Product Details

• Actors: Baby Shikha, Gloria Gasper, Kamalakant, Anil Kishore, Marconi
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English, Hindi
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
• DVD Release Date: November 22, 2005
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000B7QCUY
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #69,214 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Studio: Ingram Entertainment Release Date: 11/22/2005

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Exotic visual spectacle on display in India's first color film , January 13, 2008

By	Brian Camp (Bronx, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

THE TIGER AND THE FLAME (1953) is a sweeping historical epic made in India by Indian filmmakers with some help from the west including noted Hollywood cinematographer Ernest Haller (GONE WITH THE WIND). It bills itself in the opening credits as "India's First Picture in Color by Technicolor" and tells the saga of a historical figure, Jhansi Ki Rani (a name by which the film is also known), a warrior queen who fought against the British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. It dramatizes select incidents and events from the years 1838-1858 in the life of Manu, as Jhansi is known as a child when we first meet her. The film keeps us at a distance from the characters, treating the story as a pageant, a collection of exquisitely staged scenes on a public stage bedecked with lavish sets, picturesque historic structures, beautiful costumes, rich colors and hundreds of extras in the big setpieces. We never get as emotionally engaged as we should, partly because the film bends over backward to be fair to the British, so we're never asked to develop outrage at abuses occurring during the British occupation of India (which is blamed here primarily on the British East India Co.).

Still, it's never dull, thanks to a steady steam of spectacular scenes offering backdrops of age-old palaces, forts and towns in locations not often captured on film available in the west. There are two great battle scenes late in the film, involving clashing armies on horseback, exchanges of cannon fire, and breaching fortress walls, that are as intricate and large in scale as anything being attempted in Hollywood at the time. This DVD edition was made from an original English-dubbed film print marred by the customary hazards of worn prints, including scratches on the film and occasional choppiness caused by film splices. Yet the color values of old Technicolor are quite dazzling here and I prefer a print like this to one altered by the compromises of digital restoration. Like it or not, this print shows us how the film would have looked in a theater some 50 years ago.

The DVD contains the 96-minute U.S. release version from 1956, a loss of 52 minutes from the original 148-minute cut. There are gaps in the narrative and very few scenes of human drama or intimacy. Perhaps they're in the lost footage. Still, given the low price of this DVD, it's quite a rare find and rich in novelty value for film buffs interested in Indian cinema, the history of color cinematography, and a cinematic treatment of India's history as seen through the eyes of Indian filmmakers, not Hollywood's.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Annal of an important history, January 21, 2007

By	Jigyasu (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

This movie was one of the few early India-produced films to enjoy distribution in the US. The protagonist of the movie Laxmibai was the queen of a small principality in Central India. Laxmibai's heroic fight to save her state from British annexation is part of the Indian folklore. This movie, though not the best in its class, is still remarkable for the accuracy of the historical facts and the lavishness of sets considering its year of production being 1955. Sohrab Modi was a director of the calibre of Victor Fleming and he did produce a remarkable film at a grand scale.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars $5.99 for a piece of cinematic history but no subtitles, June 12, 2007

By	Dwight (USA) - See all my reviews

The sound and the color have not been remastered but this movie is still worth watching especially for the use of real dancers for the Indian dance scenes.