This handsome looking Merchant Ivory film is great for its exotic visuals and location footage, some of it remarkably cinematic and glorious from that perspective. This is based on the legend of the Indian cult of the Thuggee, documented in other films and dealt with in detail here. The handsome Pierce Brosnan is rugged and brave as a British officer out to expose those in charge of this brutal cult, and when he does a series of arrests, he is forced to resign and thus decides to go in Disguise to complete his duty. Putting on brown makeup and not shaving for days, he doesn't feel the audience but manages to full members of this violent group whose methods of murder are quite vile.
A major flop in 1988, this apparently gets a little business that it slipped into a level beyond obscurity. Brosnan is quite believable in his British uniform, but he looks ridiculous in the makeup and not at all like an Indian peasant who would strangle on orders and take the famous sugar that makes the taker vulnerable to the female goddess that this cult worships. When they show a corpse of one of the victims, it is obvious that there was more than just strangling going on, and a few of these crimes are quite graphic in detail. It's a shame that this film is not better known as it is quite sumptuous to look at, but it's missing a certain element to make it completely successful. Obviously very little expense was spared so the production values are superior, almost epic like in scope. But information about the movie outside of general resources makes it almost appear that this was straight to video even though it did have a very brief theatrical release.
A major flop in 1988, this apparently gets a little business that it slipped into a level beyond obscurity. Brosnan is quite believable in his British uniform, but he looks ridiculous in the makeup and not at all like an Indian peasant who would strangle on orders and take the famous sugar that makes the taker vulnerable to the female goddess that this cult worships. When they show a corpse of one of the victims, it is obvious that there was more than just strangling going on, and a few of these crimes are quite graphic in detail. It's a shame that this film is not better known as it is quite sumptuous to look at, but it's missing a certain element to make it completely successful. Obviously very little expense was spared so the production values are superior, almost epic like in scope. But information about the movie outside of general resources makes it almost appear that this was straight to video even though it did have a very brief theatrical release.