Partition

Plot synopsis:
Gian Singh is a Sikh who goes off to war in the British Indian Army with his two best friends Andrew and Avtar. The three are being seen off by Andrew's sister Margaret and Walter. Gian promises to look after Andrew only to resign after Andrew is killed. Gian is tortured by the guilt of not being able to save Andrew. The young Muslim woman Naseem (Kristin Kreuk) is separated from her family in riots and unaware that her father has been killed, hides in hope that the Sikh mobs won't find her.
Gian finds Naseem in the woods, having just returned to his home town near the Pakistani border. Their efforts to hide are foiled; Naseem and Gian are forced to bargain for Naseem's life with money. The townspeople, although initially resenting her presence, begin to accept Naseem, and it seems that the bad parts of their lives have faded away until night when both Naseem and Gian suffer from tortured visions of their past. These visions ultimately unite the two and they get married and have a son they call Vijay.
In love, the world seems perfect until Margaret shows up on Gian's doorstep with news that Naseem's family has been found in Pakistan. Naseem leaves to see them in Pakistan. She is to return in a month but does not arrive. Her two brothers, discovering her marriage to a Sikh, lock her up in her room and forbid her to ever return to India. Akbar, the eldest, is particularly stubborn, and vows to keep her away from her husband at all costs. Gian, tired of waiting, sets off on a trip to Pakistan to retrieve Naseem. He disguises himself as a Muslim, cutting off his hair and donning a Kofi. Even with the disguise he has to sneak across the border as his papers are not sufficient.
Gian meets with Walter and Margaret, who barely recognise him without his turban, and leaves Vijay with them while he goes to get Naseem. When he arrives, still dressed as a Muslim, Naseem immediately recognizes him. As they run toward one another they are stopped by her brothers and Akbar beats Gian. To explain himself to his neighbors he tells them that Gian is a Sikh. Meanwhile, Naseem has been locked up by her brother Zakir. Gian is hauled to jail and there he wallows in the darkness, refusing to return to India until he remembers that he has a son who needs him.
Naseem's mother, realizing that the couple are truly in love, frees Naseem, who runs to the train. She recognizes Vijay immediately and hugs him, unaware that Gian is just on the other side of the tracks. When he calls her name, they begin to fight through the crowd to reach one another. Just as they meet Akbar pulls them apart and begins a struggle with Gian. Gian is pushed over the railing onto the tracks just as the train arrives and is killed. Naseem sobs hysterically as she slowly collapses to the ground.
Naseem and Vijay escape on the train as the police arrive for Akbar. With the help of Margaret and Walter they move to England and Avtar spreads Gian's ashes given by Walter over a banyan tree.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Cinematographer, Vic sarin's camera work takes this wonderful love story to a higher plain.
His sweeping vistas, a heartwarming story and a comment on religious intolerance..all add up to make one of the best movies I have seen in a long time.
Jimi Mistri and Kristin Keruk give outstanding performance with Neve Campbell playing the sympathetic British subject during the time of the raj.
Set in India during the partition of Indian and Pakistand in 1947, this movie is timely in its focus on the trouble that surround our world today.
Gorgeous film dealing with a marvelous love story under historical background.
Gian Singh (Jimi Mistry) and Avtar Singh (Irrfan Khan)are Indian officers with the British Army serving under the command of Andrew Stilwell (Moss), who lives with his sister, Margaret,(Neve Campbell) in New Delhi .
Millions of Muslims crossed from Pakistan to India and vice versa , similar number of Hindus, and Sikhs crossed over from the other side.
A group of Muslims who were crossing over to Pakistan are attacked by a bunch of sword wielding horse-riding Sikhs, and Hindus, including Avtar (Khan), many are massacred, but some do manage to getaway.
Muslims, in turn, murder all Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs passengers on a train en-route to India.
Meantime , Gian, who refuses to collaborate in any slaughter , is picking up wood , he comes across a young Muslim girl names Naseem (Kristin Kreuk), in sheltering , and decides to hide her .
Gian asks the villagers to give him some time to find her family from Pakistan and then send her on her trace , to which they agree .
In the meantime, Naseem (Kreuk) befriends people , adapts herself to the village life, and soon Gian and Naseem fall in love with each other.It's an enjoyable romance/drama story where duo protagonist is awesome .
