| RATING: | 60% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
Joyously-overblown melodrama that is also deliriously anachronistic in it visuals such that the British are still in India yet the dialogue is curiously modern and the costume design cannot quite settle on the correct period. The view of Britain is a parody of the Western view of the East in its cultural inanities and inability to understand foreign realities.
Yet underneath all the pomp and circumstance there are serious points being made about White racism that are profoundly accurate as to how the British, for example, could have stayed in India as long as they did given the hatred felt for them. The answer, as shown here, is the fact that the various Indian kingdoms were never united and it was an easy matter for the British to play the game of divide and conquer. The politics of collaboration with ones national and genetic enemy is given central place while the claim that Indians were being oppressed to civilize them from their allegedly barbarous ways is fore-grounded. In truth, this film is about the problems of modern-day India as much as it is about British occupation.
The overly repetitious and overlong plot is pure hokum and is an inferior rip-off of Romeo & Juliet and Braveheart because the two leads lack chemistry necessary to convince one that they love one another. The characterization is weak although - as usual with Bollywood - the girls are very fetching. The choreography and songs are better than usual and actually help carry the storyline rather than being merely rude interruptions.
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