DVD Movie Review – Partition

MOVIE DETAILS Cast: Jimi Mistry, Kristin Kreuk, Irrfan Khan Director: Vic Sarin Producer: Tina Pehme, Kim Roberts Music: Bryan Tyle

THE FILM A Muslim girl trying to run away from her tormentors during the time of partition. A Sikh man saving her from the mayhem and giving her shelter. Villagers threatening him to allow them to take hold of the girl. The man daring them to do it over his dead body. Attraction building between the Sikh man and Muslim girl. The two getting married. A kid being born. Time flying by. The girl getting to know about the whereabouts of her lost family somewhere in Pakistan. Her travelling to Pakistan and then being held captive by her family. The man setting out for a search for her after an agonising wait. Red tape now allowing him to take a legal entry into the ‘dushman desh’. Him sneaking his way past the security forces and managing to find the girl. The family not quite mouthing ‘jaa simar jaa’ even as the man tries hard to reason. Now doesn’t all of this remind one of the script of Sunny Deol-Ameesha Patel’s legendary film Gadar – Ek Prem Katha. Well, Partition is exactly that but minus the hand pump sequence of course. That’s because director Vic Sarin has taken a far less dramatic and definitely a no-Bollywood route for his English film Partition which is set in the same times while narrating the tale of the same characters (Jimi Mistry, Kristin Kreuk) as seen in Gadar. It is surprising that there is no mention of either Gadar or even the single source which could perhaps have been an inspiration for Gadar as well. Nevertheless, does that make Partition a totally unexciting affair? Well, not exactly as long as you are fine with seeing British actors (with thankfully the lead hero – Jimi Mistry – being of Indian origin) act in this drama which is set in the ‘desi’ land. Also, if you are fine with Punjabis not just talking in English but also in an impeccable Westernised accent, Partition may just work for you if you are having fun drawing parallels with Sunny Deol’s Gadar. So while you expect Mistry to lift a bicycle and throw it on a bunch of intruders (this time around led by Irrfan Khan in a miniscule thankless role), all he does he look straight in the eye and dare to enter his household. Also, the energy of some nail biting drama and some heart pounding action sequences are definitely not what you see in Partition. Instead, the narrative stays on to be subtle with quite a few long pauses filling in the scenes. Even otherwise, there is a side track of Jimi’s fellow army man and his sister which continues to make an appearance right through this two hour long film. One would have wanted to avoid that as it only turns Partition into a sad affair. Also, the ending of Partition isn’t what fairy tales are made of, something that does leave you with a heavy heart but makes you wonder if watching the story unfold was indeed worth it.

PACKAGING Partition comes in a regular paper and plastic packaging. Since the film has primarily been made in English, the DVD also arrives in a dubbed Hindi version.

DURATION The film’s duration is 116 minutes.

SPECIAL FEATURES – The Making of Partition ‘A Journey of the Heart’ Making of an international project always makes one look forward to something which is different from routine and this is what one expects from the ‘Making of Partition’ as well. It is interesting to see how Punjab, the setting of the film, was actually recreated in the West where majority of film was shot. In this segment, director Vic Sarin talks about the inspiration that made him make the film and how he went about scouting for actors for the lead roles. The viewer is also taken through the making of the music (mainly the background score) as well as the costume designing and the other props that filled up the frames. Thankfully, the making sticks to the true ‘making’ per se without cast and crew members getting into the ‘pat on your back’ mode. However, though one would have expected some anecdotes to be shared about the film, mainly because the film has been made in the West by Western actors despite the story being about the Indian sub-continent, there aren’t many which are shared. Moreover, the making has a dreary documentary kind of feel right through its duration that makes one feel that it won’t really be much of a loss if a viewer skips this segment.

TECHNICAL DETAILS – 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation – Subtitles – English – Dolby Digital 5.1

PRICE Rs. 199/=

CONCLUSION From the story progression and the performance perspective, the film does make for a decent one time watch. However, it is not quite a film for the masses and is mainly for those who like their drama to be understated and subtle. Those who have seen Gadar and swear by Sunny paaji’s antics would certainly want to go back to the Anil Sharma version.

Rating:: 2 stars