Dramatizing the 1947 Partition of India, the middling
historical drama “Viceroy’s House” finds Lord Mountbatten (Hugh Bonneville)
being sent to India as the country’s last viceroy. He’s joined by his wife,
Edwina (Gillian Anderson), and appointed to oversee the peaceful transfer of
power as the British Empire relinquishes three centuries of control over India
and returns it to the hands of its people.
There’s much
debate over what form this new nation should take, and eventually a compromise
is made, which will divide the land into separate republics of India and
Pakistan. But that’s easier said than done, and the ensuing conflict and
bloodshed between the country’s Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh populations puts
everything at risk.
We also meet
two servants in Mountbatten’s Delhi palace: Hindu Jeet
(Manish Dayal), one of the viceroy’s personal
attendants, and Muslim translator Aalia (Huma
Qureshi), as the script (from co-writers Moira Buffini
and Paul MayedaBerges)
saddles its only major Indian characters with a contrived, melodramatic
star-crossed romance between the would-be lovers.
The
partitioning of India is an important story, well-mounted and tastefully told,
but Gurinder Chadha’s (“Bend It Like Beckham”)
bloodless direction and by-the-numbers approach lends it all an air of
stuffiness. She packs infinitely more emotion into a much more personal story
told over the end credits than anything we find in the film. I couldn’t help
wishing Chadha had chosen to simply tell that story instead.
Visit rochestercitynewspaper.com on Friday for additional film coverage, including a review of “Columbus,”
starring John Cho.
This article appears in Sep 20-26, 2017.
