However, she has visually translated most of the lines from Khushwant Singh's narrative directly on to the screen. Thus the film begins with Hukum Chand, the District Magistrate, reminiscing about the partition period. For her adaptation, Rooks chose a slightly different narrative from the original novel. Previously as her first feature, Rooks had adapted her own novel Miss Beatty's Children, into a 1993 film by the same name, which won her the National Film Award for Best First Film of a Director. Initially the publishers of the book, Ravi Dayal, were hesitant to give the rights of the work to a new filmmaker, as this was only Rooks' second feature, till Ravi Gupta, Managing Director of NFDC stepped in and a go-ahead was given. The novel stayed with her, however, because growing up she had stories of the Partition from her parents. Pamela Rooks first read the novel at 17, preparing for the title role of Nooran, which she was set to play in the prospective Ismail Merchant film, which never took off. According to him, several people in past have attempted to make the film, including Shashi Kapoor and Shabana Azmi, who even developed a screenplay, but owing to the sensitivity of the subject, they abandoned the project.
The film was one of the most anticipated adaptations of its time, especially being writer Khushwant Singh's most acclaimed work. Divya Dutta as Haseena, the Muslim prostitute girl.That is when this quiet village is changed forever. One day, a train arrives from India, which carries bodies of all the Muslim childrens, Womens and Mens who have been butchered while they tried to depart from India. The Muslims in India moved towards the newly formed Pakistan, and the Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan migrated to refugee camps in India. During the summer of 1947, when the Partition of India was taking place, the entire country was a hotbed of extremism and intolerance. The Sikhs own most of the land, and the Muslims work as labourers. The villagers are a mix of Sikhs and Muslims, who live in harmony. Mano Majra, incidentally, was the original title of the book upon its release in 1956. The film develops around the love affair of small-time dacoit Juggut Singh (Nirmal Pandey), with a local Muslim girl, Nooran ( Smriti Mishra). The film is set in Mano Majra, which is a quiet fictional village on the border of India and Pakistan, close to where the railway line crosses the Sutlej River.