Prapancha Pash (1929)

Director:

Franz Osten

Writers:

W.A. Burton (writer)
Max Jungk (writer)

Release Date:

4 January 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Two rival kings addicted to gambling, Ranjit (Roy) and the evil Sohan (Rai), also vie for the same woman...

Cast

Seeta Devi	...	Sunita
Himansu Rai	...	Sohan
Charu Roy	...	Ranjit
Modhu Bose
Sarada Gupta	...	The Hermit
Lala Bijoykishen
Tincory Chakrabarty

Also Known As:

A Throw of Dice (UK)
Schicksalswürfel (Germany)
Throw of the Dice (USA)

Runtime:

74 min | India:85 min

Country:

UK | India | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

UK:U

Filming Locations:

Ajmer, Rajhastan, India

Company:

British Instructional Films (BIF)

Trivia:

The production used over 10,000 extras, 1,000 horses and 50 elephants provided by the royal houses of Jaipur, Udaipur and Mysore

Fairy-tale

I suspect the number of (living) people who have seen this Indian silent picture may have gone up a hundred-fold in the course of the last few hours: London's Trafalgar Square was packed to capacity with what we were told was a 10,000-strong crowd, all present to see a free open-air screening accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of Nitin Sawhney's new score for the film. The turn-out was nothing short of incredible for any silent film, let alone for such an obscurity, and the event was clearly a wild success.

As for the film itself, it's a highly-coloured epic based on a classic Indian tale, and reminiscent of the works of the brothers Grimm or the stories of Scherezade. There is trickery and romance, rival princes, a wise hermit, a beautiful daughter unfamiliar with the outside world, palaces and jewels, henchmen and loyal followers, kidnapping, disguises and an army on the march. There is even the apocryphal cast of thousands -- with elephants! The new score is well done, and is in a sufficiently 'Western' style to be accessible to a European audience while containing an Indian flavour in the solo voices and instruments: the LSO performance was admirable, and was in fact the best live orchestral synchronisation I've yet heard. The actors are both good-looking (where appropriate) and talented, and there is some impressive wildlife footage at the beginning and sophisticated editing at the end.

What I didn't get, to be honest, was any sense of emotional depth: this is a simplistic moral or fairy-tale style story with a great deal of plot and little space for characterisation. It's all on the surface, and a very attractive surface it is too; but that's all there is. The film is entertaining and technically excellent, with lavish production values thrown into the bargain. It never got me involved on any more intense level, though.