Jinnah (1998)

Director: Jamil Dehlavi
Starring: Christopher Lee, Shashi Kapoor, James Fox

Synopsis:
After dying, the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, must give an account of his life.

Impressions:
This isn't normally the sort of film I would go for, but when I heard how highly Christopher Lee regarded his performance here, I knew I had to see it. Now, Lee never begrudged the genre films that made him famous, but he didn't get too many serious dramatic roles as a result, which is a crying shame. I was expecting a straightforward biopic, so I was surprised when the supernatural element was introduced, but it allows us to move around more freely in the timeline. As you would expect, Lee gives a strong performance, portraying Jinnah as a proud, stiff sort of man committed to projecting a personal image of dignity to reflect the sort of dignity he wants to see in the budding Pakistan and her people, but I also need to give due credit to Richard Lintern, who plays a younger Jinnah for a larger share of the runtime. I was intrigued by the relationship between Jinnah and his sister Fatima and also that of Nehru and Lady Mountbatten, which was a particular historical factoid I knew nothing about. Unsurprisingly, the film is strongly slanted to the Pakistani side but doesn't give Jinnah the same sort of idealized treatment you see with the eponymous lead in Gandhi. All things considered, it's fairly even-handed despite its bias, never taking the easy route of completely demonizing the British or the Hindus. The subject matter may be more sensitive to some viewers, but if you can set that aside, this is a powerful film that's well worth seeing, if not worth adding to your collection.

Rating:
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