Movie: Bhowani Junction

Actors: Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger, Bill Tarrant
Director: , Producer:

A few nights ago I watched a movie I`d been wanting to see for ages: 'Bhowani Junction', starring Ava Gardner, Lionel Jeffries, Bill Tarrant, and Stewart Granger. The novel by John Masters is one of my top five favorite books of all time. Bhowani Junction is a beautifully written, moving book about Parition told through the eyes of Victoria Jones, an Anglo Indian WAC(I) officer who is the daughter of a train driver. I won`t go into plot details here, but since I read the novel in my teens it struck a chord with me as someone who feels like a hybrid of East and West of sorts.

The movie was very good, although they made a few huge plot changes - killing off one of the main characters, turning the story into a somewhat more happy ending, and taking out the sex, which gave the novel its earthy, real tone. But otherwise, it was great to finally see the movie. Ava Gardner acted beautifully and I think she`s become my favorite old movie star, she looks beautiful in saris and was all snapping fire and passion which was just what the role demanded of her. Stewart Granger wasn`t exactly my idea of Colonel Rodney Savage, but Bill Travers was good too as Patrick Taylor, Victoria`s hapless Anglo Indian suitor.

Although this movie was made in the 1950s, it is quite similar in theme to Deepa Mehta`s 'Earth 1947' which also deals with Partition through the eyes of a Parsi girl, another outsider to Indian society. Somehow when the narrator or protagonist is a woman, the feelings and the attitudes are more complex, although Masters handles three points of view - Victoria`s, Patrick`s, and Savage`s - with great mastery and perception.

Fifty years on, people still talk about when Ava Gardner came to Lahore to film this movie. I think every man of the previous generation fell in love with her then, a glamorous Hollywood film star who came to Pakistan and charmed everyone in her sight. I think it says a lot about an actor or actress who is willing to take on a complex role in a different culture - like Christopher Lee who took on Jinnah back in 1997. I wouldn`t mind doing some research and finding clips about her trip to Pakistan and how she stayed at the best hotel in Lahore of the time.