Dignity equals not migrating?

Steering away from stereotypical imagers of loot, rape, bloodshed and train carnage, Garam Hawa targets a different kind of, yet similarly torturous pain suffered through Partition. The loss of ideals, the torture of difficult decisions and the dissolution of ‘home’ are all the results of Partition suffered by even those who didn’t to choose to move or were living in communities where the fear of violence was relatively low. Ad mist all this turmoil is a man Saleem Mirza who is trying desperately hard to solve desperate circumstances with dignity and hope with self-confidence believed that after Mahatma Gandhi’s martyrdom, there will be no bloodshed in Agra out of respect and solemnity.

Garam Hawa pushes Salim Mirza as a sort of ideal—a man who refuses to lose hope within his homeland, suffers his losses with dignity and points his finger to the heavens when asked how he plans to survive these hard times. His brother Haleem Mirza accuses him of being obsolete; “Aap na jaane kis zamane ki baatein karte hain, kis duniya main rehte hain! (I don’t know how you think or what planet you live on!)” however Saleem Mirza battles on quietly suffering immense losses such as the loss of his haveli, the burning of his factory, his mother's death, his daughter's suicide and his youngest son being unable to find a job despite a college degree. 

Under the shadow of the ideal Saleem Mirza who stays on in Agra even after deciding to move to Pakistan, somehow everyone who migrates to Pakistan including Saleem Mirza’s brother Haleem Mirza, his son Bakr and his daughter’s courtiers Kazim and Shamshad are shown to lose some sort of dignity. Haleem Mirza is shown as an egoist, shady businessman and a lying leader who is forced to run to Pakistan after his shady dealings are revealed. His wife and his son are shown in the same light; his wife extorts money from Saleem Mirza while Shamshad, Amina's courtier, fails to marry Amina despite his obsessive courtship and numerous promises. His son Bakr fails Saleem Mirza as a son when he loses all hope in his father's business and takes his son and wife away to Pakistan. Kazim is again, a failure as a lover because he too fails to marry Amina once migrated to Pakistan. Is Pakistan really the refuge of the shameful losers? 

While I enjoyed Garam Hawa immensenly, the moral of the story seems to unsettlingly be: Don't leave your  home, even if you have to suffer because if you do then you will fail to be an upright and trustworthy human being.