Sir Christopher Lee as Mohammad Ali Jinnah is more than perfect. His appearance, his body language, and his wonderful slip into the character of the founder of Pakistan, is truly what he himself describes as the “the finest piece of acting he has ever done”.
‘Jinnah the Movie’ may not necessarily be a pleasing film to see – what with scenes of brutal violence, insinuations against Jinnah of being selfish and stubborn, and of a dawning realisation that the Muslims were an unofficial but definite minority even within the Congress along with the rest of the country – but it is a pleasure to watch.
It is a completely separate issue whether one agrees with the notion of creating a land based on religion, or whether the state of Pakistan was secular or Islamic (it was in fact meant to be secular). What the movie questions is whether the inception of this country after such terrible bloodshed was worth it or not – that and the character of Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
“Was it worth it to have so many people die?” questions the bumbling, almost comic Shashi Kapoor, who plays a kind of an ‘afterlife guide’, whom Jinnah meets as soon as he dies. “There was so much violence – did it not matter to Jinnah?” But Jinnah answers all these questions and does not deter from what his original plan was. Stubborn he was, but he was not selfish, his character resonated.
In fact the land was for Muslims not because they were Muslims, but because they were a minority not fairly treated by the British or the Hindu majority. Almost everyone reading this must have seen this landmark of a movie. Pakistan has not had a history of releasing the best of films. But ‘Jinnah’ is one of the few that this country should be proud of and it should be aired every year, just like ‘The Message’ is aired every year in Ramadan.
But as Pakistanis, the media seems to be scared of re-introducing the movie which had even at that time, caused so much controversy. Even where the audience is concerned, it is easy to watch several movies produced by Bollywood in the aftermath of ‘Jinnah’, but never once do they bother to look back into this tale and see what went wrong.
A lot can be written about this movie. A lot can be analysed and interpreted, criticised and endorsed. Many questions can be asked, many points can be challenged. But today, the movie itself has little significance for the millions of people for whom it was made. Yes, the movie may have been released in UK alongside Pakistan, but the movie is primarily made for Pakistanis, as an educating film, a trip back to the creation of the land that today we are occupying like feudals, and abusing its very reasons for inception.
Today Jinnah is used as an icon, not an ‘iconoclast’. He is misused, his character has been whitewashed as is the habit of Pakistanis to do when they revere someone, and he is rarely read as a human being with both goodness and flaws. Jinnah should either be completely forgotten (because we do nothing that he wanted us to do), or his vision should be revived.
For those who do not agree with his theory of a separatist movement this does not mean that we should begin to condone it. Jinnah said he wanted an independent land because the Muslims (whom he represented) were being discriminated against by a Hindu majority. But today, in Pakistan, the case is exactly the same with the non-Muslims.
Nevertheless, for those interested, this forgotten movie must be revived again because not only is it an important film, but also it is in fact the only film that has paid tribute to our Jinnah.
‘Jinnah the Movie’ – A forgotten inspiration
