Swords and Sceptres: The Rani of Jhansi at VIWFF 2019

If there is one film to see this year, it would be this one! Swords and Sceptres: The Rani of Jhansi, directed by Swati Bhise, is a story that brings strong women of history to the forefront. This film is a brutal and honest depiction of what happened both in Britain as well as India around 1850. The relevance of this story is perfectly fitting for today much like when the award-winning film Lagaan was released, but instead follows the journey of a Queen who leads her army to rebel against the East India Company. The cinematography provides captivating colour and vibrancy, much like the Bollywood film Jodha Akbar, while still capturing the brutal strength of the Jhansi army and the terror they face.

Swords and Sceptres: The Rani of Jhansi also contains many subtle yet powerful moments for women including them as soldiers, fighting the customs of a widow and fighting the suppression of a woman’s intellect on both the British side and the India side. On top of that, Bhise brilliantly manages to create clear parallels between the two Queens which is rarely ever shown when depicting the fight of independence between India and Britain.

Finally, the use of English and Hindi was beautifully done with the inclusion of subtitles. This is very rarely done well without cringing when seeing actors poorly attempt to speak either language fluently in Indian storytelling. This was not the case when watching this film. These filmmakers did an excellent job at fusing the two languages to make this story easy to watch for both English and Hindi speakers.  The acting in both English and Hindi is seamless and incredibly moving without taking away from the story.

In my opinion, this film is of similar calibre to past award-winning films and should be treated as such.   If you like historical stories about royalty filled with action-packed sword fighting and powerful women leading the way then this film is one not to be missed! Be sure to attend the world premiere of Swords and Sceptres: The Rani of Jhansi!

Written by: Aliza Vellani, a Vancouver based Actor and Board Member for Women in Film and Television.

Rupert Everett, Derek Jacobi join 'Swords And Sceptres'

Rupert Everett and Derek Jacobi have joined Cayenne Pepper Productions’ historical drama Swords And Sceptres.

Nathaniel Parker, Ben Lamb, Jodhi May and Devika Bhise have also joined the project, which shoots in India, London and Morocco.

Renowned choreographer and dancer Swati Bhise makes her feature debut as director on Swords And Sceptres. She is the CEO of Cayenne Pepper Productions and wrote the script alongside Devika Bhise and Olivia Emden.

The film will also star Indian actors Nagesh Bhonsle, Yatin Karyekar, Milind Gunaji, Arif Zakaria and Ajinkya Deo. Charles Salmon (The Railway Man) will co-produce.

The project tells the true story of Rani Lakshmibai, the Queen of Jhansi who led her army against the British East India Company in the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857.

Principal photography began on 14 October in India, with production moving on November 15 to London and Morocco.

Cayenne Pepper Productions (CPP) is a film production company based in Hong Kong. Swati Bhise of CPP was executive producer of The Man Who Knew Infinitystarring Jeremy Irons, Dev Patel. CPP also distributed the film in India, in conjunction with PVR Entertainment.