Kartar Singh (film)
Kartar Singh is a 1959 Pakistani Punjabi film about the partition of India in 1947 and the widespread violence related to it. It describes the conflicts between Hindus, Muslims and the Sikhs. This film is said to be based on real-life events in 1947. The title role is about an antagonist Kartar Singh who is a petty criminal and a trouble-maker, played by Allauddin who became very well-known after it, and often remembered as Kartar Singh. On seeing this film in Indian Punjab theater screens, it is said that Sikhs failed to recognize him as a Muslim, as he is not a Sikh in real life. Kartar Singh is considered to be one of the blockbuster Punjabi films in Pakistan and ranks highly in the history of Punjabi cinema. This film was also shown for three years in East Punjab, India. Crew's Background 
The director and producer of this film Saifuddin Saif had migrated to Pakistan after directly experiencing tragic events of Partition of India in 1947. He was a respected leftist intellectual of Pakistan who was also a member of many progressive movements in Pakistan in the 1950s. Saifuddin Saif was born in Amritsar, British India in 1922 and died on 12 July 1993 at Lahore, Pakistan at age 71. Plot Summary 
This film is set in a village in Punjab, India where Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs are shown to be living peacefully before 1947. Vaid Prem Nath is well respected in the village. Umer Din is a World War II veteran who has fought in Burma and lives in the village. Kartar Singh is the main villain who is a petty criminal and a trouble-maker in the village. When Partition of India happens, the Muslims of the village including Umer Din and his love interest Laila want to migrate to Pakistan. As they are leaving, there is hostility and violence everywhere in the village. During this time, Umer Din's sister is abducted by the Sikhs but she is protected by an elderly Sikh who gives her shelter and looks after her. When his son tries to force himself on her, the old man kills him. The old man sends Umer Din a letter that his sister is safe and unviolated and sends her safely back to Pakistan. Kartar Singh, on one of his raids into Pakistan, has a scuffle with Umer Din, who works with the Pakistan Border Police, at the border. Umer Din shoots him but just wounds him and lets him escape back to India. His life saved, Kartar Singh has a change of heart. In order to redeem himself, he takes Umer Din's younger brother, sheltered by Vaid Prem Nath, back to him in Pakistan. But Kartar Singh himself is killed at the border as Umer Din suspects he has come on one of his raids again and shoots him down. 