[1] A coproduction of companies from India, Canada and the United States, the film is based on the real-life story of Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu, a Punjabi Canadian woman who ran afoul of her family when she fell in love with and chose to marry a working-class man they did not approve of.
Charles Bramesco of The Guardian wrote that "Like so many high school theater iconoclasts before him, Tarsem differentiates his iteration of Shakespeare’s dog-eared narrative through context, in this instance the byzantine Kafka nightmare of immigration.
Forced to navigate an intentionally discouraging institution with minimal guidance, a brazenly unjust series of hurdles designed to devalue and restrict life itself, Mithu hits more poignant notes in his fight for the freedom of mobility than in his quest for his beloved.
"[2] The full extent of the story, and the fact that it ultimately revolved around a murder, were not promoted in advance of the premiere,[4] so as to heighten the initial impact of the twist in what had been presented in the early marketing as a simple romance film.
[6] In his acceptance speech, Singh made an impassioned plea for media to stop using the term "honor killing" in relation to stories like Jassi's, on the grounds that it can create the impression that the murder was justifiable.