It was written by Kaifi Azmi and Shama Zaidi, based on an unpublished short story by noted Urdu writer Ismat Chughtai.

Set in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, the film deals with the plight of a North Indian Muslim businessman and his family, in the period after the 1947 Partition of India.

In the grim months after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, the film's protagonist and patriarch of the family, Salim Mirza, deals with the dilemma of whether to move to Pakistan, like many of his relatives, or stay back.

Parallel cinema had already started flourishing in other parts of India, especially in Bengal (notably in the works of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak) and Kerala.

[3] The Mirzas are a Muslim family living in a large ancestral house and running a shoe manufacturing business in the city of Agra in the United Provinces of northern India (now the state of Uttar Pradesh).

The family is headed by two brothers; Salim (Balraj Sahni), who heads the family business, and his elder brother Halim, who is mainly engaged in politics and is a major leader in the provincial branch of the All India Muslim League, which led the demand for the creation of a separate Muslim state of Pakistan.

Salim resists the notion of moving, believing that peace and harmony would return soon, besides which, he has to care for their ageing mother, who refuses to leave the house of her forefathers.

Salim Mirza's brother-in-law, formerly a League supporter, now joins the ruling Indian National Congress in an attempt to get ahead in independent India, while his son Shamshad unsuccessfully woos Amina, who is still devoted to Kazim and hopeful of his return.

He finally succeeds in finding a smaller house to rent, but his business is failing and despite his son's exhorting, refuses to change with the times, believing that Allah would protect them.

Despite his political connections, Salim Mirza's brother-in-law ends up in debt over shady business practices and decides to flee to Pakistan.

Salim Mirza's reluctance to modernise and cultivate ties with the newly formed shoemakers union results in his business not receiving patronage and consequently failing.

Amidst these problems, Salim Mirza is investigated by the police on charges of espionage over his sending of plans of their former property to his brother in Karachi, Pakistan.

Sikander opposes the idea, arguing that they should not run away from India, but fight against the odds for the betterment of the whole nation, but Salim is called a spy for Pakistan and decides to leave anyway.

However, as the family is travelling towards the railway station, they encounter a large crowd of protesters marching against unemployment and discrimination, which Sikander had planned to join.

While the original story centred on a station master, stuck in the throes of Partition, Kaifi Azmi brought in his own experiences as a union leader for the workers of a shoe manufacturing factory to the film.

He not just changed the profession of the film’s protagonist, but also placed him right in the middle of film’s emotional cauldron, as he watches his livelihood (shoe manufacturing) and family disintegrating rapidly, immediately making the trauma of the Partition personal, compared to the original story, where the protagonist is a mere observer, watching his friends and family migrate.

As Sathyu couldn't afford recording equipment, the film was shot silent, and the location sounds and voices were dubbed in post-production.

[14] The title alludes to the scorching winds of communalism, political bigotry and intolerance, that blew away humanity and conscience from across North-India in the years after the partition of India in 1947, and especially after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, to the which the film opens.

)[8] Just like his ageing mother is reluctant to leave the ancestral haveli where she came as a young bride, her son Salim Mirza, the protagonist is also holding on to his faith in new India.

Despite the fact that his shoe manufacturing business is suffering in the new communally charged environment, and the family had to sell off their haveli to move into a rented house.

However, prior to this Bal Thackeray, head of Shiv Sena had threatened to burn down the cinema, if the premier was allowed, calling it 'pro-Muslim' and 'anti-India' film.

[1] Today it is noted for its sensitive handling of the controversial issue, dealt with in only a few Indian films,[7][2] like "Kartar Singh" (1959) (Pakistani film),[17] Manmohan Desai's Chhalia (1960), Yash Chopra's Dharmputra (1961), Govind Nihalani's Tamas (1986), Pamela Rooks' Train to Pakistan (1998), Manoj Punj's Shaheed-e-Mohabbat Boota Singh (1999) and Chandra Prakash Dwivedi's Pinjar (2003).