[insects buzzing]
[clock ticking]
[coughs]
[metal clangs]
[door opens loudly]
Gentlemen!
The last official documents
Britain humbly bequeaths to India.
Best you go through them in separate rooms.
Please...
Thank you.
[paper rustles]
-[angrily] What the hell is this, Your Excellency?! -This is unacceptable!
-Lahore to Pakistan? Really? -Gurdaspur is Muslim territory!
-Why in God's name has it been awarded to India? -Hindu and Sikhs are the backbone of the city!
Its properties, its commerce, everything is primarily owned by Hindus and Sikhs.
Please, allow me to explain...!
Explain Chittagong Hills.
It has a Buddhist majority. It has to be in India.
Why stop at the land, why not stake a claim on the air above Pakistan as well?!
Will you ever stop complaining?
Will you ever give us our fair share?
You have received far more than your fair share!
We got a share, Panditji, but it is hardly fair!
[shouts] Gentlemen!
Pack it in, the both of you.
Jawa.
Jawahar,
you wanted half of Punjab and Bengal.
You Pakistan.
So you both got what you wanted.
So please,
[exhales heavily]
for the love of god, accept.
So we can move forward.
For the love of humanity...
[creaking door]
Bapu,
borders have been announced...
[music grows tense]
Phone Maulana.
Yes Bapu.
[rotary dial clicking]
[loud explosion]
Bapu!
-Bapu! -I am fine!
[speaks loudly] Abha, shut the door!
And phone the police!
Don't leave Bapu alone!
[opening title music plays]
[proclamation] After years of strife and sacrifice,
-we have finally been blessed with Pakistan! -A loafer like you in such a tearing hurry!
Where are you rushing off to?
To stay alive!
Your precious Congress has gifted our town to Pakistan!
All of us Hindus will die here, Bauji!
[trembling voice] We have to leave this town immediately.
These damn newspapers have poisoned your mind!
-Bauji-! -Get the girls ready for school!
[panicked] Bauji, have you any idea-?
There are riots all across Lahore! Riots!
[nervous] Look at this! Read it!
In order to douse the fire on Hindu homes,
Muslims threw petrol instead of water! Petrol!
Petrol! You think the rioters are all millionaires, do you?!
Petrol it seems! Do you even know how much petrol costs?
Talking rubbish all the time!
-Bauji... -Send the kids down!
[yelling] Bauji, all I know is if we stay here,
we will be next in line!
[shouting slogans] We won our Pakistan, now we take over Hindustan!
We won our Pakistan, now we take over Hindustan!
Do you hear that? Do you hear what they are saying?
These Muslims will not let us live here anymore!
Not let us live here anymore?!
This is my ancestral home! I'd like to see who can remove me from here.
As if I can leave with all you deadweights!
Bauji, listen!
Hey, listen! Listen to me...
[ragged breathing]
I know I am your stepson.
I know you don't care about me.
Don't care about me then.
But look at them,
you care about them, right?
Convince Bauji to leave tonight!
There is no need to go anywhere! Baba-ji has said everything will be fine.
Baba-ji has said...?
Baba-ji has said?!
Did you think there would be a wedding, that you went off to ask Baba-ji?!
Bauji, this woman is lying, she'll get you ki-
-Enough! Get out! OUT! -Bauji...bauji!
Don't darken my doorstep ever again. Out! Get out!
You are dead to me. I never want to see your face again.
Bauji...bauji no...
Punjab is still aflame on both sides of the border with no signs of stopping
but we are receiving reports
of a bomb blast in Calcutta, not far from Bapu's residence of Hyderi Manzil.
We don't have all the details of the blast yet,
[over radio] but fortunately, we do know Bapu is safe.
Police is on high alert across Calcutta and parts of Bengal
for fear of further rioting.
It remains to be seen whether the people of Calcutta
will maintain peace and order in the wake of this incident.
[mourning music continues]
Viceroy Mountbatten.
Prime Minister.
I'll have you know the UK press is singing your name!
"India's independence has been accompanied
by an outpouring of goodwill and friendship towards Britain."
That's very kind, Prime Minister.
But I'll be honest with you...
