THE VICEROY'S HOUSE -- a review

THE VICEROY'S HOUSE -- a review


A “Bend it” film, Gurinder Chadha’s new epic film "The Viceroy’s House" is another much told tale of the Partition of India -- assembling vintage footage of the communal riots and then recreating the handing over of the country to its countrymen as a benevolent act by the British.

The 340-room Viceroy’s House with its impressive architecture is the place where the tragedy of the bloody, massacred nation’s fate is decided and executed, leaving millions of people traumatized and scarred for life. As the partition takes shape the contents of the Viceroy’s House get divided for the two carved out nations including the kitchenware and library books. But then again this is where the endless streams of refugees find shelter after the blood bath under Lady Edwina Mountbatten's care.

The movie generally moves around the theme of the British leaving the country and giving the gift of ‘freedom’ to Indians. However, there is a sub-plot of a love story between two young people, Jeet Kumar (Manish Dayal) and Alliya (Huma Qureshi), who serve the British in the House. They are from two different and warring communities.

Even though you like the panoramic presentation of the political confusion and the storytelling bit of the movie, it failed to leave a great impact on me. It seemed to chronicle the innocence of Lord Mountbatten (Hugh Bonneville), who, Chadha feels, is often vilified wrongly by Indians as the major force behind the Partition of the country. She brings out some unknown facts behind the strategic move made by Winston Churchill to create Pakistan to retain the Port of Karachi for very selfish political reasons --much before the British were to leave the country

As for the cast, Gillian Anderson as Lady Edwina Mountbatten was very eloquent with her expressive eyes and gestures and Hugh Bonneville as Lord Mountbatten was also quite brilliant. Unfortunately, he resembled Winston Churchill more than Lord Mountbatten. Denzil Smith as Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Tanveer Ghani as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Neeraj Kabi as Mahatma Gandhi were not too impressive, I thought.

A.R. Rahman’s music floated along with the flow of events adequately. The costumes and period furniture looked regal and authentic. But the final analysis of the movie still remains to be of one that tried to depict the emotional angle of the great tragedy in history but definitely not with a master stroke, in my opinion.
Copyright (c) Dola Dutta Roy 

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