Review: Partition

Apologies again. This Partition isn’t recommended at all, except perhaps to Sunny Deol, pre-sizzler Ameesha Patel, Gurdas Mann and Divya Dutta. They might like it, you didn’t, writes Khalid Mohamad.

Partition
Cast: Jimi Mistry, Kristin Kreuk
Director: Vic Sarin
Rating: **

HT Image

Honestly, you’re glad that you didn’t see this one in the company of Sunny Deol. Or else, he would have surely tightened his fists (ouch), let off one of his blood-curdling yells (aaargh) and even broken into a rendition of main nikla gaddi lekar (deadly dhinchik dhinchak).

Vic Sarin’s Partition is an all too neat and tidy version of the Gadar love story between a Sikh man and a Muslim girl at the time of separation. Actually dearie Divya Dutta went through the same Indo-Pak marriage with Gurdas Mann in Shaheed-e-Mohabbat even before Sunnyji did with Ameesha Patel in her pre-sizzler-item-girl days.

The romance which knows no borders is also mentioned in Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. Now surely, Sarin could have discovered another cross-border story instead of re-shooting the oft-told one in what looks suspiciously like British Columbia. Here people also speak English dialogue in a bewildering variety of accents, including Vinay Pathak glimpsed in a Kanhaiyalal-grocer-kind-of role, Madhur Jaffrey as a mom who doesn’t cook, and Irrfan Khan who dons yet another curly beard. Weird.

Apologies again. This Partition isn’t recommended at all, except perhaps to Sunny Deol, pre-sizzler Ameesha Patel, Gurdas Mann and Divya Dutta. They might like it, you didn’t.