This film begins with a happily married Hindu couple. The husband is college educated and rich. His wife is very traditional and her entire world is the inside of her home. However, the husband pushes her to learn English and about the outside world and she reluctantly agrees. Later, an old college pal arrives. He is the head of a nationalistic "buy Indian" movement. While this husband is not entirely in agreement with the movement, he lets his wife learn more about this movement and its leader. She quickly falls under this stranger's spell and begins actively supporting him by selling her jewels to give the movement money. However laudable the cause seemed to be, over time it resulted in widespread persecution of the poor Muslims and as a result, Muslim reprisals. The once peaceful land is now in chaos and the wife finally realizes her new "knight in shining armor" is in fact, self-serving and unconcerned with the ensuing chaos! The stranger leaves town--leaving the very decent husband to try to restore order.
While I found this movie historically interesting, there were a couple elements that left me a bit cold. First, the wife falling in love with the stranger seemed way too quick and difficult to believe--plus, I would have thought her husband would have said something sooner considering this man so often met with the wife alone. Second, the movie itself was also a bit cold and didn't hook me emotionally. A similar type of movie about the Muslim-Hindu violence decades later (when the country finally gained its independence) was EARTH, but it really managed to strike a much more emotional cord. So, in all, a decent and interesting film but not great.
While I found this movie historically interesting, there were a couple elements that left me a bit cold. First, the wife falling in love with the stranger seemed way too quick and difficult to believe--plus, I would have thought her husband would have said something sooner considering this man so often met with the wife alone. Second, the movie itself was also a bit cold and didn't hook me emotionally. A similar type of movie about the Muslim-Hindu violence decades later (when the country finally gained its independence) was EARTH, but it really managed to strike a much more emotional cord. So, in all, a decent and interesting film but not great.