''Baghi Sipahi'' () is a 1958 Indian

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

-language film directed by Bhagwan Das Varma and starring

Madhubala Madhubala (born Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi; 14 February 1933 – 23 February 1969) was an Indian actress and producer who worked in Hindi-language films. She ranked as one of the highest-paid entertainers in India in the post-independence era, ...

, Chandrashekhar and Ranjan. It is loosely based on the 1951 American film ''Quo Vadis'', which in turn was adapted from the 1896 book with the same title by Henryk Sienkiewicz. The film was distributed and produced by V.P. Productions, an affiliate of Varma Films. ''Baghi Sipahi'' was released on 1 January 1958. ''Baghi Sipahi''’s narrative centers around the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

’s clash with

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and the harassment of Christians in its empire. Prominent among the persecuted Christians was the character played by ''Baghi Sipahi''’s lead actress

, who in the early 1950s had been called “the biggest star in the world” by David Cort of '' Theatre Arts Magazine''. ''Baghi Sipahi'' was the third collaboration between its filmmakers and Madhubala. Previously Madhubala and the filmmakers had collaborated in Neki Aur Badi (1949), for which Varma Films was the distributor, and Badal (1951), for which Varma Films was both the producer and the distributor. ''Baghi Sipahi'' was, however, the first time that Bhagwan Das Varma, one of the founders of Varma Films, had directed Madhubala.

Plot

''Baghi Sipahi'' is set in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 unti ...

's time, and has a theme based on

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

and their persecution by the

. The film tells the story of a Roman military commander, who, after returning from the war, falls in love with Ranjana, a devout Christian. Ranjana is technically a hostage of the Roman Emperor. However, as a reward for his services, the commander is able to persuade the Emperor to give Ranjana to him. Although Ranjana resents this arrangement, she eventually falls in love with the commander. As the film progresses, the Emperor's massacres of the Christians become progressively more despicable. When the kingdom catches fire, the Emperor blames the Christians at the suggestion of his wife. This in turn leads to more atrocities toward the Christians, instigating the commander to become a rebel soldier to protect Ranjana and the Christian community. Much of the movie proceeds with the cruel spectacles that ensue with the increasingly irrational behavior of the Emperor. Ultimately, the commander succeeds in overturning the situation, leading to the demise of the Emperor with the assistance of a palace slave, who was once in unreciprocated love with the Emperor.

Cast

as Ranjana * Chandrashekhar as the military commander * Ranjan as the Emperor * Nishi as the Emperor's wife *

Om Prakash Om Prakash (born Om Prakash Chibber 19 December 1919 – 21 February 1998) was an Indian film actor. He was born in Jammu as Om Prakash Chibber and went on to become a well-known character actor of Bollywood. His most well-known movies are Na ...

Purnima Pūrṇimā () is the word for full moon in Sanskrit. The day of Purnima is the day (''Tithi'') in each month when the full moon occurs, and marks the division in each month between the two lunar fortnights (paksha), and the Moon is aligned exa ...

as a palace slave * Gope *

Sapru Sapru is a clan of Kashmiri Pandits. The majority of them are now living in diaspora outside the Kashmir Valley. Most Saprus are Hindus while some are Muslims. Notable people * Tej Bahadur Sapru, lawyer, political and social leader *Muhammad Iqb ...

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of ''Baghi Sipahi'' was composed by

Shankar–Jaikishan Shankar–Jaikishan (also known as S-J), were an Indian composer duo of the Hindi film industry, working together from 1949 to 1971. They are widely considered to be one of the greatest ever music composers of the Hindi film industry. After Jaiki ...

Reception

''Quo Vadis'', the 1951 American film on which ''Baghi Sipahi'' is based was a box-office hit. ''Baghi Sipahi'' was released seven years after the release of its American counterpart and was not successful at the box office. A review by ''Thought'' disliked the fact that Madhubala was present in almost the whole film, but found her to be "vivacious" in her role. The sets and other actors were only formally praised. However, according to ''Thought'', the lavish war scenes were great in visuals.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0134300, title=Baghi Sipahi 1950s Hindi-language films 1958 films