...the process hasn't been the most peaceful one, that's for sure.
There's rioting in Punjab and Calcutta.
But, hopefully in time, things should subside...
With you at the helm, I have no doubt they will. And, uh,
Dickie, expect a case of Pom DeLignon with you shortly.
Courtesy of His Majesty's government.
Enjoy!
At least the Prime Minister's got good taste in champagne.
Certainly, sir.
Got terrible taste in suits.
[chuckles]
A toast!
-To Lord Mountbatten! -Please.
Saviour of Burma and now India!
Cheers.
Pulling off the greatest administrative operation man has ever known.
Agreed.
-One moment -Your Excellency?
Yes?
[door slams]
Everything alright?
An exodus has begun.
People, families have started moving across the border
from both sides.
How many?
-3 to 4... -Thousand!
Million!
[people yelling and panicking]
[song begins]
Speak from the depths of the grave
to Waris Shah I say
and add a new page
of the saga of love today.
Once wept a daughter of Punjab,
your pen unleashed a million cries
a million daughters weep today,
to you Waris Shah they turn their eyes.
[over radio] Both nations have achieved freedom on paper,
but peace and quiet are not yet within reach.
Lakhs of Hindus and Muslims have left behind their ancestral homes, villages, towns,
to put down roots in the alien lands across the border.
Some lost forever their homes,
some their land, and yet others, their very lives.
[angrily shouting]
Look! It's turned into a fucking madhouse!
[yelling] Get some air conditioning going!
8 lakh refugees?!
Sir, as per the reports we have...
Please alert the local authorities of the towns they are moving towards.
-But sir, what I've been trying to say is... -They must prepare for all possibilities.
This is just the first caravan, sir, more are following.
The number can go up to 20 lakhs...
And all of these refugees are on their way to Delhi.
I'll fetch the rest of the reports.
Speak from the depths of the grave
to Waris Shah I say
and add a new page
of the saga of love today.
Awake, decry your Punjab,
O sufferer with those suffering!
Corpses entomb the fields today
the Chenab is flowing with blood.
Speak from the depths of the grave
to Waris Shah I say
and add a new page
of the saga of love today.
[rapid gunfire continues]
[crowd shouting and panicking]
[breathing heavily]
Don't spare anyone. Finish the job.
Shoaib! Bring the cans.
[metal crunching]
[fuel splashes on people]
[music grows tense]
[horrified screaming]
[people shouting in fear]
[screaming loudly]
Unacceptable!
Phone every district administration in Punjab
on both sides of the border.
The onus of protecting minorities lies with both nations!
Right,
but the riots have spread so much,
Jawahar, that both administrations
are unable to give the minorities protection.
What can they give then?
Passage!
I think both nations should give their minorities safe passage.
Are you suggesting a minority exchange...?
So we should tell the Muslims that they don't belong here?!
And never did?!
This might be Jinnah's ideology, but it is not ours.
The Muslims in India are not a patch sewn onto our fabric,
they are part of the warp and weft! They are a part of India's fabric.
[voice raised] But the fabric has been torn!
Open your eyes and see!
The fabric has been ripped into two, it is unsalvageable!
Say what you will, Vallabhbhai...
What we need to give them is not a safe passage, but a safe India.
Their own home, where they have lived for generations!
A secular India.
Principally, I agree,
but practically,
how will we make it work?
Tell me, Jawahar! How can we make it work?
Arrest all of them. Arrest them all!
When they go to jail, then Nehru's Akali cronies will realise
that in MY Pakistan, there is no space for rioting and violence.
Quaid...
these rioters are Muslim.
[tone sharpens] What do you mean they are Muslims!
Yes,
yes, of course...
Must be the traitors Nehru has bribed!
Nehru is organising riots in Pakistan!
Your Excellency, Prime Minister Nehru is on the phone from Delhi.
Yes?
Have you read the news?
It is regrettable...
Both states must reassure their minorities that they are safe right where they are.
Let's do everything that we can.
I believe we should both take an official tour of Punjab.
Is this a suggestion or an order?
Consider it a request.
If the Prime Minister of Hindustan
registers an official request to the Quaid-e-azam of Pakistan as per protocol,
then I might consider it.
