Sikandar

Sikandar (1941) : Brief Review -

Alexander, aka Sikandar, hailing "Maharaja Porus Zindabad..." You gotta see it! Sohrab Modi as an actor and director is simply phenomenal in Sikandar. Now you'll ask which role is better. I guess it's genuinely difficult to choose. Sikandar has grandeur, style, action, drama, romance, and songs, but what made me fall in love with it is the storytelling. A film made in the early 40s having such fine templates of scene making, sound, screenplay, and execution is hard to believe. Moreover, the dialogues make it memorable. "Jo yoddha aurat ke piche jaega woh barbad ho jaega," to "Aurat kisi bhi insaan ki kamjori nahi balki uski sabse badi takat hoti hai," and then the epic dialogue coming from Alexander/Sikandar for Porus: "Hum duniya ko dikhana chahte hai ki is duniya mein kuchh log aise bhi hote Hain Jo ladai harte Hain par himmat nahin harte." And then he hails him, "Maharaja Porus Zindabad." Yes, that was the moment I'll remember for years. This patriotism and heroism this film carries is really something. You want to believe it, no matter what the historical accuracy is, and you want to like it as a proud man because it's a matter of pride, honor, and courage rather than just "victory." Porus could've killed Sikandar and become a great (even greater), but he had to keep the word given to his sister (from Iran). This sister angle also adds a different dimension to the story. You find layers, you understand them, and they all merge together for something interesting. Prithviraj Kapoor is amazing in the role of Sikandar. I can't really imagine anybody else doing that role after him. Modi Ji, as Porus, presents a real king, full of pride and determination. Vanmala as Sikandar's love interest looked good, but Meena Shorey was more beautiful. About songs, I couldn't really connect to any of them, maybe because it's too late now and those days had to have such songs. Overall, a very good film, and much better considering its time.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

As there was no rewiew here, I think it would be good to put some words about this quite unusual movie.

First of all - I saw this movie with subtitles, since i couldn't find voiced version. With a rare movies from 'talkies' era like this it's quite common. At some moments i had the feeling that subtitles may be more or less incomplete and did not reveal all details of sophisticated language, but still i found dialogues interesting and the overall story was easy to understand.

The movie focuses on indian campaign of Alexander the Great, and depicts it more from indian perspective - meaning at some point we can see Alexander more like invader and king Porus like idealised protector of homeland. From the very beginning we see impressive decorations of palace settings - I was very surprised to see such good depiction of foreign costumes in an indian movie (although in closer look a nimble eye can see fakeness of all greek armors). Visuals are the stongest side of the movie - although camera work isn't so impressive and sometimes diminishes the aestetic effectiveness of scenery. Battle scenes in movie - they are different... Sometimes depiction is nominal and sometimes we can see an elephant charge through infantry made without any special effects - absolutly mindblowing!

Although the story is not very complicated, the movie has very slow pace. Some simple dialogue scenes are more several minutes long. Its good to show character's deepest motivations, but in the middle of the film we know motivations of every character quite well - and neverthenless movie has this slow temp to the end.

Few words about characters - there is some very distinct and interesting ones. Alexandr is depicted always optimistic and joyful neverlosing young conqueror - pretty realistic in my opinion. Rukhsana is just adorable in her youth and passion. Aristotle showed here very astere and cold but later we see, that there is still humanity beneath logics of the wise. And of course Porus - an idealized near-chakravarti (ideal ruler in buddhism) in this movie, still has a stong bit of charm in his all-about-virtues attitude of mind.

What an indian movie without songs? There is some (not too much), and they are pretty lovely, although one song choice still make me scratch my head - a greek soldiers, singing 'Life is all about love' while marching on conquest? That must be some bad translation or maybe here comes that long expected cultural difference?..

A historic epic produced & directed by Sohrab Modi is basically based on faceoff between Alexander the Great & King Puru, whilst Sikander enters Indian subcontinent en route to his journey to conquer the world. Who wins the battle is a question for everyone to find out but the movie is a feat for movie lovers. Everyone knows the story but watch out for two acting power houses, Prithviraj Kapoor & Sohrab Modi, facing each other. First two scenes, featuring both of them together, are sheer magic. You will love their dialogues & dialogue delivery. Watch this movie to find out that Prithviraj Kapoor was the first dashing hero of Indian silver screen. He was not less than a Dilip Kumar, a Dharmendra or a Vinod Khanna or a Salman Khan. He looks amazing.