Entertainment plus reviews

This controversialcont film is about the final months of British rule in India in 1947, from the perspective of residents of the Viceroy’s House, the grand Delhi home of the British rulers. Queen Victoria’s grandson Lord Mountbatten ( Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville) is in charge of handing India back to its people. But conflict erupts between India’s Hindus and Muslims over the birth of an independent nation, so it’s decided the country will be split in two to create a new Muslim homeland, Pakistan. Somehow, director Gurinder Chadha manages to produce some humour amid the seriousness; Lady Edwina Mountbatten (Gillian Anderson) proudly states her new home “makes Buckingham Palace look like a bungalow” and irritates the household chef – who “spent a lifetime learning their cuisine” – by asking for more Indian dishes on the table. An emotional, thought-provoking flick about the end of an empire. In cinemas May 18