''Viceroy's House'' is a 2017 fictional film directed by Gurinder Chadha and written by

Paul Mayeda Berges Paul Mayeda Berges (born September 11, 1968) is an American screenwriter and director, notably as co-writer of 2002's ''Bend It Like Beckham''. Of Japanese and Basque ancestry,Moira Buffini Moira Buffini (born 29 May 1965) is an English dramatist, director, and actor. Early life Buffini was born in Cheshire to Irish parents, and attended St Mary's College at Rhos-on-Sea in Wales as a day girl. She studied English and Drama at Gold ...

, and Chadha. The film stars

Hugh Bonneville Hugh Richard Bonneville Williams (born 10 November 1963) is an English actor. He is best known for portraying Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, in the ITV historical drama series ''Downton Abbey''. His performance on the show earned him a nom ...

, Gillian Anderson, Manish Dayal,

Huma Qureshi Huma Saleem Qureshi (; born 28 July 1986) is an Indian actress, model and producer who primarily appears in Hindi language films. She has also received three Filmfare Award nominations. Qureshi obtained a bachelor's degree in History—with ...

, and

Michael Gambon Sir Michael John Gambon (; born 19 October 1940) is an Irish-English actor. Regarded as one of Ireland and Britain's most distinguished actors, he is known for his work on stage and screen. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivi ...

. It was selected to be screened out of competition at the

67th Berlin International Film Festival The 67th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 9 to 18 February 2017 with Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven as President of the Jury. ''Django (2017 film), Django'', directed by Etienne Comar, opened the festival. The Golden Bear ...

. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 3 March 2017, while the Hindi dubbed version titled ''Partition: 1947'' was released in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on 18 August 2017, 3 days after its 70th

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Man ...

. It was released worldwide on 1 September 2017. ''Viceroy's House'' is based on ''

Freedom at Midnight ''Freedom at Midnight'' (1975) is a non-fiction book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre about the events around the Indian independence movement and partition. It details the last year of the British Raj, from 1947 to 1948, beginning with t ...

'' by Larry Collins and

Dominique Lapierre Dominique Lapierre (30 July 1931 – 2 December 2022) was a French author. Life Dominique Lapierre was born in Châtelaillon-Plage, Charente-Maritime, France. At the age of thirteen, he travelled to the U.S. with his father who was a diplomat ...

, and ''The Shadow of the Great Game: The Untold Story of Partition'' by Narendra Singh Sarila.

Plot

Lord Dickie Mountbatten arrives at Viceroy's House in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

in 1947 with his strong-willed wife

Edwina The name Edwina is a feminine form of the male name Edwin, which derives from Old English and means "rich friend." Edwin was a popular name until the time of the Norman Conquest, then fell out of favour until Victorian times. People * Edwina Bart ...

and daughter

Pamela Pamela may refer to: *''Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'', a novel written by Samuel Richardson in 1740 *Pamela (name), a given name and, rarely, a surname *Pamela Spence, a Turkish pop-rock singer. Known as her stage name "Pamela" * MSC ''Pamela'', ...

. As the final

Viceroy of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...

, he is in charge of overseeing the dissolution of the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

and the establishment of an independent Indian nation. Mountbatten attempts to mediate a disagreement between the two major Indian political leaders,

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

, who wants India to remain intact as one nation after independence, and

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (, ; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the ...

, who wishes to establish the separate

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

state of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Meanwhile, Mountbatten's newly arrived valet Jeet encounters the beautiful Alia, whom he had fallen in love with previously. Alia continues to spurn Jeet because he is

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and she

; she fears that she will disappoint her invalid father Ali, whom Jeet had helped during a spell of imprisonment at British hands. With riots erupting across India, their few non-Indian troops thinly spread and the loyalties of their Indian troops conflicted between

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

, Muslim and Hindu, the British decide to accelerate the independence process. Initially influenced by Gandhi, Mountbatten is intent upon a one-state solution, but with intensifying violence between Muslims and Hindus he reluctantly accepts the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

. He is given only a couple months to carve out a separate state from the existing territory, with the help of an inexperienced English lawyer,

Cyril Radcliffe Cyril John Radcliffe, 1st Viscount Radcliffe, (30 March 1899 – 1 April 1977) was a British lawyer and Law Lord best known for his role in the Partition of India. He served as the first chancellor of the University of Warwick from its foundatio ...

