| | 4 | aka The Tiger and the Flame 1953 148’ col Hindi d Sohrab Modi pc Minerva Movietone st S.R. Dubey sc Geza Herczeg, Sudarshan, Adi F. Keeka dial Munshi Abdul Baqui, Shams Lucknowi lyr Radheshyam Kathavachak c Ernest Haller m Vasant Desai lp Mehtab, Sohrab Modi, Mubarak, Ulhas, Ramsingh, Sapru, Anil Kishore, Baby Shikha |
| | 7 | One of the best-known Indian historicals, it is a spectacular account of Rani Laxmibai’s (Mehtab) life, the 19th C. queen of Jhansi known as Manu to her friends and who led her armies into battle against the British East India Company during the 1857 rising (known in Britain as ‘the Mutiny’). The film chronicles Lord Dalhousie’s annexation policies which had forced a treaty upon the aged and childless King Gangadhar Rao (Mubarak). The high priest (Modi), who controls the throne and who had opposed the signing of the treaty, searches for someone capable of leading a revolt and finds the defiant Manu. He persuades the king to marry her, making her the rightful successor to the king instead of the scheming Sadashiv Rao (Ramsingh) who is on the side of the British. Much of the film, shot by Hollywood import Haller, consists of battle scenes, courtesy of the Ministry of Defence and horses, elephants and subjects of the maharajahs of Bikaner and Jaipur. |