Review: Partition

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, writes Khalid Mohamed. See videos:1| 2

Partition
Cast: Jimi Mistry, Kristin Kreuk

HT Image

Direction: Vic Sarin

Rating: **

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). See videos:1| 2

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.