The picture is finely directed by Vic Sarin , he is an usual director for TV and occasionally for cinema , ¨Partition¨ is the best of them.The motion picture is correctly based on historic events , these are the following : The actual division between the two new dominions was done according to what has come to be known as the 3 June Plan or Mountbatten Plan.The border between India and Pakistan was determined by a British Government-commissioned report usually referred to as the Radcliffe Line after the London lawyer, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who wrote it.
On 18 July 1947, the British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act that finalized the partition arrangement.
Purists who were up in arms about Chinese actresses playing Japanese characters like in Memoirs of the Geisha will probably flip again at the portrayals of Indians by non-Indian actors, and could cite again similar examples whether the country of origin lacked capable actors to pull the roles off (Of course not, this is Bollywood we're talking about, certainly no lack of actors).
Or maybe the subject matter explored here outweighed such negative, meaningless, counterproductive thoughts and arguments.Journeying back to the time of the British withdrawal from India, one of the policies introduced during the independence, is this little handiwork done by the British, which had the population at the time segregate themselves into Hindu India, and Muslim Pakistan.
Gian Singh (Jimi Mistry) is an ex-soldier serving in the British army, and in his retirement from war, he returns to his village to seek a certain peace from within, after making a decision during the war which he has yet come to terms with.
One day, he rescues Naseem Khan (Kristin Kreuk) from a massacre by the Sikhs on the Muslims who were en route to Pakistan, and shields her from his fellow men when they bayed for her blood.As you might have guessed, the two will fall in love amid the background of violence, and their love will transcend religion, culture, and intolerance.
There are two acts in this movie, which I thought the second was somewhat hastened, given the idyllic pace which the first had dwelled in, sharing its rich cinematography by writer-director Vic Sarin.
Perhaps herein laid a message that love will transcend that as well, given that after all, God is also about love?Like how The Namesake made me sit up and take notice of Kal Penn, Partition had the same effect for Jimi Mistry.
Best known for his comedic The Guru role in which he plays a "sexpert", he's almost unrecognizable under that thick beard, and gave a very strong performance as a man haunted by his past, and finding a future with a loved one, willing to make extreme sacrifices for his family.
Kristin Kreuk, in her second movie outing after her bimbotic role in Eurotrip, brings a more Smallville's Lana Lang-ish appeal to her character here, as she pines for the loves of her life, and lets those tears roll.
It's strange though to see her try her best to put on a believable accent, and mannerisms right down to head movements, but she looks good in those saris!I was surprised to see Irfan Khan in a bit role here, having enjoyed his performance also in The Namesake, and Neve Campbell and John Light rounded up the supporting roles, with Neve's Margaret Stilwell a character whom I thought was a tragic one, no doubt if you interpreted as her still holding onto the candle for Gian, without him realizing, probably consciously aware that their status and skin colour are too different to have resulted in anything fruitful.With a one track beautiful theme song, lush sceneries, and wonderful performances, Partition is a surprise of the week, and over here, it's two screen release doesn't do it much justice.
Should you want to watch a love story set against a historical background which still has repercussions until this very day, then make it a point not to miss this..
It gives great insight into the creation of Pakistan and it's break from India in the late 40's.While Canadians have made some great movies of late and a lot of talent comes out of Canada, many of their movies are small stories (with the exception of Atom Agoyan's films) but as a movie, this for us is probably the best move ever made in Canada, and one of the best we've seen from anywhere this year.
Movie moves at a good pace.
A must watch for anyone moved by well made movies with good scripts..
I know what to expect as the movie is about Indo-Pak partition and the hardships faced by people in both the countries.
Here's an oddball mix: A Canadian film dealing with a Sikh-Muslim love story set against the partition of India in 1947, with Kristin Kreuk playing the lead Muslim girl (Naseem), Neve Campbell playing a British Indian, and everyone  from the villagers to the city folk, despite being mostly uneducated - speaking English of various accent!!!
The central love story is nothing new (the film seems like a different handling of the loud, crude, jingoistic, and ultimately inferior Indian film Gadar), and no aspect of it covers any new ground.
The child actor was also good, and I wish we could have seen more of Irrfan Khan than the bit part he plays.
