Parpancha Pash/A Throw of Dice (1929)

Country: United Kingdom/British India/Germany

Released: August 16th, 1929

Genre: Romance/Epic

Directed by: Franz Osten

Produced by: Nadine Luque, et al.

Written by:  W.A. Burton & Max Jungk

Prapancha Pash, also known as A Throw of Dice, follows to Indian Princes, Sohan (Himansu Rai) and Ranjit (Charu Roy), competing for the hand of a maiden named Sunita (Seeta Devi). The princes, who are both cousins, encounter the beautiful youth on a hunting trip, during which Sohan attempts and fails to assassinate Ranjit in a bid to inherit his kingdoms. After being nursing Ranjit back to health, Sunita and Ranjit fall madly in love, which makes the nefarious Sohan jealous. After numerous failed attempts to steal Sunita from his cousin (including framing him for Sunita’s father’s murder), Sohan convinces Ranjit to gamble away his noble title and eventually his freedom. Sohan wins, turning Ranjit into his slave and taking Sunita for himself. The film ends with Ranjit storming Sohan’s castle to save his beloved after finding out Sohan used loaded dice.

Upon it’s re-release in 2007 critics raved of Parpancha’s beauty, calling every frame a visual spectacle. While I can’t really disagree (after all the locals and costuming are quite exquisite) it is a very cinematographically superficial kind of beauty, relegated to the stage rather than the frame. For while the lavish castles and opulent regalia of the princes are dazzling, it is presented in a very straightforward and, dare I say, generic manner. Camera angles are flat and standard, and director Franz Osten doesn’t do anything creative with his cinematography besides trying to show us all the neat stuff he’s procured. Now don’t get me wrong, the stuff is neat. Fire eaters, cobras, castles, harems, elephants, tigers, jungles are quite a thing to behold. But despite not being that much later than many of the earlier movies on this list Prapancha feels dated; like its techniques were obsolete or uninspired at the time of filming.

This is probably an unfortunate side-effect of the list. When you have 1001 movies not every single one can be revolutionary, or succeed in every way every time. Sometimes just good is good enough, and a movie with great set design or great use of music but mediocre story or cinematography is worthy is only it succeeds in one field. Plus, following such a weird and attention-grabbing film as Un Chien Andalou would be tough on any movie.

For all my criticism though Parpancha is a good movie. Despite general cinemotographic blandness Osten presents the occasional forced perspective shot or library shot of wildlife to keep us engaged. Also, the acting is great. All three leads to a wonderful job, but I must give particular praise to Himansu Rai as Sohan. The guy is the perfect sleazebag, and his curly, shit-eating grins were the best part of the movie. Osten seems aware of this, as liberal use of close-ups allows us to revel in Rai’s mischievousness, which he seems to enjoy as much as the audience, something I always appreciate in film. 

The story was also pretty good, or at least serviceable. I liked the gambling angle, particularly Rajit's gambling addiction, which if nothing else kept him from becoming a Gary Sue. The ending however was disappointing. I thought that the film was going to end with a high-stakes dice game, which would have been interesting and original. Unfortunately they eschew that in favour of a castle storming scene. I know it’s odd to find a siege boring but I’ve seen it done bigger and better and often, so it was just kind of meh. Despite this the plot had enough original elements from being totally generic. 

Lastly, I know it's become somewhat cliche for me to mention on this blog, but the music really helped make this movie. I watched a version that, I assume, was the BFI (British Film Institute) 2007 re-release, and the music was a very well orchestrated use of traditional Indian styles that totally sucked me into the proceedings. That being said the music felt almost…too good, and uses of contemporary vocals felt anachronistic. Not because of the musical style themselves, but because they felt like song choices that wouldn’t have been used in the 1920s. Still though, I rather have had them than not, as they made up for some of the slower moments.

As I mentioned though the real stars are the stage manager and costume designer. The castles and costuming are something to behold, and stand far above many of the other movies on this list if only because it felt like they were using actual historical artifacts instead of fictionalized imitations. I can’t say if this was the case but it sure felt that way. It’s just a shame there weren’t more establishing shots to really show off the beauty. It was almost as if Osten was deliberately exercising restraint, which nine times out of ten I would applaud, but this was that one case where the film really would have been serviced by more braggadocios cinematography. If you got it, flaunt it. You know what I mean?

While the film is technically a British and German production the story is based on a chapter of the Mahabharata, an epic from the Gupta Period (320 CE-550 CE). Additionally the film was filmed in India cast and exclusively with local Indian actors, which is nice. As such it is often regarded as an early example of Hindi cinema. I hope that this is the first of many Indian movies on the list as I’m woefully unfamiliar with movies from that part of the world and look forward to the possibility of exploring such a vibrant and eclectic cinema culture.

So overall a good, if a bit generic film. I guess that's why this blogpost is drier than normal, there just isn't that much to rail on or rave about. That’s the problem with watching a movie everyday, unless something really stands out in quality (or lack thereof) it just kind of falls by the wayside, forgotten. Still, I’d like to imagine that every movie at least leaves me with something, even if its just the odd shot or acting choice. I guess only time will tell.