Echoes from an Empire
In India, a lot of films have been made relating to independence and Partition in both mainstream Hindi as well as regional languages. Where Bollywood films Garam Hawa, Tamas and mainstream ones like Earth and Train to Pakistan were well received, Sir Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi was the most acclaimed that won several Oscars and did roaring business globally. Jinnah, a 1998 epic biographical film which was released in Pakistan and in the United Kingdom was not released in India. The film had narrations by Bollywood veteran Shashi Kapoor. Now, Viceroy’s House directed by Gurinder Chadha and extensively shot in Jodhpur, Rajasthan depicts the life of Viceroy Lord Mountbatten and the turmoil in the Viceroy House in New Delhi.
A Viceroy is a regal official who runs a country, colony, city province or state in the name of and as the representative of the monarch. In Indian context, the Viceroy represented the British King. The title of Viceroy was awarded to members of nobility. The Viceroys were based in two cities — Kolkata during the 19th century and New Delhi during the 20th century. The two historic residences of the Viceroys that still stand are the Viceroy’s House (Rashtrapati Bhawan) in New Delhi and Government House (Raj Bhawan) in Kolkata. Today, they are used as the official residences of the President of India and the Governor of West Bengal, respectively.
After Bend it like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice, filmmaker Gurinder Chadha is all set to make yet another English film based on Indian characters. She says, “My film talks about Lord Mountbatten’s last few days of stay in India before the country got its independence. The feature drama will chart life inside the Viceroy’s House and the momentous political decisions that led to Partition in 1947.”
Partition as a subject to create literary and cinematic depictions continues to inspire filmmakers in both India and Pakistan. The latest is Gurinder Chadha with Viceroy’s House, writes Prakash Bhandari
As political elites Mahatma Gandhi, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Nehru, Liaquat Ali Khan and Sardar Patel took their seats in the large Viceroy House to discuss the modalities of the partition, a conflict erupted throughout the Viceroy’s House over the birth of an Independent India.