Batwara 1947

Batwara 1947 Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta, Karan Deol, Shabana Azmi, Ali Fazal

Director: Rajkumar Santoshi

What’s Good: The incisive script and message, and Shabana Azmi’s towering performance

What’s Bad: Intermittent spells of the ‘usual’ superhero in Sunny Deol

Loo Break: Don’t ‘Partition’ this narration

Watch or Not?: Surely yes!

Language: Hindi

Available On: Theatrical release

Runtime: 146 Minutes

User Rating:

The time is India’s Partition. The wealthy Sikandar Mirza (Sunny Deol) and his family—wife Hamida (Preity Zinta), son Javed (Karan Deol), and daughter Nishaat (Khushi Hajare)—are set to rejoice with India’s Independence when communal riots erupt and the celebrations are stymied. Left with no option but to leave (for good) for Lahore, Sikandar and his family get on board an overcrowded train, while Javed cannot enter the train along with their family friend Rashid and his clan.

Devastated, Sikandar, his wife, and daughter stay in a refugee camp in Lahore until a poet named Habib (Ali Fazal) gives them the home allotted to him by the authorities. That home, a massive 22-room mansion, is named Durga Nivas and originally belonged to an old Hindu lady named Mai (Shabana Azmi). Sikandar is unaware that the lady is still in residence. He then took all legal and emotional means possible to make her leave. But she insists that she will never leave until her son, Ratan (Khalid Siddiqui), returns, as he has gone missing with his wife and daughter.

Soon, the old woman endears herself to the Mirzas—first to Nishaat, and then to Hamida, and finally to Sikander. Meanwhile, Javed arrives there safely, and the Mirzas are overjoyed. Mai, a practicing Hindu, is also happy and blesses them. Later, Sikander comes to know that Mai has done something huge for him and, along with Hamida and Nishaat, begins to consider her as the mother he never saw.

But how can a paradise continue to remain one? Trouble erupts in the shape of aspiring politician and rabid fanatic Yakub (Abhimanyu Singh) and his cohorts. Javed, who has seen Rashid and family butchered back home thanks to a Hindu railway officer spilling the beans on where they are hidden, has started to look at Hindus as devils who should be killed and supports Yakub, who wants to send Mai to “Hindustan” where she belongs, or else kill her. When Sikander refuses to send Mai away and resists Abhimanyu’s machinations, Javed leaves home to join Yakub.

Sikander resists Yakub’s wicked efforts, and the latter goes all the way to get what he wants—using ruffians to harass and bully the family in multiple ways, trying to convince the city’s leaders and stonewalling the increasing harmony that develops between the Mirzas and Mai. The limit for him comes when Diwali is celebrated in the Mirza home with pomp, a puja, and the active participation of Muslims close to the Mirzas. What happens next?

Batwara 1947 Movie Review: Script Analysis

Based on Asghar Wajahat’s play, Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya, O Jamya E Nahin, the film finds Wajahat co-scripting with Rajkumar Santoshi, the director. The script is wonderful, showing the necessary home truths that a religion cannot be blamed for the black deeds of a few wrongdoers. The other truth it hammers home is that all religions are equal and that bringing a smile to someone’s eyes is the greatest karm. And respect for a mother is the greatest dharm. 

A celebration of motherhood in essence, Batwara 1947 thus uses Partition and the traumas as a mere base for the story of a family that evolves in the face of woes and challenges. As Sikander says in a crucial sequence, “Every infant utters the word Maa first and not Ram, Allah or anyone else.” 

Santoshi is also credited with the (modified) story and comes up trumps. His dialogues are basic and penetratingly trenchant. On the flipside, the screenplay turns very stereotyped when Sikander shows his ‘Sunny side up’, that is, when he beats endless ‘baddies’ all together. Hello, this is ridiculously incongruous for his character of a wealthy businessman back in India—he is no truck driver of Gadar here!

Batwara 1947 Movie Review: Star Performance

The star of the show is Shabana Azmi. Her performance as Mai is stunning, and that’s a mild term for its sheer magnificence. Mai’s initial stubbornness and cuteness, her simultaneous displays of compassion, her gradually being moved by the selfless affection of the Mirza family, and even her flashback sequences show a veteran who probably has very few equals in the field today.

Sunny Deol is restrained—most of the time. And that’s where he really scores. One can feel his all-consuming affection for Mai, for example. Preity Zinta makes a charming comeback, while Karan Deol still has miles to go, but for some sequences here and there. Abhimanyu Singh is routine in his villainy, but Ali Fazal in the goody-goody-gumdrops role of Habeeb executes another brilliant turn. The rest of the cast does justice to whatever roles they have.