Jack and I really liked this story of the end of the British Empire in India, in 1947, with a love story subplot and lots of politics. Hugh Bonneville (last blogged for The Monuments Men) is stately Lord "Dickie" Mountbatten, tasked with making a peaceful exit, and Gillian Anderson (best known as Agent Scully in 217 episodes of The X-Files, she was most recently in these pages for How to Lose Friends & Alienate People and the Oscar-nominated short Room on the Broom) is his liberal, kind wife and partner Edwina. The love story is between the radiant Huma Qureshi (new to me) and Manish Dayal (after The Hundred-Foot Journey he was in eight episodes of Halt and Catch Fire) as Aalia and Jeet. Om Puri, who was also last blogged for The Hundred-Foot Journey, plays Aalia's father.
There's a huge cast, so I'll mention only veteran British actors Michael Gambon (most recently in Quartet) as General Ismay and Simon Callow (A Room with a View (1985), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Shakespeare in Love (1998), among many credits) as Cyril Radcliffe.
Director/co-writer Gurinder Chadha (last blogged for the same jobs on Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) gives tribute at the end to her grandmother who was part of that history. Co-writer Paul Mayeda Berges also co-wrote Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and co-writer Moira Buffini is new to me. Between them they keep the pace moving.
Cinematographer Ben Smithard (most recently in these pages for shooting The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) brings us gorgeous pictures, all shot on location in India.
Another connection with The Hundred-Foot Journey is composer A.R. Rahman, whose lilting tunes can be streamed on youtube by starting with this link and progressing by number.
Critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes aren't as warm as we are, averaging 71 and 66%, respectively. We recommend seeing this on a big screen.
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