In an interview several years ago Christopher Lee was asked what was his most prolific movie.
The answer given was 'Jinnah'.
A romanticized historical film with a slight veneer of spiritual fiction added on for narrative convenience.
In a lot of ways this is your typical biography pic. Expanding the life of the select individual from their humble beginnings (or silver spoon beginnings) onwards till their inevitable demise.
Only with Jinnah there's an aspect of spiritual oversight.
It's this weird spiritual aspect of the film that kind of makes a difference.
Although only really at the beginning. You see Muhammad dies in The mid-forties and his Spirit goes on to the afterworld.
Only this after world seems to resemble an old Library / archives Centre.
Being staffed by a bunch of men who I'm going to refer to as 'angels' tho they could be called something else.
Anyways one of these angels is tasked with looking over Muhammad's life to see if he lived a just and honourable existence or if he abused his highly privileged position and is actually a charlatan. But he has a problem.
At this point the mid-1940s heaven has advanced to 1990s computer technology and all the angels are baffled as to how to use em.
Simply put they have no idea what they're doing and all of Muhammad's information which was previously on a very nicely printed paperback book has been transferred to the computers.
So instead of easily looking through his records and determining his life in a mere couple of minutes the Angel has to pull the old 'It's a Wonderful Life' trick and literally walk through all the prominent moments of a Muhammad Ali Jinnah's life as to determine his spiritual sanctity.
It's a great setup to show someone's life and still keep it in a fun movie framework.
As you can have the older Muhammad who's already lived through his experiences re-experiencing everything and giving a kind of personal insight and how he thinks everything turned out.
We also get a few moments of temporal interjection where the older Muhammad can speak and interact with the younger.
It's done in such a way that its shown more as an internal thought of the young Muhammad trying to clear his head of soon-to-be future problems.
The rest of the film is really straightforward and enjoyable. It's a well-put-together historical record of the turmoil going throughout British India and a subsequent divisions between Hindus and Muslims over the sovereignty of their own lands.
So you get this weird three-way battle in where the British were trying to maintain control while two other groups are trying to take control but also fighting each other simultaneously.
It's all kept interesting and engaging with well-made set designs, very good acting and some fantastic performances by Christopher Lee, Shashi Kapoor and Richard Lintern who plays the younger Muhammad Ali Jinnah and doesn't get quite as much credit.
Despite the fact that he might actually have more screen time. I'd have to look through the whole film again to verify that.
I only have one real problem with this movie. And that's its complete disregard for East Pakistan.
I didn't expect them to linger so much on the conflicts in 1971 or the slaughters that took place during that time as it's well beyond Muhammad Ali Jenna's time frame. But they don't even bring up East Pakistan as a territory within the film.
It's completely neglected and I just find that a little disingenuous.
Also there's a points towards the end of the film where a bunch of modern conflicts are being shown on the computer screens as these Heavenly devices can literally see into the future. Even there they don't acknowledge the bangle issues either.
I would have liked to have seen what Muhammad's reaction would have been to such a horrible conflict.
I suspect for all of his negative attributes in real life he would not have approved of how West Pakistan handled the East Pakistan separation.
But it's one grape in an already solidly made film. It is one of Christopher Lee's better prafomaces and I think it's definitely worth a look.
It's a solidly written screenplay with a slight Supernatural elements that helps keep things moving and it's just a good historical drama.
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