‘Batwara 1947’ review: Dull storytelling and sharp messaging

A chunk of Sunny Deol’s career is devoted to swinging hand pumps at Pakistanis, bashing in their heads or simply bellowing at them until their eardrums burst. In Rajkumar Santoshi’s Batwara 1947, Deol is in a different zone and a different register.

The Hindi-Punjabi film is adapted from a play about compassion trumping communal hatred during the horrific time of Partition. Even Sunny Deol, then, must behave.

Deol plays Sikandar, a Muslim businessman from Meerut who flees to Lahore after being targetted by Hindu rioters. Sikandar, his wife Hamida (Preity Zinta) and daughter Tanno (Khushi Hajare) enter the mansion allotted to them, only to find an elderly Hindu woman there.

The house belongs to Durgavati (Shabana Azmi). Her own son and his family are missing. Durgavati refuses to leave until her son returns.

The domestic quandary is soon eclipsed by the antics of the fanatic politician Yaqub (Abhimanyu Singh), who wants to purge the neighbourhood of its Hindu past. Adding to Sikandar’s woes is his son Javed (Karan Deol), who has been catalysed by the carnage he witnessed back in Meerut and is on Yaqub’s side.

Batwara 1947 is based on Asghar Wajahat’s well-known play Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya, O Jamya E Nai. Can you say you have lived if you have never seen...

Read more