The Warrior Queen of Jhnasi
Earnestness and reverence is the death knell of many an “inspiring” movie, and “The Warrior Queen of Jhansi” falls into that trap.
The real Rhani Lakshmibai, queen of the Jhansi province in India during the 1850s and one of the key figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, seems to have been a marvelously complex human being whose rule was fraught with difficulties.
You wouldn’t know it by the wellmeaning, atmospheric but bland movie directed by Swati Bhise and starring her daughter, Devika Bhise, and cowritten by both. As if adhering strictly to a wellworn copy of “Biopics for Dummies,” the film checks off all the tropes. It is so simpleminded, from the pedestrian script to its cardboard characterizations, that one wonders whether this was intended to be a children’s or young adult film as an introduction to a charismatic historical figure. (The film is rated R, but I’m not sure why. It’s not that violent, and there is no nudity or swearing. Seems more like PG.)
The plot: The East India Company, basically a private business that ran India for Britain for some 200 years, uses the death of Rani’s husband, the maharaja of Jhansi, Gangadhar Rao (Milind Gunaji), to take control of the strategic region. But Indian citizens revolt, much like the Hong Kong protesters today, and the company, as represented by Sir Robert Hamilton (Nathaniel Parker, in all his Snidely Whiplashness), finds unexpected resistance from Rani, who has trained an elite unit of female fighters for added depth to the Jhansi fighting forces.
She’s not going to give up the crown without a fight.
After some tense backandforth, Queen Victoria ( Jodhi May), who weirdly keeps an Indian servant at her side at all times and even lets him sit in on meetings, and Prime Minister Lord Palmerston (Derek Jacobi) order army commander Sir Hugh Rose (Rupert Everett) to bring a quick and violent end to the situation. Shock and awe, as it were.
“This news is hampering our efforts to civilize these people,” the PM says cartoonishly to the queen.
The gobetween is the translator, Major Robert Ellis (Ben Lamb), who delivers most of the messages between the Jhansi palace and the East India Company and British Army bigwigs. While he swears allegiance to Britain, he clearly admires (read: is smitten with) Rani.
There’s a lot of dialogue, with only a few bursts of action, yet there’s very little character development. There’s a brief training scene with her fellow female fighters, a la “Wonder Woman,” but we don’t see them again until the climactic battle. Rani herself remains a bit of a cipher.
The fact is that too much time is spent with the British characters in the film, time that could have been spent really getting into Rani’s story. She was fighting for the independence of India, but the filmmakers lost their own colonial battle.