Post by amba on Jan 25, 2014 22:47:42 GMT
Here are Genelia's thoughts on this silent movie:
I'm a big fan of silent films, so I was thrilled to finally get ahold of an Indian silent. A Throw of Dice is a co-production -- German director Franz Osten with a mostly South Asian crew and cast -- but onscreen it's 100 percent Indian. The sweeping masala plot involves a good-but-flawed king, an evil-and-conniving king, and the lovely rural girl they're both after. It's apparently taken from the Mahabharata.
On a DVD feature the composer, Nitin Sawhney, says that Satyajit Ray said Franz Osten was the first person to truly capture India onscreen. Now, I've never actually been to India, but who am I to disagree with Satyajit Ray? I do know that this film is beautifully shot, and has the best footage of nature and wildlife I've seen in a film of the period. There's no real action but the war sequences were shot impressively, with hundreds of people in each frame.
Commenting on the acting is a bit tougher -- acting styles were just different back in those days. Himanshu Rai, as the evil king, is viscerally nasty. He also co-produced the film, and later went on to co-found Bombay Talkies, India's first real film studio. Anglo-Indian Seeta Devi was the protypical heroine -- lovely but fiery when needed. Her career lasted from 1925 to 1930, ending before talkies came in. I was least impressed with Charu Roy, the actor playing the good king; he spent most of the time grinning vacuously over the heroine or a gambling game. He later became a film director.
The score is what lifts the movie to another level. Silent film fans get used to jangly piano scores, but Nitin Sawhney uses the London Symphony orchestra to an effect that's modern yet vintage, worldly yet wholly Indian. Ravi Shankar's score for Pather Panchali was apparently a huge influence on him. Most notable are playback singer Reena Bhardwaj, who does the score's only major vocal piece, and flutist Ashwin Srinivasan, who does score's love theme and has also worked with Ismail Darbar and other folks back in Bollywood. It's gorgeous enough to listen to without the film. And we do get a blink-and-miss-it dance sequence in the evil king's palace.
This is essential viewing for anybody interested in early Indian cinema, and crams a love story and gorgeous Indian travelogue into just 74 minutes. 8/10.
And here is the old thread in its entirety.
I'm a big fan of silent films, so I was thrilled to finally get ahold of an Indian silent. A Throw of Dice is a co-production -- German director Franz Osten with a mostly South Asian crew and cast -- but onscreen it's 100 percent Indian. The sweeping masala plot involves a good-but-flawed king, an evil-and-conniving king, and the lovely rural girl they're both after. It's apparently taken from the Mahabharata.
On a DVD feature the composer, Nitin Sawhney, says that Satyajit Ray said Franz Osten was the first person to truly capture India onscreen. Now, I've never actually been to India, but who am I to disagree with Satyajit Ray? I do know that this film is beautifully shot, and has the best footage of nature and wildlife I've seen in a film of the period. There's no real action but the war sequences were shot impressively, with hundreds of people in each frame.
Commenting on the acting is a bit tougher -- acting styles were just different back in those days. Himanshu Rai, as the evil king, is viscerally nasty. He also co-produced the film, and later went on to co-found Bombay Talkies, India's first real film studio. Anglo-Indian Seeta Devi was the protypical heroine -- lovely but fiery when needed. Her career lasted from 1925 to 1930, ending before talkies came in. I was least impressed with Charu Roy, the actor playing the good king; he spent most of the time grinning vacuously over the heroine or a gambling game. He later became a film director.
The score is what lifts the movie to another level. Silent film fans get used to jangly piano scores, but Nitin Sawhney uses the London Symphony orchestra to an effect that's modern yet vintage, worldly yet wholly Indian. Ravi Shankar's score for Pather Panchali was apparently a huge influence on him. Most notable are playback singer Reena Bhardwaj, who does the score's only major vocal piece, and flutist Ashwin Srinivasan, who does score's love theme and has also worked with Ismail Darbar and other folks back in Bollywood. It's gorgeous enough to listen to without the film. And we do get a blink-and-miss-it dance sequence in the evil king's palace.
This is essential viewing for anybody interested in early Indian cinema, and crams a love story and gorgeous Indian travelogue into just 74 minutes. 8/10.
And here is the old thread in its entirety.