Bloody hell!
This man's pride is going to cost him the lives of his people...
Before you say anything, Vallabhbhai,
we will not make any decisions based on religion,
we will not stoop to the level of Pakistan!
Liaquat, you will take the official tour of Punjab with Nehru.
Quaid, I have important work to see to here!
I decide what is important for you!
[train whistle blows]
Passengers, please note
the direct train from Sialkot to Amritsar will depart imminently
from Platform No. 2...
-Money...jewels...? You have everything? -Come on!
Stitched it into my petticoat.
-Come through here! -It's this one, Harpal, this one!
-No no no, go through there, through there! -Alright, come on! Come on!
Out of the way! Move!
Move aside!
[shouting angrily] DID YOU JUST PUSH ME?! I AM A SOLDIER!
-Let's go! -Let's go!
-Let's go, Keshav, come on! -Up up up, kid! Let's go, Keshav!
-Come on, Keshav! -Come on, kid!
Give me your hand, Vaishali! Your hand!
Hand me the bag!
[train whistle blows]
[flames crackling]
[proclamation] Across the border, they ask if we are truly Muslim...
And on this side, they ask if we are truly Indian!
But there is only one truth --
We are Muslims, and Hindustan is our motherland!
And we will not leave the soil of our own country!
[smash and blast]
[music intensifies]
[door creaks open]
'Churchill denounces Transfer of Power', have you seen this?!
'Murder and Arson Reach New Peak. Mountbatten Responsible?'
[in frustration] All of a sudden they think that I've botched this up!
[panting angrily]
People sure are fickle.
How quickly they forget that I pulled this off without
spilling one drop of British blood!
And what about all the Indian blood that's been spilled?
It is because you, Dickie,
you decided just to pack up and leave in just under four months.
I did everything in consultation with Jinnah, Nehru, and Patel.
They're the ones that wanted power handed over to them
without thinking about the consequences of law and order!
[speaking loudly] Who does it matter?!
Who does it matter who you consulted?
Open your eyes, Dickie and just look at the horrors around you!
Those women there,
They are just the first around here to have their lives
uprooted with no sense of what their future holds!
I did my duty.
Duty over lives.
Well done, Dickie.
[papers thrown angrily]
Uh... Bapu is awake...
What's the matter, Bapu!
Pencil...
I have lost my pencil...
You have not slept in two days, Bapu.
Please rest for a while.
Where is my pencil?
Abha, bring a pen!
I don't want a pen! I want my pencil!
And I know exactly what I am doing.
I don't need to be coddled.
Bapu...
your pencil.
Hmm?
Pencil.
Bapu,
we have been very unjust to you, haven't we...
We have thrust this title of Mahatma upon you
and forgotten that you, too, are a man.
I know you are upset.
Don't be!
The government did not heed your word.
But the nation will.
When you speak, Bapu, the nation listens.
Please speak... what would you like them to hear?
The Calcutta Bureau Office reports:
In order to combat rising violence in the city,
78-year-old Gandhiji has announced a fast unto death.
All of Bapu's fasts until now have been against the British.
For the first time, he is fasting to appeal to his fellow Indians.
[over radio] Bapu's condition is simple.
Hindus and Muslims must stop the bloodshed
and coexist in peace and brotherhood once again.
Kashmirilal Pahwa! Kashmirilal Pahwa of Montgomery!
Or any member of his family? Kashmirilal Pahwa!
Kashmirilal...
How did you all get here?!
Hmm?
How did you get here?
They had... everything finished...
[tearfully] everyone dead...
Bauji? Bauji? Bauji?
-Where is Bauji! -N-n-number 16.
[voice shakes] Number 16...number 16... number 16...
Move aside. Where is number 16? Number 16...?
Number 16...number 16!
Number 16! Number 16...?
Bauji?
Bauji...
-Madan... -Yes! Yes, Bauji,
I am here. Bauji, everything will be okay now,
I am here...
There is a refugee camp in Tarn Taran,
they say they have space for us.
Yes Bauji, there is space for every--
I want to talk to him, will you...
[speaks quietly] They are saying there is space for us four.
We will leave him here.
