The Warrior Queen of Jhansi

The story of India's legendary Rani Lakshmibai is fascinating and deserves to be shared with audiences worldwide, but this underwhelming biographical drama falls short of living up to its source. In a more nuanced filmmaker's hands, perhaps The Warrior Queen of Jhansi wouldn't feel like a surprisingly bloody world history video. Even the award-winning British actors in the supporting cast seem to be phoning in the bland, overly pedantic and sentimental screenplay. Despite the riveting premise, the bland writing and the occasionally wooden acting make the movie seem like a bit of a slog -- even though it's just roughly 100 minutes long.

Bhise (who is the director's daughter) lacks the gravitas that this larger-than-life role demands. It would have been better if the money spent on hiring Everett, Jacobi, and May had gone to casting a more experienced Indian actress for the central role. It's hard not to wonder what could have happened had a filmmaker like Mira Nair, Gurinder Chadha, Deepa Mehta, or Zoya Akhtar (all also notable women directors of Indian descent) made a more effective, more ambitious, less earnest, less black-hat vs. white-hat film chronicling Rani Lakshmibai's story. Parker in particular plays Sir Hamilton like an irredeemable, mustache-twirling villain, while Ben Lamb's Major Robert Ellis is sympathetic but also clearly in love with Lakshmibai. Parts of the narrative are instructive enough to merit follow-up research and questions, but overall, the movie is undeniably educational but not cinematically entertaining.