Director: Govind Nihalani; Writer: Govind Nihalani, Bhishm Sahni; Producer: Freni M. Variava, Lalit M. Bijlani, Govind Nihalani; Cinematographer: Govind Nihalani, V. K. Murthy; Editor: Sutanu Gupta; Cast: Om Puri, Deepa Sahi, Dina Pathak, Bhisham Sahni, Amrish Puri, Uttara Baokar, Surekha Sikri, Saeed Jaffrey, Ila Arun, K.K. Raina
Duration: 04:59:10; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 47.449; Saturation: 0.090; Lightness: 0.087; Volume: 0.139; Cuts per Minute: 13.337
Summary: Based on Bhishm Sahni’s novel.
Nihalani’s controversial five-hour TV series
deals with the Partition of India and led to
major communal confrontations when the
Hindu BJP organisations threatened to set TV
stations afire and caused rioting in Hyderabad
and Bombay. Based on one of Hindi author
Bhishm Sahni’s best-known recent novels, the
epic tale is seen mainly through the eyes of a
tanner named Nathu (Om Puri) and his
pregnant wife Karmo (Sahi). An effort to cause
a communal conflict (one of the commonest
strategies is to place a dead pig in a mosque)
escalates into the pre-1947 conflagration
throughout Punjab. The film effectively lumps
together the activities of all the various political
groups involved, including the British colonial
powers and Hindu as well as Muslim
communal fronts, which it contrasts with
individual expressions of human concern that
serve sometimes to dilute a notoriously
complex historical episode into no more than a
conflict between common good and politically
motivated bad.
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