He started out as a lecturer in Bihar and later joined the Central Government service in which he landed up as a special assistant to the former railway minister the late Lalit Narain Mishra.Īround the time L.N. Mishra of Rajdhani Films deserves mention in his own rights for his unusual antecedents.
#STORY OF RAZIA SULTAN MOVIE MOVIE#
In every hall I have been there has been pindrop silence."įilm producers are usually faceless men whose names go unnoticed even in movie credits. It is wrong to say that the audience cannot understand the high-flown Urdu dialogue. Says Sobhraj of Aartee Films who has bought the film for the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh territories: "The beginning was slow but the film is bound to pick up. "I am not nervous or apprehensive." says Amrohi, adding that in Dubai where there has been no sabotage. He points out that it is still too early to judge and that great historicals such as Pakeezah, Mughal-e-Azam and Anarkali were classified as flops before their fortunes suddenly revived after a few weeks' run. Amrohi, however, remains optimistic about Razia's future. Last week, after trade papers like Trade Guide had dubbed the movie "a disaster", the film's producers and distributors were frantically trying to save it by considering major re-editing and revisions. Even before the release distributors who had booked the territories were in no mood to enhance their rates after the preview. Kamal Amrohi (left) and producer Mishra: Tacky splendourīox-office indications are gloomy. Says Mike Pandey, director second unit: "Amrohi got carried away by his vision of the love story, which is too dreamy and slows down the film." Similarly, he threw out expensive war footage which had been painstakingly put together after collecting some of the best stuntmen and horsemen in the world. After travelling to England and working out the entire sequence with Fields at enormous cost he decided to throw it out at the last minute. The ending, for example, in which Amrohi wanted to depict Razia and Yaqut's illusion of immortality as they meet their death on horseback came to nought after three years of effort.Īpparently, Amrohi sought out the best special effects expert in the world, Roy Fields of Pinewood Studios in England who had conceived such masterpieces as Star Wars and Superman to create the illusion of a winged horse carrying the lovers into eternity.
#STORY OF RAZIA SULTAN MOVIE SERIES#
Pradeep Kumar especially provides one of the few memorable performances in a film whose series of special effects sequences and lavish sets somehow never hold together.Įxpensive Effects: According to members of the film unit the director himself is responsible for botching up the most spectacular passages. Sohrab Modi as the sage prime minister, Pradeep Kumar as the Emperor Iltutmish, Veena as his scheming queen, Vijayendra Ghatge as the Amir in love with Razia and Parveen Babi as the ravishing lady-in-waiting give stellar performances and at least look their parts. Titillation of sexual fantasy is provided by a scene between Razia and her lady-in-waiting (played by Parveen Babi) on the royal barge in which the lovelorn queen is reduced to wriggling her toes in ecstasy by her lady-in-waiting's suggestive singing and caressing and kissing behind a pink ostrich plume.īlending into this melting background of brocades and gauze curtains, fountains and fortresses, domes and arches, is a supporting cast of performers who frequently steal the show from the principals. While such a role reversal with the hero kneeling at his beloved's feet may not be acceptable to male chauvinist audiences, the love affair is portrayed so discreetly to make it almost antiseptic. In a departure from the usual Salim-Anarkali love epics of yesteryear, this time it is the queen who fails in love with an Abyssinian slave Yaqut (played by Dharmendra in an Afro wig and varying shades of black grease paint). Fired by his imagination Amrohi has concocted a "sweet and tender" love story set against a backdrop of a royal and bloody costume drama. The truth is that history leaves almost no description of Razia or her reign - in fact historical sources only make a passing reference to her presence in the long annals of the Slave dynasty.
Although the director defends his choice of the lead player ("who else," he asks, "has the royal carriage, the regal face and flashing eyes?") and says he is almost completely satisfied by her Urdu diction and acting ability, it is clear to anyone who will check the records that Amrohi has on the whole spun a yarn.
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