. Jeet continues to pursue Alia, despite the fact that she has been betrothed since childhood to another man, and like the other servants at Viceroy's House they are forced to choose between staying in India or going to Pakistan. Mountbatten is enraged to find that his Chief of Staff

Lord Ismay Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay (21 June 1887 – 17 December 1965), was a diplomat and general in the British Indian Army who was the first Secretary General of NATO. He also was Winston Churchill's chief military assistant during th ...

has been working covertly to draw the boundaries of Pakistan in order to create a

buffer state A buffer state is a country geographically lying between two rival or potentially hostile great powers. Its existence can sometimes be thought to prevent conflict between them. A buffer state is sometimes a mutually agreed upon area lying between t ...

between the Indian subcontinent and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and to allay fears that a socialist-leaning united India would give the Soviets access to the

warm water port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

. He realizes that he has been used as a pawn and the displacement of millions of people will result. Jeet is devastated to learn meanwhile that his entire family has been slaughtered in

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

. Although Alia rejects her fiancé when he returns to claim her, she chooses to depart for Pakistan with her father. Days later Jeet reads in the newspaper that the night train she had boarded was attacked and everyone was killed. In anger he brandishes a knife at Mountbatten, before resigning his post. With Delhi overwhelmed with refugees, the Mountbattens decide to stay on in India to assist where they can. While Jeet volunteers to help with the refugees, Alia is brought in badly injured but alive, the lone survivor of the train attack. She recognizes Jeet and shouts for him, and the two are reunited.

Cast

as Lord Dickie Mountbatten * Gillian Anderson as Lady Edwina Mountbatten * Manish Dayal as Jeet Kumar *

as Aalia Noor *

as Lord Lionel 'Pug' Ismay *

Om Puri Om Prakash Puri (18 October 1950 – 6 January 2017) was an Indian actor who appeared in mainstream commercial Hindi films as well as Bengali, Kannada,English, Punjabi and one Telugu film, as well as independent and art films and also starred ...

as Ali Rahim Noor * David Hayman as Ewart * Simon Callow as

* Denzil Smith as

Neeraj Kabi Neeraj Kabi is an Indian film entertainer and theatre actor, theatre director, and acting coach known for his works in International films and Hindi cinema, theatre, and television. Early life Neeraj Kabi was born on 12 March 1968 in Jamshedp ...

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

Tanveer Ghani Tanveer Ghani is a British actor. He has appeared in various British television programmes and British films. One of his first roles was in the BBC hospital drama, ''Angels'' (1982). He is perhaps best known for playing the role of Rezaul Kabir ...

Lily Travers Lily Annabelle L. Travers (born 1990) is an English actress. Her films include '' Late Shift'' (2016) and ''Viceroy's House'' (2017). She joined the main cast of the ITV historical drama ''Victoria'' (2019) for its third series. In 2017, Travers ...

as Pamela Mountbatten *

Jaz Deol Jaskiranjit Singh Deol (born 12 March 1989) is a British actor, known for portraying the role of Kheerat Panesar on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' from 2019 to 2022. Career Deol made his onscreen debut in the 2010 television film ''Casting ...

as Duleep Singh *

Arunoday Singh Arunoday Singh is an Indian actor and poet. He made his debut with '' Sikandar'' (2009). He has appeared in films like ''Aisha'' (2010), ''Yeh Saali Zindagi'' (2011), ''Jism 2'' (2012), ''Main Tera Hero'' (2014), '' Mr X'' (2015), ''Mohenjo Dar ...

as Asif *

Roberta Taylor Roberta Alexandra Mary Taylor (''née'' Roberts; born 26 February 1948) is an English actress and author. She is known for her roles of Irene Raymond in ''EastEnders'' (1997–2000), and Inspector Gina Gold in ''The Bill'' (2002–2008). Career ...

as Miss Reading * Darshan Jariwala as Guptaji * Trishaan as Farrukh * Raj Zutshi as Head Chef Ram Lal Chandra * Raja Samar Singh Sarila as ADC Sayed Ahsan *

Sarah-Jane Dias Sarah-Jane Dias is an Indian actress, host, VJ and former beauty queen. She was the winner of Femina Miss India 2007 and was a VJ for Channel V. Early life Sarah-Jane Dias was born in Muscat, Oman. Her father, Eustace Dias, is a marketing ma ...

as Sunita *

Samrat Chakrabarti Samrat Chakrabarti (born 22 August 1975) is a British-American film actor and musician of Indian descent. Early life Born in London to Indian Hindu Bengali immigrant parents from Kolkata. He performed in Indian community functions in Boston, ...

as Moshin * Hriiday Malhotra as Sanjit * Simon Williams as

Viscount Wavell Earl Wavell was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1947 for Field Marshal Archibald Wavell, 1st Viscount Wavell, Viceroy of India from 1943 to 1947. He had already been created Viscount Wavell, of Cyrenaica and of ...

Lucy Fleming Eve Lucinda "Lucy" Fleming (born 15 May 1947) is a British actress. Biography Early life and ancestry Fleming was born in Nettlebed, England. She is the second daughter of actress Celia Johnson and writer Peter Fleming (brother of James Bo ...

as Lady Wavell * Noah Zeiler as

Henry F. Grady Henry Francis Grady (February 12, 1882 – September 14, 1957) was an American diplomat. Born in San Francisco, California, to John Henry and Ellen Genevieve (Rourke) Grady, he earned a PhD in economics from Columbia University. On October 18, ...

