Jinnah is a movie that proves ahead of it's time for 1998. It breezes through a variety of critical historic events while still managing to provide adequate detail and context for viewers with no historic knowledge of the subject matter. It also does a remarkable job at displaying the incredibly oppositional political points of view regarding the conflict, and not painting Jinnah as an idol or flawless individual. Especially pertaining to scenes in which the popular opinion of him was directly addressed and in some ways offered Jinnah a chance to justify his actions.
I do think, however, that the subplot involving Jinnah being in a comedic state of purgatory was gimmicky and took away from the seriousness of the partition. I also feel this way about the scene in which Jinnah speaks to the younger version of himself. I think it added little to no relevance to the main storyline, was confusing, and felt misplaced for a topic so heavy.
I was also not a fan of the lack of Urdu, Farsi, Punjabi or Hindi. For a movie based in India, it was surprising to see only hints of the native tongue being spoken - especially only by "commoners" and people with no political position but rather just extras. In my opinion, the brief references to authorities figures by traditional titles was underwhelming for a country that was tackling how much influence the colonizer should keep in the country, but still used the language given to them by the colonizer.
In addition, I also think the film did Fatima dirty as it made no effort in highlighting her incredible achievements but still focused on portraying her as a heroine who gave up marriage to support her brother's dreams and aide them in any way she could. Although I understand that this is a far cry from the typical portrayal of women, especially women of colour, it was disappointing that she was being portrayed as revolutionary with no real examples of why to support the claim. I also feel that her presence extended beyond the scenes that were shown, and there was no mention of how fundamental she was in the partition process as opposed to her portrayal in the movie as a strong female character who still acted in a relatively domesticated manner. Lastly, it seemed downright irresponsible to hint at a subplot involving Fatima as jealous of Rattanbai/Ruttie for her youth and influence on Jinnah. It went against everything that was being emphasized about her personality.
Ultimately, I tolerated Jinnah. It's not a film that I'm particularly passionate about, even though the subject surrounding it is of great interest to me. I don't think it's a bad film, but I'm not sure if I would categorize it as incredible - especially considering that none of the actors were people of colour. It does, however, do a much better job than similar films about the topic. I don't know if I would watch it again, but I'm glad to have seen it once.
Review of Jinnah
