Rent Shiraz (1928)

3.8 of 5 from 56 ratings
1h 46min
Rent Shiraz (aka Shiraz: A Romance of India) Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
  • General info
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Synopsis:
Franz Osten's sumptuous Indian silent classic imagines the sweeping love story of the 17th-century princess Mumtaz Mahal and the subsequent construction of the Taj Mahal in her honour. The film's producer, Himansu Rai, also stars as humble potter Shiraz, who follows his childhood sweetheart Selima (Enakshi Rama Rau) when she is sold by slave traders to the future emperor (Charu Roy). Selima catches the eye of the prince but finds a bitter rival in an ambitious favourite (Seeta Devi) from his harem. Shiraz, meanwhile, is fated to design the queen's iconic mausoleum.
Shot entirely in India, featuring lavish costumes and gorgeous settings - including the extraordinary fort at Agra - and a stunning new score from world-renowned sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar.
Actors:
, , , Enakashi Rama Rao, Maya Devi, Profulla Kumar
Directors:
Producers:
Himansu Rai
Writers:
William A. Burton, Niranjan Pal
Aka:
Shiraz: A Romance of India
Studio:
BFI Video
Genres:
Classics, Drama, Romance
BBFC:
Release Date:
26/02/2018
Run Time:
106 minutes
Languages:
English DTS 5.1, English LPCM Stereo, Silent
Subtitles:
English
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
Colour:
B & W
Bonus:
  • Restoration Demonstration (2017, 3 mins)
  • Temples of India (1938, Hans M Nieter, 10 mins): Indian travelogue featuring beautiful colour footage of the Taj Mahal shot by Jack Cardiff
  • Musical Instruments of India (1944, 12 mins): public information film made by the Government of India to promote Indian arts and culture
BBFC:
Release Date:
26/02/2018
Run Time:
106 minutes
Languages:
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English LPCM Stereo, Silent
Subtitles:
English
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
Colour:
B & W
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • Restoration Demonstration (2017, 3 mins)
  • Temples of India (1938, Hans M Nieter, 10 mins): Indian travelogue featuring beautiful colour footage of the Taj Mahal shot by Jack Cardiff
  • Musical Instruments of India (1944, 12 mins): public information film made by the Government of India to promote Indian arts and culture

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Reviews (1) of Shiraz

Animals and Passion - Shiraz review by CH

Spoiler Alert
29/01/2024

Astonishing to think that Shiraz (1928) was made almost a hundred years ago. Directed by a German, Frank Osten on location in India (to which he had moved), it has many interior shots of an Expressionist hue alongside those outside which, naturally lit, often find caravans of camels ambling by.

This is the background to a tale of an epic seventeenth-century love tangle. As a child, a princess is lost to the desert after a raid by brigands. She is found and rescued, to be brought up in a village where her new, eponymous brother falls in love with her. Alas, she is sold as a potential sex slave at market some years later. She is taken up by an Emperor who comes to love her but they cannot marry as she is apparently not royalty. Her grief-stricken brother watches from afar for eighteen years, and goes blind while events take a different turn within the Palace.

To summarise the story - and there is much more - is to miss the way in which the viewer become involved: the drama, the passion, the spectacle (there are many elephants). As so often in silent films, eyes are more than expressive, and the same can go for a kiss..

Now restored, partly with funding by George Harrison’s Estate, the film has a remarkable crispness, fittingly accompanied by Anouska Shankar’s new score. This is perfectly judged to savour all the intimate moments while carrying along a narrative which has soon shaken off any suggestion of the preposterous.

And this is not to reveal an ending which might yet take some by surprise.

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