Shadows in the Dark
Ill-fated love set against the epic canvas of India's partition into Hindu Indian and Pakistan. Lajma, a beautiful school teacher with greying hair, leaves 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 - a proud old Muslim man, along with his grieving daughter-in-law, take in a couple of impoverished Hindus, Chand and Bhagwati, into their home. Later, Chand's mute sister Lajjo arrives with her young daughter Lajma. Suffering from some unnamed past trauma, Lajjo is eventually sent to an asylum, leaving Lajma with her uncle. Lajma recalls her aborted relationship with the childhood friend and her inability to understand what her lover was going through, as well as her lover's inability to acknowledge a latent bisexuality. But the most difficult memory to deal with is that of her mother, brutalised during the riots.
Pankaj Butalia
1999
Hollywood
Ratings & scores.
IMDb Rating
Rotten Tomatoes
Metacritic
Cast & crew.
Subrat Dutta
Kitu Gidwani
Mandakini Goswami
Naseeruddin Shah
Loveleen Tandan
Available qualities.
1.5GB
800MB
Where to watch.
Box office & stats.
Budget
N/A
Worldwide
N/A
Runtime
104 min
Release
1999-09-21