Kartar Singh

_Kartar Singh (1959)_ (qv) , the title role in this film,is played by a veteran Pakistani actor 'Allaudin' (qv) who gives a convincing performance in the film.Initially,he is shown as a young Sikh man who is easily carried away by the then prevailing religious tension between Sikhs and Muslims aggravated by ongoing political events and its drastic effects, at that time, on human lives on the Indian side of soon- to- be- divided Punjab.Burning of villages and violence is shown in this 1959 movie.In 2013,as I am writing this movie review,I personally am influenced by what I have been told by my own elders about the actual partition events and their own first-hand experiences,I am also reminded of the facts about the real people that made this film and contributed to it as poets, lyricists, producers and directors. For example,the well known Punjabi poet from the Indian side of Punjab, 'Amrita Pritam' (qv) whose heart-wrenching poem about human suffering as a result of the partition of old Punjab,is sung in the background as the village burns !!! Amrita Pritam,as we know wrote this poem,emotionally scarred by the partition violence, when she had to leave her hometown near Gujranwala,Punjab in 1947 on the Pakistani side of Punjab and her family migrated to India.We also know that,in real life,this same Amrita Pritam had a passionate love affair with her college-mate in Lahore,Pakistan-the famous Indian movie poet, 'Sahir Ludhianvi' (qv) who happened to be a Muslim.This movie's producer-director 'Saifudin Saif' (qv) was a progressive leftist intellectual of Pakistan and made this movie with the declared intent of teaching people religious tolerance on both sides of the border of India and Pakistan.So,in the movie towards the end,violent Kartar Singh is shown to be reformed by the teachings of his own old father who protects a Muslim woman from Kartar Singh's violence!!! This movie became a super-hit in 1959 both in Pakistan and also in India not only due to its message of peaceful co-existence of people but also due to its superb Punjabi film songs and its music.In my opinion,this movie was highly effective because most of the film crew had witnessed first-hand the actual events of 1947 partition of old Punjab and India and they could directly relate to it emotionally while making the film.