Shiraz

Free binge courtesy of IMDB & loved it..more moved than I thought I would be and Anoushka Shanka really adds to the the film like all great film music.

The movie begins with a young Indian princess on a caravan across the Persian desert. Raiders strike, and the girl is found and succored by a village potter. After she is grown into Seeta Devi, she is seized and sold to prince Charu Roy. Her adoptive brother Himanshu Rai follows and proclaims her a free woman, which does no good. Roy loves her but cannot make her his Empress because he can only marry a princess, which no one knows she is.

It's a story of how the Taj Mahal came to be built, and it's given a fairy-tale cast, with some striking visuals. It's directed by Franz Osten, a German who moved to India in 1924 to make movies there until 1939 Eventually he was seized by British authorities -- he had joined the Nazi party in 1936. He was released in 1940 and returned to Germany, where he died in 1956, just shy of his 80th birthday.

One of a trilogy of Indian/UK co-productions produced by and starring Himansu Rai, Shiraz invents a romantic backstory to the building of the Taj Mahal which, for the final reel at least, really tugs on the heartstrings. The location photography is stunning, but the acting is woeful and the story stretched pretty thin.

SHIRAZ (1928) is the second of three silent films that make up a truly remarkable trilogy. The other two are THE LIGHT OF ASIA (1927) and A THROW OF DICE (1929). They were a collaborative effort between an Indian producer/star, British financing, and a German director. All 3 movies were shot on location in India and had as their backgrounds India's 3 dominant religions; Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. The producer/star was Himansu Rai; initial funding was put up by England's Pro Patria Films, and the director was Franz Osten who lived in India from 1924-1936 and directed a dozen movies there.

THE LIGHT OF ASIA was about the life of Buddha. A THROW OF DICE was taken from the great Hindu epic THE MAHABARATA. SHIRAZ concerns the Mughal (Mogul) emperor Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal. Not surprisingly, this movie was a big hit with Western audiences because of its subject matter and is also a fascinating amalgam of Indian history and Western exotica. It tells the story of a humble potter and a legendary ruler who are in love with the same woman. Producer Rai plays the title character, Charu Roy the emperor, and Eurasian actress Senta Davi is a duplicitous rival. All 3 are in the other two films as well.

The Indian scenery, the pageantry, the costumes, and lots and lots of extras in the crowd scenes are all dazzling to behold (even in black & white). The story, though a traditional love triangle, is made more interesting by the exotic backgrounds. The acting by the 4 principals is straightforward and restrained by silent film standards which adds to the overall enjoyment. One criticism I have is that at 106 minutes the film is a little too long and it does build slowly but the emotional payoff at the conclusion is well worth the wait.

This BFI restoration comes 16 years after the third film of the trilogy, A THROW OF DICE, and it surpasses the high standards set by that release. What really adds to the atmosphere is the score composed for this release by Anoushka Shankar. Like the best Indian music it has a mesmerizing quality all its own and would make a great soundtrack CD. The one drawback with this release is that it does not come with the 2 special features which are listed on the cover but you do get both Blu-ray and DVD in this packaging. SHIRAZ is a must, especially for anyone interested in Indian cinema before Bollywood...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

Not a great movie, with none of the flamboyant technique characteristic of the last great silents - THE WIND, ASPHALT, SUNRISE - but the mix of German expats., British scripting and Indian subject matter filmed on location, remains an intriguing novelty.

The plot, with the scheming highborn lady (`Father, to become Princess and later empress of India I would dare anything') introducing an old flame into the women's quarter to discredit the heir's true love, is simple stuff which seems to belong to a period of film making from years earlier. Playing is at least restrained.

The film's major appeal is in placing it's action against attractive genuine Indian buildings and the occasional vista. There's a bit of suspense from the likelihood that a real elephant will stomp the admirer. The hint of exotic sadism which runs through these European visions of The Mysterious East - `Kismet' or films like DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL and EMERALD OF THE EAST - is clear, as with demanding that the model maker's already blind eyes be put out.

The ending with the Empress' two devoted admirers sitting in front of the Taj Mahal is telling.

This one survives in a particularly sharp, well graduated copy - one of the best circulating, even if it isn't tinted. A pity the Sydney Film Festival, after bringing it half way round the planet, ran it too fast but the Tunji Beier - Linsley Pollak score they put with it was excellent.