Screenplay, direction: Jamil Dehlavi
Even though this film fetes the founder, the Quaid-i-Azam, the great leader of Pakistan, it was never screened in Pakistan. Most depictions of Jinnah elsewhere are often of one who is cunning, conniving, humourless, and challenging to deal with. To be fair, this film tries as much as possible to paint a picture of a well-meaning, conscientious Jinnah. It, however, glaringly gives a blank about a few particular things about his background that questions his portrayal as a soldier of Islam in his quest to establish a brand new fully Islamic country to safeguard the welfare of Muslims in the subcontinent. Jinnah and his Muslim League Party feared that an independent India would mean injustice from the British Raj would be transferred to another heathen ruler, the Hindu Raj.
In a flashback sequence, the story is told in a flip-flop manner, as Jinnah is at the fabled heaven's gate and being interviewed by St Peter. St Peter's archival system faces a glitch; hence, Jinnah has to narrate in person his life events. St Peter walks through his life, literally, as Jinnah is asked whether he regrets all the things he did in his lifetime and whether he would do it all again with the wisdom of hindsight. With a few regrets to his family life and the people who perished during Partition, Jinnah's answer is yes.
Nowhere in the film was it hinted about Jinnah's origin. The fact that he was a Gujerati, not from Punjab, where central Pakistan was carved out. It also omitted that he was of Shia denomination. I suppose where he came and at that time, it did not matter. He also did not speak Urdu, the spoken language of the majority of Muslims in India.
Jinnah's grandparents were Gujarati Hindus who were converted by a Sufi. Jinnah himself was not a traditionalist. After getting married as his mother's pre-requisite before leaving to study in England, he was initially meant to study medicine. He turned mid-way to read law and turned out quite a force to be reckoned in the courts. In 1929, he was said to have successfully defended Sardar Patel in a funds misappropriation case. He stood in Bhagat Singh's and Bal Tilak's legal team in the right to speech trial. In his famous speech, he asked the court, "You want to prosecute them or persecute them?"
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Jinnah with his sister and confidante Fatima |
Islam was a political tool to claim a new nation using victimhood of persecution by radical Hindu elements in India. Paradoxically, this same element assassinated Gandhi, a Hindu leader. The premise of this new country, Pakistan, was to offer its citizens equal rights, privileges, and obligations, irrespective of colour, caste, creed, or community. It promised citizens that religion had nothing to do with the state's business but merely a matter of personal faith. Obviously, this piped dream came crashing down only a year after the birth of this nation.
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Richard Lintern as young Jinnah |
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A nation's fate is decided under a tree. |
A stellar performance by the cast but history, as they say, is muti-dimensional. The viewers have to accept the storytelling maturely. The almost unrecognisable and puffed-up Shashi Kapoor appears as the St Peter character.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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