Viceroy's House (2017)

India, 1947.
England is still recovering from the devastating World War II and is fine with letting India finally gain her independence after ruling it, for whatever reason, for 300 years.
So Lord Mountbattan (Hugh Bonneville) is the last viceroy, appointed to ensure that the transition goes smoothly.
However, India is a vast country and has many internal problems such as the Hindis, Sikhs and Muslims do not get along well and many want the country divided while others do not. And Lord Mountbattan needs to decide how to properly transition the country properly all the while violence erupts in villages far away from the viceroy's vast estate.
In the end, the country is divided, though that wasn't what Mountbattan wanted initially and his wife, Edwina (Gillian Anderson, great in an underwritten role) isn't pleased but she also has her own causes, upset at the illiteracy rate and the infant morality rate and she is determined to help.
So the country is split, Mountbattan was used as a pawn and then there is a mass exodus of Indians as they make their way to the country that they choice and many die in the process.
This film is also the story of two servants in the Viceroy's house: Jeet (Manish Dayal) and Aalia (Huma Qureshi). He is Hindi and she is Muslim but both don't want the country divided. Unfortunately, Aalia's fiance returns and he is all for a Pakistan so she picks him, as her blind father (Om Puri) is dependent upon her. And she somehow survives a deadly train bomb and is able to reunite with her true love at the end of the film. I am making it seem more contrived than it should be. While I am happy they get together, it isn't that realistic especially since Aalia is near death and yet she shuffles toward Jeet.
I wish that the whole film could have told from Jeet's point of view as that would have been something different, something unique and it would have hopefully dealt with this topic on an intimate scale which is what this film needed. And his performance was the strongest in the film.
While this film was stylish and lavish, good actors were wasted. And Mountbattan changes his mind too easily when it comes to dividing India. Grade: B