Robin Soans Robin Soans (born 20 June 1946) is a British actor, and a playwright specialising in verbatim and documentary plays. These plays include ''Across the Divide'' (2007); ''A State Affair'' (2000) which looked at life on a Bradford estate, produced ...

as Sir Evan Meredith Jenkins *

Terence Harvey Terence John Humes (October 1944 – 7 September 2017), known professionally as Terence Harvey, was a British television actor. Among his many roles was the prosecution counsel in ''The Execution of Gary Glitter''. He also appeared in ''From Hell ...

as Sir Fred Burrows *

Nicholas Blane Nicholas Blane is an English actor. Career He is best known for his roles in stage productions such as '' Year of the Rat'', '' See How They Run'' and ''Democracy''. He has appeared in numerous British television and film projects, including ...

as Sir Olaf Kirkpatrick Caroe * Yusuf Khurram as

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (; ; 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950), commonly known as Sardar, was an Indian lawyer, influential political leader, barrister and statesman who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of I ...

* Anil Bhagwat as Liaquat Ali Khan * Eran Bein as Sir Eric Miéville * Kamal Karamchandani as

Maulana Azad Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad (; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following Ind ...

* Majid Khan as

Acharya Kripalani Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani (11 November 1888 – 19 March 1982), popularly known as Acharya Kripalani, was an Indian politician, noted particularly for holding the presidency of the Indian National Congress during the transfer of power in 1 ...

Production

MJK32859 Huma Qureshi (Viceroy's House, Berlinale 2017)

On 30 April 2015, it was announced that

and Gillian Anderson would star in the fictional historical drama film ''Viceroy's House'' to be directed by Gurinder Chadha, which Chadha scripted along with

. The film set in 1947 during the

, and the life inside the Viceroy's House, would be produced by Chadha, Deepak Nayar, and Paul Ritchie.

Pathé Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...

and BBC Films would be co-financing the film. On 1 September 2015, more cast was announced including Manish Dayal,

, Denzil Smith,

, and Simon Callow.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

on the film began on 30 August 2015 in

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Ki ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

, India, where it was shot for eight weeks. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 3 March 2017.

Soundtrack

Track listing

Original score

Additional Tracks

Three additional tracks were released for the dubbed

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

version of the film.

Release

''Viceroy's House'' has been selected to be screened out of competition at the

on 12 February 2017. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 3 March 2017. The film was dubbed in

titled ''Partition: 1947'' and was released in India on 18 August 2017. It was banned in

Reception

The film received generally positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 76% based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' praised the film for "cramming ample history into a compact running time without sacrificing flow or interest." ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' called it "educational, if melodramatic," concluding that "the movie accomplishes a difficult task, making sense of a complicated period in history."

Historicity

Chadha described the film as the ''

Upstairs, Downstairs Upstairs Downstairs may refer to: Television *Upstairs, Downstairs (1971 TV series), ''Upstairs, Downstairs'' (1971 TV series), a British TV series broadcast on ITV from 1971 to 1975 *Upstairs Downstairs (2010 TV series), ''Upstairs Downstairs'' ...

'' view of the

. She defended her film against criticisms of historical

heterodoxy In religion, heterodoxy (from Ancient Greek: , "other, another, different" + , "popular belief") means "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position". Under this definition, heterodoxy is similar to unorthodoxy, wh ...

, saying that she was guided by Narendra Singh Sarila's 2006 book ''The Shadow of the Great Game: The Untold Story of India's Partition'', which was claimed to be based on secret documents discovered in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

. Pakistani poet and writer Fatima Bhutto described the film as 'a servile pantomime of partition'. Chadha in response said that "her film about India's partition of 1947, far from ignoring the freedom struggle, celebrates it." ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' summed up the response to the film by saying that "Notices by film reviewers have been muted but reasonably kind", while the reaction from historians was "damning". The newspaper was very critical of the film's climax, criticizing the lack of corroborating research to back up the central claim that Pakistan was created as part of a conspiracy by

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

and the British government - particularly as in reality it was a Labour government at the time led by Clement Attlee, not Churchill. The film's postscript reads: "The partition of India led to the largest mass migration in human history. 14 million people were displaced. One million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs died. This film is dedicated to all of those who died and to all those who survived partition."

References

External links

*
''Viceroy's House'' on Bend It Networks
{{Gurinder Chadha 2017 films Films directed by Gurinder Chadha Films scored by A. R. Rahman Films with screenplays by Gurinder Chadha Films with screenplays by Paul Mayeda Berges British Indian films British historical drama films English-language Indian films Films set in the British Raj Films set in the partition of India Films set in the Indian independence movement Films shot in Rajasthan Films set in Delhi Drama films based on actual events British Empire war films BBC Film films Pathé films Reliance Entertainment films Films set in 1947 Cultural depictions of Mahatma Gandhi Cultural depictions of Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural depictions of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma Cultural depictions of Muhammad Ali Jinnah Cultural depictions of Vallabhbhai Patel 2010s historical drama films 2017 drama films Film censorship in Pakistan Film controversies in Pakistan 2010s British films