The Warrior Queen of Jhansi

The Warrior Queen of Jhansi is a mess of a film.

Set during the 1857 Indian revolution under Rani Lakshmi Bai (Devika Bhise, The Man Who Knew Infinity) against the British East India Co., the story relies on a cinematic spectacle that’s barely present. Furthermore, its feminist themes — seemingly its key point — come off as generic, bland and downright boring. Instead of powerful moments, we get recycled lines from other films, such as Rani snarkly saying, “Who said anything about men?” when asked about her soldiers.

Alongside the lack of originality, there aren’t many scenes warranting her troops to be anything special, aside for one training montage. These folks are downright unprepared for their enemy, and it hurts all of the credibility Jhansi wants you to think Rani has as a leader. This is unfortunate, seeing as the real-life figure was an incredible inspiration for her people.

Even worse is how dialogue-heavy first-time-director/co-writer Swati Bhise makes her film. Almost everything needs an explanation through an emotionally desolate (though not for lack of trying) scene. The writing isn’t lazy, but it’s not appealing and mostly results in viewer confusion and/or frustration. Other players who enter the narrative don’t help with any sort of character-building to give us someone to latch onto or engage with the story. An exception seems to arise through a hinted shared romantic longing between Rani and British Maj. Robert Ellis (Ben Lamb, A Christmas Prince), but it soon feels like an off-putting, easy way out for some of what the story tries set up but ultimately abandons..

Then there are the other Brits, such as Sir Hugh Rose (Rupert Everett) and Queen Victoria (Jodhi May, A Quiet Passion), who seem to find the war efforts on their own side unnecessary. Their actions beg the question of who exactly wants any of what is happening to occur. The only real antagonist the film produces is Sir Robert Hamilton (Nathaniel Parker, Stardust), who really wants to play the Big Bad, but is far too monotonous of a character to make any real impact on the viewer.

One positive about Jhansi is its presentation of how war taxes the mindsets of everyone on both sides of the conflict. As weak as the dialogue is, it’s interesting to see how people change over the course of the 102-minute run time.

The action scenes in Jhansi are probably the most engaging parts of the film. Unfortunately, they can be hard to keep up with. There are a couple of neat moments, but they’re nowhere near enough to keep anyone’s attention unless viewers are deeply invested in the film — not impossible, but rather hard to do. At Jhansi’s core, there is an incredible story to be told, but it’s not well executed here.