If we were to put a face to the guild of British Asian filmmakers working to highlight the issues of the community, Gurinder Chadha would be a worthy choice. Hence, the story of her new film Viceroy’s House came as a surprise. Asian Voice’s exclusive interview with her and actress Huma Qureshi, however, revealed that film traces the roots of the British Asian community, which is irrevocably connected to the event that shook the Indian subcontinent in 1947- the Partition.
Viceroy’s House is a historical drama about the final phase of British Raj in India. In 1947, Lord Mountbatten was appointed as the last Viceroy of India, who came to hand India back to its people. The title refers to his house where he lived ‘upstairs’, the ‘home’ of British rulers, with 500 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh servants living ‘downstairs’. The film’s music is given by Academy Award winning composer A.R. Rahman. Viceroy’s House stars Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson, Manish Dayal, Huma Qureshi, Michael Gambon, Denzil Smith, Neeraj Kabi, Lily Travers, Tanveer Ghani, Simon Callow, and the late Indian actor Om Puri.
Huma Qureshi, who plays one of the central characters, Aalia, in the film, spoke on how her character signifies the tumultuous conflict that the film is about. The dilemma of whether to leave the one you love or to stay and fight it out, is central to the theme. She also confessed that she is close to her character as the fierce and strong woman who is forced to make a choice that never existed before the partition- “I just had to look the part”, she says modestly.
Growing up under the shadow of partition, and following from her British TV series for BBC titled ‘Who do you think you are?’, Gurinder was convinced that British Asians need to stand up and tell their own histories, recording their place in their world, one story at a time. She traced her ancestral house near Jhelum, from where her grandmother left with her children for India, and decided that a story on partition needed to be told from a fresh standpoint. It transpired, after she read the two books her film is based on and her own research, that the history she had been reading while growing up in Britain was ‘wrong’. The film took seven years to be made.
Legendary actor, Om Puri, who passed away earlier this year, acted in a British film after 34 years. As Gurinder fondly recalled, “He was among the few actors who had worked in British, American, as well as Indian cinema. He was very impressed with the ambition of the film, and being a Punjabi, he had a painful association with partition himself.” Her biggest take-away from the film is that the history is always written by the victors. Viceroy’s House is a timely film in a world where preaching hatred and political manipulation have reached unprecedented levels.
