Cracking India

Ice Candy Man is a heartbreaking story about the Partition of India and the 1947 upheaval that left countless people homeless, hurt and/or dead. This period of time has been documented from various viewpoints, but Sidhwa’s novel approaches the subject from the point-of-view of a little girl who lived through the troubles. Once precocious and seemingly innocent to the world, the main character, Lenny, finds herself altered forever from the reality unfolding around her, as India and Pakistan both form from the rubble of the Partition. The book has been so successful that it was also made into a film, titled 1947.

Now Filmed as 1947, a motion picture by Deepa Mehta Few novels have caught the turmoil of the Indian subcontinent during Partition with such immediacy, such wit and tragic power.