Indian News Parade 91 opens with coverage of the final of the Bombay Pentangular between the Muslim and Hindu teams. The match was described in The Times of India as ‘by far the most exciting finish ever seen in the Bombay Pentangular… a final that will be remembered for years to come’, while historian Ramachandra Guha has more recently argued that ‘for quality of play and dramatic shifts of interest this match was the equal of any in the history of Indian cricket’. However, it also assumed a broader historical significance, as a match ‘contested between two large and increasingly hostile groupings’. ‘Like the partition of India’ wrote Guha, ‘it was a desperately close-run thing: and the Muslims won in the end’ (Guha, 2002, 295, 296). 

The Pentangular was strongly criticised and opposed in many quarters because it was seen to foster communalism. In 1940, the Bombay Chronicle ran an editorial entitled ‘Bury the Pentangular’, which argued that while the ‘communal basis may have helped to stimulate the game in its early career’, the tournament should now be replaced by a ‘more congenial form’ (Guha, 2002, 277). Radio commentary of the tournament was banned during this same year and replaced with coverage of the less popular Ranji trophy, while in 1942 the United Provinces Cricket Association passed a resolution that urged action to ‘rid the country of the canker of communal cricket as it tends to retard unity and good fellowship in the country. Is it not deplorable for Hindus to play against their Muslim brethren and vice versa?’ (Majumdar, 2006, 56). Cricket historian Mihir Bose argued however, that if the communal aspect ‘intensified the divisions of India, cricket was the gainer’ as it fostered a fierce competitiveness and popular interest in the sport which greatly aided its development within India (Bose, 1990, 36).

These debates and discourses were also played out during the 1944 Pentangular. Before start of play the Bombay Pradesh Congress Committee urged a boycott of the tournament, stating that ‘communal cricket in these days of increased communal tension is definitely detrimental to the interests of the nation’ (Guha, 2002, 293). However, eyewitness accounts were quick to point out the good spirit between the teams. ‘Communalism was nowhere in evidence and everyone, including the Hindus, cheered the Muslim team at the end of the match’ recalled Vasant Raiji. ‘Merchant, the Hindu captain, went to the Muslim dressing room and hugged Mushtaq Ali warmly with the words “Well played Muslims, you deserved to win. It would have been a sad day for cricket if you had lost”’(Majumdar, 2006, 54). The 1944 tournament also highlighted the continued popularity of the competition, despite the criticisms, as almost 200,000 people were said to have watched the final over its four days (Guha, 2002, 293).

The film concludes with footage of ‘The Punjab Mail Disaster’, a train crash which occurred on the night of 23 November 1944 while travelling from Lahore to Calcutta. An inquiry into the disaster, which killed 8 people and left 89 injured, found that the derailment was caused by sabotage as a rail was deliberately removed from the track. One death sentence and ‘two life transportations’ were passed in connection with this (International Railway Gazette, 1946, 565). Historian David A. Campion noted that in the decades prior to independence ‘trains never lost their appeal as the object of anti-government fury. To disrupt the smooth running of the rail system remained the easiest and most dramatic way to strike at the heart of the colonial regime and cripple its military and economic power’ (Campion, 2006, 145).