The middle edition of this Indian trilogy is a little hokey in spots, but edifying. The setting is Lahore during the 1947 partition of India, of interest to me because my grandfather started a hospital in Lahore a few years later. The movie clearly portrays some of the social distinctions between Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, and Parsees, though some favor seems to be shown to the Hindus.

I was struck by the similarity to our current situation in Iraq. We, like the British, have taken control of a country subject to ethnic and religious divisions. Will we also attempt a partition solution, or try a different path? Hopefully we can avoid the hundreds of thousands of deaths that occurred in 1947.