Director
Deepa Mehta
Leading Actors/Actresses
Nandita Daz, Rahul Khanna
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Shabana Azmi, Aamir Khan
Genre
Indian new wave movie
Language
Hindi, Urdu
Awards
Filmfare Best Debut Performance Award : Rahul Khanna
Date of Release
September 10, 1999
Producer
Anne Masson, Deepa Mehta
Setting and Context
Lahore, India, 1947, during the Partition of India
Narrator and Point of View
The narrator is Lenny, as her adult self, telling the story that happened during her childhood.
Tone and Mood
At first the tone and mood are relaxed, copacetic and friendly. As the movie progresses, things become tense, divisive and threatening.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists are the group of friends; the antagonist is the act of partition which divides them on religious grounds.
Major Conflict
There is conflict between Sikh, Hindu and Muslim characters as the movie progresses because this is the way in which the country and its citizens are also being being divided by the British during the Partition.
Climax
The separation of the group of friends results in anger and tragedy.
Foreshadowing
Separating the country by faith and religion foreshadows the way in which a group of friends of different faiths will begin to fracture and see themselves in opposition to each other.
Understatement
N/A
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
N/A
Allusions
The film alludes to the real-life history of India and Pakistan, and also explains how they became relative "enemies" in a short space of time.
Paradox
The group of friends do not care at all about their religious differences, until they are told to do so by the British colonists.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between the government of India and the citizens of the country who begin to see everyone on religious grounds not on an individual basis.
