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‘Partition: 1947’ banned in Pakistan

Gurinder Chadha’s ‘Partition: 1947’ (2017), which is the Hindi version of her internationally acclaimed ‘Viceroy’s House’ (2017), has been banned from being shown in cinemas across Pakistan.

It was reported in Absolute India News, that the reason behind the ban was because Muhammad Ali Jinnah was “misrepresented” within the film. Of course this brought great disappointment to the film director who took to Twitter to express her setback.  “It is unfortunate my film has been banned in Pakistan. It will always be the land of my ancestors. ‘Partition: 1947′,” said Chadha.

The Sindh Film Censor Board felt that it was not suitable saying, “The political narrative contradicts the national interest of Pakistan”.

The Board’s secretary Abdul Razzaq Khuhawar explains the reason behind the decision.  “It’s a historical film and nothing negative is shown against Pakistan. The main reason for banning it was the misrepresentation of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. “We felt his character was not portrayed correctly and it felt strange. Although the character only appears in a few scenes as the film mostly revolves around Lord Mountbatten, the actor didn’t look like Jinnah at all. If you had seen it, you couldn’t tell it was Jinnah. Otherwise, there were no issues with the film.”

The period film tells the story of the ordeal faced by many during the partition between India and Pakistan. Chadha whose mother was originally from Rawalpindi and witnessed the historical events, had gone back to her roots as part of her research to understand and document what had happened.

The film stars Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson, Huma Qureshi and Manish Dayal and released on the 18th August.