Batwara 1947: A mass migration like no other
The title Batwara 1947 (2026) gives away that this film is about the partition of India, when British colonial rule ended and the subcontinent was divided into India and Pakistan. The now infamous Radcliff Line led to the largest mass migration of people, Hindus from Pakistan to India and Muslims from India to Pakistan, displacing over 14 million ordinary citizens from their ancestral homelands; about two million were killed in the communal violence that ensued.
Eight decades is a small time in the evolution of the two nations, but it is a lifetime in human time spans. There are great-grandparents, grandparents and parents on both sides of the border who had experienced the Partition. The families were too busy rebuilding their lives; they could not afford to look back. Many expected the relocation to be temporary, anticipating a return home once the political and socio-cultural mayhem of the newly independent nations settled. Sadly, that was not to be. Their properties, their old lives were gone for good, as they struggled in the refugee-relief camps.
The Partition in films
Landmark films such as Garam Hawa, Pinjar, Earth, Viceroy’s House, Manto, Hey Ram, the TV series Tamas, and some masala stories of cross-border love, like Henna, Gadar, Veer Zara, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and more recently, Main Wapis Aaonga, have all tackled Partition and its aftermath with varied degrees of realism and mainstream high-octane heroics.
Rajkumar Santoshi’s 1947 Batwara tells the story by straddling the realism of art films that depict the historical horrors of the time, and the fantasy make-believe of a hero who single-handedly beats up villains while delivering punchlines.
The lead pair of Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta play age-appropriate roles as the sandwich generation – caught between their parents and their almost-adult children. Shabana Azmi plays a metaphoric Mother India, waiting for her son.
The period drama, backed by Amir Khan Productions, is based on Asghar Wajahat’s 1989 play, Jisne Lahore Nai Vekhya, O Jamya hi Na (one who has not seen Lahore, has not been born); Wajahat shares the credit for the screenplay with R K Santhoshi. The film’s music is by A R Rahman and Sunny Deol pays tribute to his dad with credits naming him as Dharmendra’s son. Production designers Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray take us back in time to the Lahore of 1947.
A narrative with the right doses of realism & masala
Since Partition, India and Pakistan have fought four wars and several conflicts; yet, in both countries, there are several who want peace and the ability to carry on with their ordinary lives. I feel this film gives a voice to those in favor of peace.
Usually, like so many of my fellow Indian audience, I prefer escapist cinema that eases the stresses of my life with song and dance. But I braved this one and found it cathartic. I did not mind that it made me tear up at times.
I recommend this film for its well-written characters, a story that is engaging and humanizing, for the fine acting and sets that make it credible, without them being in-your-face tragic, tempered with a decent dose of cinematic fantasy.
Even the goon running for political office and causing all manner of trouble is likeable in moments and the hero does get to command a white horse to save someone as Hindi film heroes typically do. There are scenes of anger, helplessness and vulnerability.
While the narrative does not shy away from the tragedies of communal riots or refugee camps, it doesn’t dwell on these, returning to depict the protagonist’s family and their ordinary moments of joy and tragedy, as they cope and celebrate in their individual ways.
The narrative retains the complexity of issues: the communal violence, normalized corruption, opportunistic goons, fractures within friends and family, a religious leader, radicalized youth still capable of romance, rebellion and revenge and even a poet with noble intent. The quiet endurance and generosity of a woman and the gradual rebuilding of trust, institutional and interpersonal, are all a part of the narrative.
The small doses of the masala cinema that make a film paisa wasool (money’s worth), lighten the vibe with the just right doses of mera baap and ghar mein ghus ke maarega.
Documenting memories
My favorite character in the film is the poet, played by Ali Fazal, and that’s not only because I love poetry. Fazal’s character reminded me of the stories I had heard about my maternal grandfather during the Partition era.
If you have heard partition stories in your homes, this film might just make your family’s stories come alive; at the very least you experience the shared formative influences of this historically critical period on a nation that is emerging from the shadows of its colonial past.
Batwara 1947 is running in select theaters in the U.S.
