Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.

 

Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi (“Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy (“Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk about a film so few seem to have even seen. There was also some controversy at the time in casting white, non-Muslim actor Christopher Lee (who was no stranger to playing different ethnicities on screen) in the role of a Pakistani Muslim leader, which was what likely contributed to distributor disinterest. From a 2024 perspective, that kind of thing is only going to have even less appeal however. Overall though, I’d say a fair chunk of the reason for so few eyes being on this film is that it’s just a really odd and obscure biopic on a subject many are unaware of and some likely uninterested in as well. There’s just not going to be as much of a market for a film like this to get more eyes on it today let alone back in 1998. As for me, I’m a Lee fan and I really wanted to like this film, but I just don’t like this one at all. It’s a bit of a disaster, largely stiff, and just plain goofy.

 

I’m actually astonished that Lee agreed to appear in this film because it has been made in a fanciful, fantastical treatment of historical record and that’s generally very unlike him (though I’m not saying “Rasputin – The Mad Monk” was exactly a docudrama). The wheels really fall off when the film time travels and allows older Jinnah to advise younger Jinnah. This movie steps on so many butterflies the ripple effects should’ve been devastating. What was the point of this wrong-headed narrative device? It’s completely destructive to any narrative logic or sense of reality. It’s meant to be a biopic, not a Tarantino film buff fantasy revisionist dream. That said, even without the fantasy bullshit the sense of narrative flow in this thing is far too choppy with lots of walk-and-talk and all of the seams showing. What a shame, because the title character and his story are utterly fascinating but because things are rushed through and so many butterflies get stomped on you can never truly find your bearings here. Lee – whether you believe him to be miscast or not – is absolutely terrific here but no one else around him comes close to measuring up. James Fox is surprisingly stiff, and Sam Dastor’s Mahatma Gandhi is in full-on funny voice caricature mode.

 

Christopher Lee’s performance and the true story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah are very worthy, but this film is flat, episodic, and frequently absurd and bizarre. Ambition and ingenuity are all well and good, but there’s no sense in trying something different if it works to bring the audience out of the reality of the story instead of drawing you in. A very unsatisfying experience. You’re probably better off reading a history book, because “Gandhi” this ain’t.

 

Rating: C