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A.R. Rahman has been trusted to do the heavy lifting in the climaxes of his recent films. The wailing vocals at the end of Chhaava (2025), Arijit Singh blazing through the title track in the climax of Tere Ishk Mein (2025) or the wistful ache of ‘Tere Paas Main’ (sung by Deepali Sahay) making Main Vaapas Aaunga (2026) a pristine tearjerker.

Even in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Batwara 1947, Rahman shows up in the final minutes of the film, this time with a guttural hum by the man himself. The effect isn’t nearly as visceral as his last few films. Rahman’s score and songs for Batwara 1947 feel half-hearted compared to his work in the other partition drama from a few months ago. That nearly-there-but-not-quite feeling around Rahman’s music is what I might also say about my reaction to Santoshi’s film on the whole.

Adapted from Asghar Wajahat’s 1989 play Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya, O Jamiya E Nai (‘The one who hasn’t seen Lahore, hasn’t lived’), Santoshi’s film seems partitioned between its progressive source material and dumbing down the narrative for an audience used to propaganda films like The Kashmir Files (2021) and The Kerala Story (2023).

As a result, surprisingly political choices for the current climate are undone by Santoshi’s dated, TV-serial treatment. Maybe it’s the language the makers feel the audience will be receptive to, where nuance is sacrificed for absolutism. Maybe they’re worried audiences are on their phones, and therefore trying to make it ‘second screen’ enough – where plot........

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