In Modi’s pre-Independence masterpiece, murder in the Mughal court challenges the emperor’s famed class-blind sense of justice. An early “spectacular historical,” the film divides into two acts: in the first, Emperor Jahangir’s courtier is held responsible for killing his beloved’s brother; while in the second, Jahangir’s wife accidentally kills a washerwoman’s husband. A profound meditation on the nature of justice, Pukar (literally, “the call”) was made at a crucial juncture in Indian history when independence was anticipated but by no means won.