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From: raghu@rlgvax.UUCP (Raghu Raghunathan)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Re: TV series on Mountbatten
Message-ID: <911@rlgvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Feb-86 09:27:45 EST
Article-I.D.: rlgvax.911
Posted: Tue Feb  4 09:27:45 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Feb-86 03:29:36 EST
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> ++
> Yesterday, I saw about a half hour (all I could stand) of the PBS series,
> "Lord Mountbatten - The Last Viceroy".  It seemed to me just an episode
> of Dallas starring people with darker skin!  Jinnah (sp?) and several of
> the characters 'on his side' were portrayed as conniving, ruthless men;
> Ghandiji was made to be a fool -- like he was a popular puppet put up
> by the ones with the real power for the people to adore.  There was a
> 
> -Mark Garrett

	I came to the same conclusion after the second episode. The
	personalities were oversimplified to the point of being inaccurate
	and somewhat ludicrous.

	The producers obviously had the Western audience in mind and to
	make the situation clear they tried to make things too black and
	white with clearly defined heros and villains. Jinnah and his
	supporters were portrayed as scheming villains, Lord and Lady
	Mountbatten and some Congress leaders as heroes and Gandhi as an
	idealistic fool being humored by the Mountbattens. What the show
	failed to show was that Gandhi was an extremely shrewd lawyer who
	knew how to negotiate deals.

	I was happy to find that Churchill was finally portrayed in the
	right colors - a bigot and an imperialist who was bent on keep
	the colonies regardless of the injustice done to the Indians.

	BTW, anybody know of the alleged romance between Nehru and Edwina
	Mountbatten? Is it a twist thrown in by the producers to make the
	plot a little more juicy or did it really exist?

							- Raghu.