Kartar Singh (1959 film)

Kartar Singh (Urdu: کرتار سنگھ) is a Pakistani Punjabi film about the Partition of India and the violence after it. It describes the conflicts between Hindus, Muslims and 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 trouble maker. The title character is played by Allauddin who became very well-known after this film. He is often remembered for this film. It is said that Sikhs failed to recognize him as a Muslim,on seeing this film in Indian Punjab theater screens, as he is not a Sikh in real life. It is considered to be one of the super hit 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.

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.