Hot Winds

A highly ambitious first feature which examines the Indian situation just after the liberation, and the aftermath of the partition of the subcontinent. What is remarkable about the film is the degree to which it refuses to follow well-trodden 'epic' paths in its story of a Muslim family coming to terms with the political realities of an increasingly hostile Hindu Agra (where to remain is to be hounded as outcasts). Despite something of an undertow of conventional melodrama, particularly in the ill-fated romance and eventual suicide of the daughter of the house, Sathyu directs with grace and perceptiveness, and reveals a noteworthy political awareness.