Prapancha Pash (Throw of the Dice) (1929)
** (out of 4)
Royal cousins King Sohat (Himansu Rai) and King Ranjit (Charu Roy) share a love of gambling but soon the two fall in love with the same woman (Seeta Devi) and eventually place a bet, which will determine which one she goes with. This British/Indian/German production has some terrific things in it but in the end the story and characters just left me way too cold to fully enjoy the picture. I'll start with the positive things and you have to mention the downright beautiful cinematography. I was really shocked to see how marvelous this film looked as it appears each shot took hours to make sure everything was correct so that they could get all the details on the frame. Another major plus is the wildlife scenes at the start of the movie as we get to see various creatures in their habitat. The costume design is also marvelous and it really makes you seem as if you're right in India during the particular time that this film takes place. Yet another major plus are the locations. You can't help but look at this film with your eyes wide open as the locations just jump off the screen and that beautiful black and white print is really, really sharp. Every single frame of this film is beautiful to look at but sadly the story is really lacking. The basic plot has one of the cousins being an evil, no good SOB but you have to wonder how so many people could be stupid to what he's doing. I could understand one, two or maybe even three people falling for this bad idea of his but for everyone to do so? Another problem I had is that I didn't care for either cousin so it was hard to root against the bad one and cheer for the good one. I also didn't care too much for the woman they were in love with so that was yet another problem. I must admit that I didn't care for anything in this film story wise and I thought it really dragged down everything else that the film has going for it.
