The Chess Players
by Satyajit Ray
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Farida Jalal, Saeed Jaffrey, Sanjeev Kumar, Shabana Azmi, VeenaDirector: Satyajit Ray
Cinematographer: Soumendu Roy
Writer: Satyajit Ray
Editor: Dulal Dutta
Producer: Suresh Jindal
Writer: Javed Siddiqui
Writer: Munshi Premchand
Writer: Shama Zaidi
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); Hindi (Original Language); Urdu (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 129 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-04-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kino Video
Movie Reviews of The Chess Players
Movie Review: A funny kind of blue film
Summary: 4 Stars
Few people are aware that the British Empire was as bad as this
with marching into a peaceful kingdom that had long time supported them.
The two landed gentry struggle to play the Indian version of chess in this time of transition. The story of the king asked to step down contrary to a signed treaty just so that the "Company" could make a higher profit
is a classical historic one. The other Indian kingdoms gained nothing but
Kipling novels for their efforts to resist.
We are told that Kipling was a great poet and novelist,
but it seems that he just may have been a picked sell out from India?
This movie is certainly a very different view of those times.
A very good movie with really beautiful filming
of period costumes and customs I would have this shown to world hisatory students.
Summary of The Chess Players
Studio: Kino International Release Date: 04/18/2006 Run time: 115 minutesWritten, composed, and directed by Indian master Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali), The Chess Players presents a stylized world in which the landed gentry lounge about, endlessly pulling on hookahs and engaging in the "king of games." Outside their gilded doors, the order that allows them this luxury--let alone their marriages--is crumbling. They couldn't be more oblivious. As the narrator notes, "Mr. Meer and Mr. Mirza are only playing at warfare. Their armies are pieces of ivory. Their battlefield: a piece of cloth." Set in 1856 Lucknow, the noblemen (Saeed Jaffrey and Sanjeev Kumar) are situated in one of the few Indian territories not ruled by Britain's East India Company. The British, meanwhile, are also playing a game of chess, and equally oblivious Oudh ruler Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (Amjad Khan) is the king they intend to capture. Forthright General Outram (Sir Richard Attenborough, Ghandi), assisted by the more culturally erudite Captain Weston (Tom Alter), is the man charged with the task. It shouldn't be difficult: Like Meer and Mirza, Wajid would prefer to relax--to write poetry, to fly kites--rather than to rule. Along the way, Oudh will fall, but the chess will continue. Based on a story by Munshi Premchand, The Chess Players was Ray's most elaborate production. It was also his first in Hindi (with English) and its frames are filled with music, dance, opulent pageantry, and humorous banter--even a lively animated sequence. Behind the attractive fa?ade, however, lies a lament for lost opportunities. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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