Beautiful, but bloodless
Misplaced reverence dooms this spiritless dud
Perhaps you’ve never heard of Maharaja Duleep Singh, a.k.a. the Black Prince of Perthshire? Well, there’s a new movie that wants to correct that educational oversight, and it’s going out of its way to make sure you don’t think ill of the man.
Unfortunately, unbridled hagiography and riveting drama don’t generally fit neatly in the same box. The Black Prince is a beautifully photographed film and an interesting historical tale from the murky depths of mid-19th-century British colonialism, but it’s a bloodless tale, bereft of passion or pathos.
Much of the blame must fall on Kavi Raz, who wrote and directed the story of Singh’s troubled life. Born in Lahore in what was then the Sikh Empire, Singh was crowned ruler at the age of five, and deposed just six years later during the First Anglo-Sikh War. He was raised in England, became a favourite of Queen Victoria (she gave him his nickname), and converted to Christianity. But late in life he yearned to return to his homeland and his first religion, a problematic desire for a former monarch, since his British hosts were now running what would later become known as Punjab Province, straddling modern-day India and Pakistan. Interesting stuff, but too often the film delivers information by having its characters stand and deliver it, while others lurk at the edges of the screen to overhear. It also constantly interrupts itself to serve up gauzy-hued flashbacks.
Indian singer-songwriter and first-time actor Satinder Sartaaj cuts a regal figure as Singh, but he underperforms in almost every scene, giving little sense of the turmoil the man must have felt in being torn between two countries. Much better is Amanda Root as Queen Victoria, sympathetic and unexpectedly amused; and Jason Flemyng as Dr. John Login, Singh’s British guardian. Additional warmth and even some humour come from Shabana Azmi as Singh’s mother.
But it’s not enough to save the movie from its own sense of self-importance, as it plows through highlights of Singh’s life, touching down now on his marriage to a GermanArabic girl, now on his attempts to rally support for the Sikh cause through an odd coalition of Irish, American and Russian troublemakers. The Sikh Empire deserved better treatment from its British conquerors; so does the story of its final ruler.