Bhowani Junction

Watch: Bhowani Junction

Unrated

5/1/19561h 50m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ M-G-M's Drama Aflame With Love And Revolt! ~

Overview:

Anglo-Indian Victoria Jones seeks her true identity amid the chaos of the British withdrawal from India.

Director:

George Cukor

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

based on novel or book
train
india
half caste
british raj

Cast

Ava Gardner

~ as ~

Victoria Jones

Stewart Granger

~ as ~

Col. Rodney Savage

Bill Travers

~ as ~

Patrick Taylor

Abraham Sofaer

~ as ~

Surabhai

Francis Matthews

~ as ~

Ranjit Kasel

Alan Tilvern

~ as ~

Ted Dunphy

Marne Maitland

~ as ~

Govindaswami

Peter Illing

~ as ~

Ghanshyam

Freda Jackson

~ as ~

The Sandani

Edward Chapman

~ as ~

Thomas Jones

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

Wuchak
Written 3 year(s) ago
6
An Anglo-Indian woman (Ava Gardner) is caught between India and England

During the chaotic final days of British rule in northwest India in 1947, the beautiful daughter (Gardner) of an English train engineer and an Indian mother struggles to find her identity while pursued by three men: a rail-traffic superintendent (Bill Travers), his Sikh subordinate (Francis Matthews) and a British colonel (Stewart Granger). Meanwhile Indian supporters of Mahatma Gandhi campaign for independence while Communists, led by a revolutionary called Davay (Peter Illing), fuel unrest.

“Bhowani Junction” (1956) is an exotic drama with adventure elements similar to the future "A Passage to India" (1985), although not as good as that one. It features most of the elements you’d think of when India comes to mind — never-ending throngs of people in (usually) white garb, trains, street commotion, etc.

Ava is beautiful, Granger makes for a stalwart male protagonist, the locations are authentic and the historical setting is interesting. But I rolled my eyes at the subplot regarding a certain person feeling guilty about something, which didn’t make sense since what that person did was in self-defense and the perpetrator was an ignoble scumbag.

The movie runs 1 hour, 50 minutes, and was shot in Lahore, Pakistan, which is just across the border from northwestern India; the train wreck sequence was done 35 miles outside London to the southwest; another sequence was shot at Tram Tunnel, Kingsway, London, while studio stuff was done at the MGM British Studios just north of the city.

GRADE: B-/C+