'The Warrior Queen of Jhansi'

The battle epic “The Warrior Queen of Jhansi,” one of the few movies made in India to make the leap to mainstream American screens, is an audacious debut for director Swati Bhise, even if the results aren’t always up to snuff.

Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi, was queen of a northern India district in the mid-1800s. It was a time when the British East India Company had subjugated millions of Indians to increase their profit margins, using the British army as their enforcers and a stream of nonsense about “civilizing” the Hindus and Muslims living there.

When the Rani (played by American-born actress Devika Bhise, the director’s daughter) fails to provide her husband, the king (Ajinkya Deo), a male heir, they adopt a nephew. But the British East India Company rejects this substitution, and annexes the kingdom, another violation of the treaty between the two countries. Rani decides to fight, leading what was the largest rebellion against the British until the Mahatma Gandhi led an independence movement nearly a century later.

The story focuses much time on Queen Victoria (Jodhi May), back in London, telling her prime minster, Lord Palmerston (Derek Jacobi), to avoid a massacre. Even more time is in the tent of the British army’s commander in Jhansi, Sir Hugh Rose (Rupert Everett), enduring the impatient taunting of the British East India Company’s representative, Sir Robert Hamilton (Nathaniel Parker). Much of Hamilton’s ire is aimed at a junior officer, Maj. Robert Ellis (Ben Lamb), who knows Jhansi well — and has an unrequited crush on the Rani.

Swati Bhise, a former dancer and choreographer, is a one-woman film crew — she’s director, producer, co-screenwriter (alongside her daughter and Olivia Emden), and designed the Rani’s ornate costumes — and she puts a lot of passion into the Rani’s rousing speeches and the “Braveheart”-like battle scenes. Unfortunately, that zeal can’t overcome rookie lapses in pacing and editing, or the low budget and sometimes slapdash story structure.

She does give her talented daughter, Devika, a great showcase. The younger Bhise (who starred opposite Dev Patel in “The Man Who Knew Infinity”) gives Lakshmibai the gravity and passion to make those stirring rally-the-troops moments sing. She’s a warrior queen who will reign again in more movies.

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‘The Warrior Queen of Jhansi’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, November 15 in select theaters, including Megaplex Gateway (Salt Lake City) and Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy). Rated R for some violence. Running time: 102 minutes; in English and in Hindi with subtitles.