Film
Viceroy’s House
- Director
- Gurinda Chadha
- Certificate
- 12A
- Running Time
- 106 mins
A Raj-era Downton Abbey, anybody? Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinda Chadha certainly seems to invite those comparisons with the casting of Hugh Bonneville as Lord Mountbatten (Gillian Anderson is Lady Mountbatten, in case you’re wondering) in her suitably lavish account of life inside a Viceroy’s house during the tumultuous partition of India in 1947.
The abode from which British rule is masterminded is certainly a vast New Delhi palace, with 340 (count ’em!) rooms. But now the ‘jewel in the crown’ is about to be relinquished. Chadha has said her intention was to focus not on the conflict but on the lives of all those affected by partition. Her heavyweight supporting cast includes Simon Callow, Michael Gambon and – in his final film performance – the late, great Indian star Om Puri.
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