According to him, several people in past have attempted to make the film, including Shashi Kapoor and Shabana Azmi, who even developed a screenplay, but owing to the sensitivity of the subject, they abandoned the project. The film was one of the most anticipated adaptations of its time, especially being writer Khushwant Singh's most acclaimed work.
That is when this quiet village is changed forever.
One day, a train arrives from Pakistan, which carries bodies of all the Hindu and Sikh travellers who have been butchered while they tried to depart from Pakistan. The Muslims in India moved towards the newly formed Pakistan, and the Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan migrated to refugee camps in India. During the summer of 1947, when the Partition of India was taking place, the entire country was a hotbed of extremism and intolerance. The Sikhs own most of the land, and the Muslims work as labourers. The villagers are a mix of Sikhs and Muslims, who live in harmony. Mano Majra, incidentally, was the original title of the book upon its release in 1956. The film develops around the love affair of small-time dacoit Juggut Singh (Nirmal Pandey), with a local Muslim girl, Nooran ( Smriti Mishra). The film is set in Mano Majra, which is a quiet fictional village on the border of India and Pakistan, close to where the railway line crosses the Sutlej River.
