30 November,2019 07:32 PM IST | Mumbai | Johnson Thomas
A still from The Warrior Queen Of Jhansi
After two rather irredeemable depictions (Manikarnika & Sye Raa Narsimha Reddy) of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, comes this third one - rather unremarkable and shabbily put-together. Given its international markings, one expected better.
A period piece, this film about Lakshmibai, one of the iconic Indian leaders who led the fight against the British East India Company during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, is rather insipid and unexciting. The earlier two had enough melodrama to draw in a certain target audience. This one doesn't even try.
Devika Bhise (who also plays Lakshmibai in the film) co-wrote the movie with her mother, director Swati Bhise and both fail to make the heroics seem genuine and applause worthy. The dialogues don't sound meaningful enough, the plotting isn't sharp and the lack of tension is a killer here. The battle sequences are fairly well orchestrated but the overall smarmy tone defeats the very purpose. Devika Bhise is sincere enough and the overall acting - with stalwarts like Milind Gunaji as Lakshmibai's husband Gangadhar and International names like Nathaniel Parker as Sir Robert Hamilton, Rupert Everett as Sir Hugh Rose, Ben Lamb as Major Robert Ellis, Jodhi May as Queen Victoria and Derek Jacobi as Lord Palmerston fails to make this rather woebegone effort matter. It's neither easy nor cheap to make a period epic and the production is quite commendable considering those drawbacks. But eventually, the choppy nature of the telling, the uninspired writing and performances, numerous inconsistencies and incoherence in the telling, make this a rather tepid experience!
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