A real life Veer-Zara : the story of Zainab and Boota Singh. It's 1947. A line has been stretched through punjab and thousands are fleeing on each side. A young Sikh army man is working in his fields when a girl running away from some killers storms his way.
He guesses in seconds ; it's a muslim girl fleeing the angry mob. He decides to argue with the rioters and save her. They demand 2500 for them to go away. He goes to his home and brings back 1800, that was all he had. Leaving the girl, the rioters move ahead.
The sikh takes this muslim girl home & prepares to send her to the refugee camp. Days pass. She requests to stay but Boota argues that he's too poor to keep her. "All i need are two meals a day & you're rich enough to give me that for the rest of our lives, i know" she replies.
Embarassed, he stops mentioning refugee camp. Flowers grow in their fields and love blossoms in hearts. In between 5 rivers and blood, they marry. An year later, they are given a beautiful daughter. Life for Boota Singh, couldn't have turned more happier.
The offices works thier ways around people lives and just like the abrupt lines of map, abrupt decisions are made. All the non-muslim refugee girls from Pakistan and the Muslim refugee girls from India will be returned to their countries. A comission decides.
Unaware of it, boota makes his journey to the city for a work. Behind him, Zainab is rolled off by his relatives to the comission workers. She is put in a train & sent to Pakistan. When boota comes back and learns of it, he feels his heart being sliced, just like his land.
But then, he decides to do the unthinkable. He picks his daughter and makes his journey to the border. Illegaly, in darkness around the wires - he crosses over to Lahore, Pakistan. He searches everywhere until he finds Zainab. Her relatives beat him and call the police on him.
He's presented in a court. The court orders that if the Girl wills, she can be sent with him. He looks at his Zainab with hopes of the heaven but a frightened, threatened Zainab looks to the other side. "I don't want to go back to him", she says. The love cries in the court.
The court decides against him and the newspapers report for him. A broken Boota Singh walks out with his daughter in hands and weight of the damned love on shoulders. He walks the cursed city till he reaches Shahdrah. Lahore rains and so do his eyes. A train comes his way.
An army man taught to give his life if the ocassion arrises, Boota Singh jumps on the track. The passerbys shout, the driver slows down but it is too late. Boota Singh of Jalandhar dies in Lahore. His daughter survives and so does his story. The youth gather around.
They pick the body and burry it in Zainab's city. "Shaheed-e-Muhabat!" someone exclaims. And the angels write it down. And so it persists, the name. In a thousand cinema depictions, novels and songs. The dead Sikh lives.
Today, the story has been retold in languages too rich to be forgotten. And like the sour taste partition leaves in our mouths, it pinches every time it's talked about. Another one is added in the martyrs of 47, but this one - killed himself!