Vic Sarin's Partition is an absolute masterpiece in cinematography, with a compelling continuing story of emotions, historical cultural divides summarized by the human need to love and be loved regardless of the events of the world around us.
A masterpiece in independent film-making in epic proportions Vic is an absolute master of his art, through the medium of film he has bought alive the mainly forgotten and least acknowledge problems of the on-going situation on the India and Pakistan borders.
Very solid, very enjoyable love story with an interesting historical background.
More films like this should be made and the sexual content should be removed so younger people can watch it and understand the reason why people were slaughtered in Pakistan and India.People were slaughtered for being either Muslim, Sikh or Hindu and Christan's were not spared either.
It was a disgusting vicious cycle.This film really revolves around the central two characters Jimi Mistry, a Sikh and Kristin Kreuk, a Muslim, whom fall in love, at a time when Muslims and Sikh are dividing.The story follows there love for one another and kind of emphasises the point love is greater than religion or any other divide that segregate people.Neve Campbell and Irrfan Khan also support the cast superbly..
It was no doubt a touching story and the partition background provided the scope for an epic.
i played an extra in this movie as a street vendor of vegetables and fruit/scene in fireworks diwali celebration.
Gian Singh (Jimi Mistry) and Avtar Singh (Irrfan Khan) are Sikh officers in the Indian Army sent to Burma under the command of Andrew Stilwell who lives with his sister Margaret (Neve Campbell).
He finds survivor Naseem Khan (Kristin Kreuk) and shelters her.
It's not an easy journey and at the end of it, he finds that Naseem's family had been keeping her prisoner.There is a small compelling love story in this movie.
The movie is fine as an Indian love story and it doesn't really need a British hand in it.
Kristin Kreuk is an unlikely choice to play an Indian.
The movie does lack the scale at times, and the cinematography needs better style.
Finally, Neve Rises; Beautiful Take on Star Crossed Love.
Much better than the more promoted India-set films, like "Darjeeling Limited" (2 stars) & the Julia Roberts vanity piece "Eat, Pray, Love." A tale relatable to our times, the underlying hatreds more true than fictional - and the unintended consequences of the arrogance of the English people of the now evaporated British Empire.
(This reviewer's ancestry is English.) The actors should be grateful to have had such excellent material and production value, finally, in their careers, especially Neve Campbell, who rises in a lovely restrained perf to her natural assets (instead of the "When Will I Be Loved" James Tobak-type- clapcrap).
Partition was a lovely film, very tastefully set in picturesque locales.
Being an Indian, in India, I wonder about the authenticity of the story.
Sirsa, the centre of the the story, where Gian belongs, is not the everyday city of erstwhile Punjab that one would have expected a non-Indian movie to talk of.
The trivia that hints at fiction are:Gian's son is named Vijay, a non-Sikh name, even if the marriage was of two people of differing religions, one does not expect that the child would be named on a third religion.Sirsa is not so close to the border that people from Delhi were required to cross over to Pakistan on foot - when the massacre takes place.Sirsa is also in the very arid west.
Even so, I am sure the director, Mr Vic Sarin has heard of a story from his father or uncle, which was the simple basis of this lovely production.Highly recommended for the above-average viewer..
It's a terrible disappointment, considering the cast, but I can't look past the fact that the dialogue is in English and some of the actors pretending to be Indian are not even close (read: Kristin Kreuk).
Considering that India alone has 1/6th of the world's population and one of the biggest movie industries, I don't think it would have been hard for the film-makers to have found an excellent Indian actress to play the part.
For example, however good an actor Tom Hanks may be, he'll never be able to play an Australian Aborigine!But that is still minor to the biggest faux pas the film-makers made: having the dialogue in English.
Unfortunately, as things stand, I would not recommend anyone seeing it, apart from film students who want to study "What not to do" in movies..
This movie portrayed the Sikhs and Muslims in a very negative manor, while making the third group (Hindus) look as if they were non existent in the brutal killings of the people of both nations.
I hope those that watch this movie do not see or use it as a template for the actual historical event..
Partition is a copy of Hindi blockbuster Gadar which released on 2001.I must say GADAR is the better movie because of its fast pacing action, hard hitting dialogues.
Partition lacked both action and dialogues.The atrocities to Muslim girl when she returns to Pakistan are well shown in GADAR.Since it was about India-Pakistan,there should have been lot of actors from the sub-continent.
