts of India went where.
Jalandhar district is a district in Doaba region of the state of Punjab, India. The district headquarters is the city of Jalandhar.
Jimi Mistry is a retired British actor. He is known for appearing in numerous films such as East Is East (1999), The Guru (2002), Ella Enchanted (2004), The Truth About Love (2005), Blood Diamond (2006), Partition (2007), RocknRolla (2008), Exam (2009), It's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010), and West is West (2010). He is also known for his roles, as Dr. Fred Fonseca in BBC1 soap opera EastEnders, Latif in Cinemax series Strike Back, Kal Nazir in long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street, and as Tom Bedford in Kay Mellor drama The Syndicate.
The Jamrud Fort is located beside Bab-e-Khyber at the entrance to the Khyber Pass from the Peshawar side in the tribal district of Khyber KPK, Pakistan. After death of Sardar General Hari Singh Nalwa, Khalsa Sarkar Wazir Jawahar Singh nominated Sardar General Gurmukh Singh Lamba as chief administrative and military commander to restore and consolidate the Khalsa army gains. General Sardar Gurmukh Singh Lamba was nominated as chief administrative and military commander to consolidate the gains of Khalsa Sarkar.
Victor Sarin is an Indian-born Canadian/American film director, producer and screenwriter. His work as a cinematographer includes Partition, Margaret's Museum, Whale Music, Nowhere to Hide, Norman's Awesome Experience, and Riel. He also directed such projects as Partition, Left Behind, and Wind at My Back.
Thoha Khalsa is a village in Kahuta Tehsil, Rawalpindi District in Punjab Province of Pakistan.
Sadiyaan (transl. Centuries) is an Indian Hindi-language drama film released in 2010 which stars Luv Sinha, Feryna Wazheir, Rishi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Javed Sheikh and Rekha. The story is about a family during the partition of India. The films was directed by Raj Kanwar and it has been distributed by the B4U (network) and known as a B4U Movies Production. It was released on Friday, 2 April 2010.
West Is West is a 2010 British comedy-drama film directed by Andy DeEmmony and starring Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Aqib Khan, Ila Arun and Jimi Mistry. A sequel to the 1999 comedy film East Is East, it was written by Ayub Khan-Din and produced by Leslee Udwin for Assassin Films and BBC Films.
Kartar Singh is a 1959 Pakistani Punjabi film about the partition of India in 1947 and the widespread violence related to it.
During the Partition of India, violence against women occurred extensively. It is estimated that during the partition between 75,000 and 100,000 women were kidnapped and raped. The rape of women by men during this period is well documented, with women sometimes also being complicit in these attacks. In March 1947, systematic violence against women started in Rawalpindi where Sikh women were targeted by Muslim mobs. Violence was also perpetrated on an organized basis, with Pathans taking Hindu and Sikh women from refugee trains while one alleged that he witnessed armed Sikhs periodically dragging Muslim women.
Boota Singh sometimes spelled as Buta Singh, was a Sikh ex-soldier of the British Army who served at the Burma front under the command of Lord Mountbatten during World War II. He is popularly known in India and Pakistan for his tragic love story with Zainab, a Muslim girl he rescued during the communal riots in the time of partition of India in 1947. They both fell in love and got married. Later, being a Muslim, Zainab was deported by Indian authorities and sent to the newly created Pakistan. Singh illegally entered Pakistan to reinstate contact with Zainab, but she ended the marriage under pressure from her family. In 1957, after the failure of the marriage, he committed suicide by jumping before an upcoming train near Shahdara station in Pakistan along with his daughter, but she survived.
Mohammad Mujeeb (1902-1985) was an Indian writer of English and Urdu literature, educationist, scholar and the vice chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi.
After the Partition of India, during October–November 1947 in the Jammu region of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, many Muslims were massacred and others driven away to West Punjab. The killings were carried out by extremist Hindus and Sikhs, aided and abetted by the forces of Maharaja Hari Singh. The activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) played a key role in planning and executing the riots. An estimated 20,000–100,000 Muslims were massacred. Subsequently, many non-Muslims were massacred by Pakistani tribesmen, in the Mirpur region of today's Pakistani administered Kashmir, and also in the Rajouri area of Jammu division.
Lahoriye is a 2017 Indian-Punjabi drama film written and directed by Amberdeep Singh. It stars Amrinder Gill, Sargun Mehta, Yuvraj Hans, Nimrat Khaira, Sardar Sohi and Guggu Gill.
Opposition to the Partition of India was widespread in British India in the 20th century and it continues to remain a talking point in South Asian politics. Those who opposed it often adhered to the doctrine of composite nationalism in the Indian subcontinent. The Hindu, Christian, Anglo-Indian, Parsi and Sikh communities were largely opposed to the Partition of India, as were many Muslims.
