Glorious: A Thow of the Dice
10 April 2012
Franz Osten was a German director who made ground-breaking and often lavish films in India with the local star Himansu Rai.
This exhumed and rather amazing revival from 1929 uses 10,000 extras, 1,000 horses and 50 elephants to tell its tale of two kings, one good and one evil, who are addicted to gambling and fancy the same woman.
The bad king takes the woman and makes the good one his slave after a crooked game of dice. A happy ending is surprisingly sealed by a passionate kiss between the triumphant lovers. Kitsch it may be, but glorious all the same.
A Throw of the Dice