Say yes to them... say yes...
Madan...
Yes Bauji...yes Bauji!
We are leaving for Tarn Taran.
Okay, Bauji!
They are allotting plots of land to refugees over there...
I'll be a changed man there, Bauji,
I swear, I will never disappoint you again, Bauji...
What will you do over there?
What do you mean what will I do?
Where else will I go?
Delhi.
Go to Delhi.
I will recommend you for a government job over there.
Are you...
leaving me behind, Bauji?
You are abandoning me...again!
Son,
you know, Baba-ji once told me
the name of this son of mine, Madan,
would echo around all of Hindustan one day.
All of Hindustan...
Where are you going, son?
The name will not echo all by itself, Bauji.
I will have to do something big.
That is what I am going to do.
Chapter 2, Verse 23:
Seeing Arjun's state of mind, Lord Krishna imparted the Geeta's divine wisdom to him.
He explained to him that while the body is but temporary, the soul is immortal.
Lord Krishna said: Arjun, no weapon can injure the soul.
This way.
Bapu, Maulana is here.
What is this petulance, Bapu!
You are appealing to mindless, senseless thugs!
Senseless and mindless, Maulana. Not heartless.
I want to reach their hearts.
If something happens to you...
what will become of us Muslims?
If my life is the price
to stop this carnage,
it is a most ordinary price.
[telephone ringing]
-Hello? -Hello, Mani beta?
-Hello? -Mani dear, this is Maulana speaking.
Yes, Maulana sahab?
-I have just met with Bapu. -I see.
Bapu's health is not at its best.
Vallabhbhai and Panditji should visit now.
Over there, near the bridge.
[car engine approaches]
Stop the car.
Sir, it is not safe to stop the car here.
-Stop the car. -Sir, where are you going!
Please return to your homes! Nobody needs to leave.
This country belongs to you just as much as it belongs to your neighbours!
Panditji,
who wants to leave behind their own home?
The neighbours we treated like family are the ones out for our blood today.
Which is your village?
Generations-old friendships, all destroyed in the name of a border?
The neighbours you shared a life with, are now your enemies?
Have you all forgotten that they are human beings?
If anybody dares commit violence
upon an innocent person because they happen to be Muslim,
I will be compelled to pass an order to shoot rioters at sight.
When it was our people being killed, where was this order, Panditji?
Please don't let this country burn any longer.
Please stop this fight!
If it was a fight, perhaps we would have.
This is a war of religion.
[furious] War has no religion.
But victims do!
When my people were being killed, you didn't care about religion.
But now that these Muslims are being killed, you talk about religion?!
They may have started it.
But WE will end it.
[steam engine hisses]
[wheels screech]
[indistinct chatter]
-I'll go take a look. -Be careful, bhaiya...
[birds chirping]
[gunshot]
[crowd shouting in fear]
[rapid gunfire]
Harpal! Harpal, open your eyes...
[rapid gunfire continues]
[chaos erupts]
O Maa Bhawani, forgive me...
[gunshot]
KESHAV!
[cries out]
[crickets chirping]
[mournful music]
What does it say?
Welcome to Hindustan.
[struggling to breathe]
[speaks loudly] Ambulance!
[gasping for air]
This man is alive!
First Calcutta, then Lahore,
and now the transport lines across the country.
Any more good news?
And they've got the audacity to blame me.
I mean, have they any idea that
we've organised aid for refugees only to
find out that it's been to no avail, because they can't even get to us?
That our border security forces, I mean, there's a joke if you want one! Ha!
Can't even keep peace in their own ranks, let alone elsewhere.
I mean, heaven forbid they actually did their fucking jobs!
The press.
Oh, they're running me down.
Bastards.
My wife!
[despairing laugh]
Oh, she thinks I botched it all up.
And just to finish it off,
Churchill stabs me in the back.
Might as well pack up and go home.
Wash our hands of the bloody mess.
I am
sick
of being people's scapegoat.
Let the Pakistanis, or the Indians,
or whatever the hell they want to call themselves,
let them deal with it.
Savages!
[lighter flick]
[insects buzzing]
I'm sorry, Menon...
Emotions got the better of me.