The Muslim girl played by Kreuk was just satisfactory.The film does not properly explains why he kills Andrew.
Mehta's 'Earth' is the better choice for partition story.
While there were other aspects of the film that I enjoyed, I think that Deepa Mehta's film 'Earth' is a better rendering of the partition story and better communicates the situation.
The mixed race love story is clichéd though the origins of this one seem credible; it does leave a few open questions as to just how (in)tolerant the various ethnicities involved were at the time..
A Canadian production of a love story between an Indian Sikh boy and a Pakistani Muslim girl set during the Partition/Independence era of the 1940s by a director who is Kashmiri by birth and has professional origins in Australia, is a ripoff of one of the biggest hits Indian cinema saw in the last decade GADAR - Ek Prem Katha http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284137/ !!!
"Partition" deals with an important turning point in history (the division of India and Pakistan along religious lines) and classic theme (love conquers all).
However, it does not succeed as well as Deepa Mehta's far superior "Earth", which covers the same period."Partition" handles the love story between Jian Singh and Naseem in a delicate and sensitive way.
However, this information should have been woven into the dialog.By the way, the dialog is sometimes drowned out by a score that made me feel like I was watching "Lawrence of Arabia".The film's denouement is fairly predictable (in slow motion, yet!).
What an amazing breathe of fresh air this film was, following the start of the summer bandwagon of Rubbish comes a small movie that proves budget & stars does not always mean success, look at the less promoted titles also.I must admit that i did not realise like i am sure a lot of people the intense hatred between the Sikhs and the Muslims at this period of time.
I being white and married to a Indian girl myself had a very big interest in this movie and although i found the film amazing it did not historically shed any light on what i did not know about this point in time.
The slaughter of both the Sikhs and Muslims was graphic and the cinematography was fantastic.The only down side to this spectacular movie was giving a role to Neeve Campbell, the British accent was laughable.
Mistry and Kreuk were brilliant with Mistry putting in an alround stunning performance.The story keeps you entertained the whole time and you do not know what the ending has in store.
I can only strongly recommend this as a must watch film, a stunning film from story, score, performances, i just cannot fault it.
SO i just watched this movie and its a total rip-off from an Indian movie called Gadar- Released sometime in 2000.
I can't believe they would applaud a director for lifting his story line and scenes from an Indian movie.
The whole movie seems like an act.
The worst off is the female character who lacks depth and emotional display in her characterization.All they did was change the end a little- from the two movies, and introduced a few Brit characters.
Its almost as if the Director had the original Gadar movie which he kept watching and decided to make his movie and change it a little according to his whims and whissals.
Somebody should go see The Namesake, and see what a fine story can be told using Indian Actors.
Like the male lead in the movie, I slowly but surely fell in love with her innocence, her humility, and her soft spoken mannerisms, all of which were very much a part of her charm and made her hard to resist.
Truly wonderful acting on her part.As for Jimis character (Gian Singh), there wasn't a second in the entire movie where I didn't feel that he was in love.
Where the movie falls a bit short is with fleshing out his character.
I believe that change would have made me fall in love with her and relate to him in a much more personal way all at the same time.
This alone makes it worth watching, albeit as a love story alone.If it's movie night, I recommend watching this one first....before the action movies or comedy because of it's slightly slower than steady pace..
Partition is a good attempt to narrate the story of the protagonists, in the backdrop of the partition of India (as India and Pakistan) in 1947.
Though knowledge of the actual partition would help understand the story better, it is not a prerequisite as such.
The main protagonists (Gian and Naseem) have given stellar performances, and so have few others like Neve Campbell (Margaret Stilwell) and Irfan Khan (Avtar).
The script is strikingly similar to a Bollywood (Hindi) movie titled "Gadar - A Prem Katha" released in 2001 and became very popular too.
Partition should keep you gripped till the end, with its fabulous characterizations and performances of the lead actors.
The movie ends differently too, leaving you convinced of the improvisation of the script.
This is mainly a love story set amidst the 40s partition.
Neve Campbell also seems out of place as a British woman in India in the 40s.
Not a great movie but worth one watch if you are interested in the subject matter but prepared for a rather trying love story..
good movie...