 embarrassment to his family and to the Islamists. Shamed, he returns to Hinduism, and to alcohol. The adulation of Gandhi and Mother Kasturba reaches fever pitch across India. Documentary footage shows the rebellion in the streets. Hari is now a derelict. Kasturba dies in Gandhi’s arms. The issue of partition creates riots and massacres. Gandhi tries feebly to halt the barbarism. Sensing he is near death, he searches for Harilal. Independence comes amid mass celebration and horrifying violence. The destitute Harilal hears the news of his father’s death. He joins the crowds at the cremation but is trampled. He dies in a hospital in Bombay five months after his father’s death.
Bhowani Junction (1956)
Set in India of 1947, this film offers a panoramic look at the early years of Indian independence (granted by the British in 1947). It stars Ava Gardner as a half-caste woman torn between her love for her homeland and her feelings for a British Colonel (Stewart Granger). Granger is charged with helping with an orderly transition. The enemy here appears to be the Communists. Filmed on location in Lahore, Pakistan, it is based on the John Masters novel. The focus for this film is on the effects of the British departure from India. The setting is modeled on the city of Jhansi in central India. It is a major railway junction.
This picture, though filmed in Pakistan, gives a very fine portrait of India in the period leading to the death of Gandhi. The choice of casting Ava as a half-caste is inspired. She forms the pivot in a situation fraught with deep cultural and racial contradictions. This is quite a remarkable subject area for 1956. Stewart Granger, called Rodney Savage, anchors the British end of the spectrum and strikes the appropriate note of enlightened arrogance. He must try to maintain order in a society that is on the brink of chaos. There are scenes of riots in the streets that are very convincing. Though there are efforts from the Gandhian faction to preserve the agenda of non-violence, there are others who are committed to violent rebellion. The rebels have acquired a trainload of dynamite and the results are catastrophic. All the while, Ava is caught in the middle, torn between the two sides of her birthright. Her relationship with Granger is contentious through most of the film but her efforts to establish a bond with an Indian man who loves her are equally troubled. He wants her to adopt his Sikh religion and she tries very hard. She feels that she doesn’t belong in either reality. When she kills a British officer who tried to rape her, she is tormented with guilt. The film ends in a confusion of courtroom drama, complicated romance, and a frantic train chase to prevent an assassination attempt on Gandhi. Granger wants Ava to come back to England with him but she wants to stay in India and be herself. He vows to return.