Ava Gardner plays the role of a mixed race Anglo-Indian woman coming to terms with the departing Brits. It's 1947, time to pack the bags and go home. But where is her home? During the occupation of India, many British expats 'went native' and developed relationships with Indians. The resulting issues were half-British - chi-chi, a step above the native wogs but hardly the right (read white) stuff. For broadly the opposite reasons, full-blood Indians despised 'em too.
Stewart Grainger plays the British army officer charged with the task of maintaining order at an increasingly rebellious outpost called Bhowani Junction. The Indians are employing Ghandi's 'passive resistance' to foul things up and expedite their colonists' departure. A romance develops between they two.
This is an inevitably simplistic Hollywood take on British colonial rule. But it's nicely filmed in black and white with some very authentic locations.
When Indians lie on the railway tracks in an attempt to blockade the movement of trains, Grainger's army officer has a neat solution. He threatens them with the contents of the station latrines. They call his bluff so he lest 'em have it. At least it gets the trains running on time.
It's depicted as outrageous behaviour in the movie, but compared to what these people did to each other after the Brits were gone it was hardly worse than pissing in your tea. How many people were murdered during partition - was it a million?
This is a very decent drama, but the stand-out performance is unquestionably Ava Gardner's who - let's face it - never played a bummer in her life.
Stewart Grainger plays the British army officer charged with the task of maintaining order at an increasingly rebellious outpost called Bhowani Junction. The Indians are employing Ghandi's 'passive resistance' to foul things up and expedite their colonists' departure. A romance develops between they two.
This is an inevitably simplistic Hollywood take on British colonial rule. But it's nicely filmed in black and white with some very authentic locations.
When Indians lie on the railway tracks in an attempt to blockade the movement of trains, Grainger's army officer has a neat solution. He threatens them with the contents of the station latrines. They call his bluff so he lest 'em have it. At least it gets the trains running on time.
It's depicted as outrageous behaviour in the movie, but compared to what these people did to each other after the Brits were gone it was hardly worse than pissing in your tea. How many people were murdered during partition - was it a million?
This is a very decent drama, but the stand-out performance is unquestionably Ava Gardner's who - let's face it - never played a bummer in her life.