’s Train to

& it’s Film Adaptation by Pamela Rooks

Class: M.A. (Semester II) Paper: CC V

by

Dr. Tanima Kumari Assistant Professor Department of English C.M. College, Darbhanga L.N.M.U. Darbhanga Biography of Khushwant Singh

 Khushwant Singh (1915 – 2014) was born in Hadali (presently in Pakistan) Fig. 1: Source-Internet  Author of over 40 books, many essays and translations  His writings are laced with “acid wit”  Received Padma Bhushan in 1974, however, he returned the award in 1984 in protest against Operation Blue Star in which the Indian Army raided Amritsar  In 2007 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award in

Train to Pakistan

 Written in 1956, the novel deals with the1947

 Historical novel, orginally published as Mano Majra (name of fictional

village near the border of India and Pakistan)

 Also coined as the first major Indian English novel on Partition

 Being on the border, Mano Majra was predominant by Muslim and Sikh and it

had a peaceful environment Fig. 2 Source- Internet

 This peace was disrupted by the arrival on unscheduled halt of a train that came from Pakistan

 Train was also called as a ghost train because it was overloaded by dead bodies

Themes

 Partition  Postcolonial Anxiety  National Identity  Corruption & Power  Honour & Heroism  Gender & Masculinity  Dacoity  Karma  Moral Conflict  Love and woman’s sexuality

Film Adaptation of the Novel

 The film adaptation by the same name Train to Pakistan was directed by Pamela Rooks in 1998  The film stars Mohan Agashe as Hukum Chand Nirmal Pandey as Jaggat Singh, Jagaa Rajit Kapoor as Iqbal Smriti Mishra as Nooran as the Muslim prostitute girl Mangal Dhillon as the Sub Inspector Fig. 3 Source- Internet  Rooks chose a different narrative from the novel in her film adaptation  Film was to be premiered on STAR Plus channel on 15 August 1997, but due some trouble with Indian Censor Board, it was released with a few cuts in December 1997

Major Characters

• Jugga/Juggut Singh: Main protagonist. A young dacoit with a good heart, he is the called the “bad boy” in the village. At the end of the novel, he sacrifices his life to save the lives of Muslim people of his village

• Nooran: Daughter of Mano Majra’s Muslim weaver. Beloved of Jugga too and she is pregnant with his child

• Juggut Singh’s mother: Jugga’s mother condemns his ways but cannot do much about it. She only knows about Nooran who is pregnant with Juggut Singh’s child

• Iqbal Singh/Iqbal Muhammad: An educated man from Delhi who was sent to inform the people of Mano Majra of different petitions for government reform. Unfortunately, he was suspected to be a member of Muslim League and he was put into jail

Major Characters

contd.

• Hukum Chand: Magistrate and deputy commissioner of Mano Majra and the surrounding district. He was in moral dilemma and struggled with many of his decisions. Finally, he tried to avoid the massacre of the and he released Jugga and Iqbal so that they can stop the train massacre.

• The Subinspector/Inspector Sahib: Corrupt official who imprisoned Jugga. He had spread the rumor that Iqbal was a member of the Muslim League to further discredit him. Also, he tortured Jugga in prison so that he revealed the murderers of Lala Ram Lal

• Haseena Begum: A young Muslim prostitute who Hukum Chand used to wooed Things to be pondered upon

• Theme of partition in the novel and its film adaptation

• How is the concept of morality dealt in the novel and its film adaptation? Do the characters of Train to Pakistan showcase the questions of morality ?

• How is religious persecution serving as one of the driving forces in the movie?

• Does the movie speaks of the love and partition both?

• What does the train in the movie symbolize?

• The themes of corruption, national identity, displacement, community

• Major Characters

• Plot of the movie including the social and culture structure

References

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3kUSLdKzU4

• Khushwant, Singh. Train to Pakistan. New York, NY: Grove, 1981. Print.

• Komalesha, H. S. Issues of Identity in Indian English Fiction: A Close Reading of Canonical Indian English Novels. Bern: Peter Lang, 2008. Print.

• https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/treasurehunt/goodbye-khushwant-singh. Times of India. 2014. Web. 5 June 2020.

Thank you