I just don't know what to do anymore.
They've made their bed, and now they must sleep in it.
You need to make a call, Your Excellency.
To the Pakistanis or the Indians or
whatever the hell we savages want to call ourselves.
I'll leave this on your desk, sir.
Good night.
Gentlemen.
I will help in the capacity that I can,
but it is in your hands to decide what is best for the people of your countries.
I trust that you will do what is necessary to contain the madness.
Good luck.
[clears throat]
I trust you are aware, Bapu's health is worsening.
And I must be off to Calcutta to be by his side.
So, I will keep it crisp.
The police as well as the boundary force failed miserably
miserably at containing the violence in Punjab.
The state of Pakistan sympathises with its minorities.
Jinnah sahab, a highly competent friend once told me;
the people don't want sympathy from the state...
They want protection.
And both countries have heretofore failed to protect their minorities.
In such circumstances, there is only one way to curtail the violence in Punjab.
Minority population exchange.
Muslims from India should be able to reach Pakistan safely,
and Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan, India.
Makes sense?
Jawahar?
Jinnah sahab?
Hm.
I must have said this a thousand times.
But no matter. Better late than never.
Right, then. Thank you.
[chair scraping]
[stick taps on the ground]
Mr. Nehru...
You must think the worst of me.
But believe me,
what is happening now, it was never my intention.
It is most certainly a consequence of your actions,
Mr. Jinnah.
You sowed these seeds of hatred,
but we all must reap your harvest.
[footsteps fade]
Vallabhbhai, Bapu is on his deathbed.
-Have you come to bid him goodbye? -Panditji, panditji!
While your attention has been solely on Punjab,
look what has become of Calcutta and Bapu!
-As Prime Minister, don't you think you must-- -Will this be the first time Bapu's fast is unsuccessful?
There has been no improvement.
Bapu's health is worsening,
but his mind is made up.
Until all violent parties in Calcutta have thrown down their weapons,
Bapu will not touch any food.
[over radio] It is Day 3 of Bapu's fast to curb the violence in Calcutta.
These three days have severely impacted Bapu,
and his pulse is weakening.
But what is astounding is the effect of this upon the people of the city.
Bapu has openly challenged the hatred
[radio continues] flowing through Calcutta by declaring this fast unto death.
The public has taken to the streets with photographs of Bapu.
Maulana Azad, Pandit Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
and others, are appealing to the public for peace.
The streets where only yesterday flowed rivers of blood, today,
are full of peaceful protestors.
Across the city, people are praying for Bapu.
Once again, Bapu's principles have humbled the government.
But a sense of unease pervades this atmosphere of hope.
Each citizen knows - this time,
Bapu is fighting not only the hatred, but also his own advanced age.
[weapons clatter to the ground]
Bapu...
the violence has ceased.
The city is peaceful now.
See for yourself.
Look.
We were told you were no more.
[weakly] My apologies for disappointing you.
I have taken far too many lives.
I can't take any more.
For god's sake, eat!
Eat.
Or else, I will take my own life!
That will be my redemption.
Redemption can only be achieved...
by protecting the same Muslims you pointed your weapons towards.
Stand guard outside their houses.
Outside their houses?!
[angrily] THEY RAPED MY WIFE!
She was eight months pregnant...
I can still hear her screaming, Bapu!
I can understand your pain.
No, you cannot!
What shall we do, Bapu...
what shall I do?
[weeps silently]
Stop alienating the pain of others.
The tears that flow over your own...
let them flow over the pain of others.
If we want a peaceful India,
we will first need a peaceful Calcutta.
Sardar...
Yes, Bapu.
-A sip of water... -Yes!
Water...
I am very thirsty.
[crowd chanting] Long live Mahatma Gandhi!
Long live Mahatma Gandhi!
What 55,000 soldiers failed to do in Punjab,
a lone man has done in Calcutta.
The Muslims of Calcutta have expressed their gratitude to Gandhiji.
[over radio] If they are alive today, it is because of him.
[coughs]
We are rotting here...
but Bapu only cares about those Muslims.
A father should treat all his children the same...
We deserve
a better father than this.
I deserve better...
And so does Hindustan.