Shadows in the Dark (Karvaan) 25 years old

Young filmmaker Pankaj Butalia directs this sweeping film about ill-fated love set against the epic canvas of India's partition into Hindu Indian and Muslim Pakistan. The film opens with Lajma, a beautiful school teacher with greying hair, leaving Pakistan for her childhood home in India. There she discovers that the home is in ruin, her aging aunt is half senile, and her cousin Gautam is bitter and defeated. Flashback to 1947 when India splits in two -- the police force a proud old Muslim man, along with his grieving daughter-in-law, to take in a couple of impoverished Hindus, Chand and Bhagwati, into their large home. Later, Chand's mute sister Lajjo arrives with her young daughter Lajma in tow. Suffering from some unnamed past trauma, Lajjo is eventually shipped off to an asylum, leaving Lajma with her uncle. Later still, Lajma, Chand's son Gautam and their neighbor's son Jamal all live and play with each other in Chand's vast complex.

Credits

Shadows in the Dark Cast

Name Character
Naseeruddin Shah He was 49, now 74 years old
Mandakini Goswami
Loveleen Tandan She was 59, now 84 years old
Subrat Dutta He was 24, now 49 years old
Kitu Gidwani She was 31, now 57 years old

Shadows in the Dark Crew

Name Department
Jacques Bidou as Producer. He was 54 (now 79) years old Production
Shadows in the Dark poster
Shadows in the Dark (25 years)

  • Release day: Tuesday, September 21, 1999