Biography of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of modern Pakistan is told through flashbacks as his soul tries to find eternal rest. The flashbacks start in 1947 as Jinnah pleads for a separate nation for the Muslim minority, infuriating Lord Mountbatten. Mountbatten then tries to enlist Gandhi & Nehru to persuade Jinnah to stop his efforts. Gandhi sides with Jinnah, which upsets Nehru. However, Jinnah turns down the offer to become prime minister and the film takes another slide back to 1916, which reveals all of the political implications that have occurred.
Acting
Lee's final commanding performance before Saruman swallowed his career.
Production
Ambitious scope on clearly limited budget—scrappy, not slick.
Director
Jamil Dehlavi
Christopher Lee
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
James Fox
Mountbatten
Maria Aitken
Edwina
Shashi Kapoor
Narrator
Richard Lintern
Jinnah (Younger)
Indira Varma
Ruttie Jinnah
Sam Dastor
Gandhi
Robert Ashby
Nehru
Shireen Shah
Fatima Jinnah
Ian Gelder
English Police Officer
Michael Elwyn
Sir Cyril Radcliffe
John Nettleton
General Gracie
David Sterne
Birwhistle
Vernon Dobtcheff
Lord Willingdon
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Banned in Pakistan for allegedly portraying Jinnah too sympathetically toward India—ironic given it was meant to honor him.
Christopher Lee considered this his most important role; he learned Urdu phonetically for weeks.
PK
GB
