This film is part of Free
Indian Life
A motorist's excursion captures a world made by hand in the environs of Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi
Overview
This evocative amateur film gives us a sense of life in what is now Pakistan, just seven years before partition. Near Rawalpindi's Fawara Chowk junction, the magnificent Markazi Jamia Masjid mosque and the Mohan Hindu temple in Mandir overlook peddlers of the Raja and Lunda bazaars. Overhead wires, bicycles and a few cars hint at modernity but the scene is otherwise timeless. The Grand Trunk Road provides a motor route from Pindi to Lahore revealing everyday life in between. Cosmopolitan Karachi concludes the film, with a family dip in the Arabian sea.
This was one of a collection of well over 100 films shot by prolific amateur filmmaker John C. Jewell to document his travels (as well as his sporting interests). Jewell travelled extensively in Europe, Africa and elsewhere with his Swiss-made 8mm cine camera, but his films around India between 1940 and 1945 are among the collection's highlights.
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