Don't let the fact that this is a Merchant Ivory production put you off in any way. There's little delicacy, intuition, or nuance in this colonial adventure story.As everyone knows by now -- everyone who has seen "Gunga Din" at any rate, which is everyone -- the Thugs were a sect in India who strangled their victims after digging their graves. "Gunga Din" tells us that they worshiped Kali, who stood for destruction, but it doesn't tell us that their favorite way of acquiring victims was in posing as frightened proletarians and joining the caravans that offered them protection in dangerous country. They may have worshiped Kali but they had nothing against robbing the caravans after murdering its members. They were something like organized American gangsters -- the Mafia or Murder Incorporated -- if the American gangsters have worshiped their own god. Needless to say, in 1840, when the British East India Company more or less ruled India, with the army as its instrument, this was a noisome situation.Lots of potential here. It almost calls for Errol Flynn. The Indians wear familiar garb and some of the customs are known to us -- suttee, for instance. But there's a touch of authenticity in the British uniforms. What outlandish caps -- like upside-down vases! The film is undone by clumsy writing and direction that is pedestrian and commercial. In the opening scene, a small camp of British soldiers is quietly wiped out, off screen. The lone officer who survives is waked up by the quiet, steps out into the night, looks around at the handful of corpses, fires a shot at a noise in the jungle, and then the camera rolls in for a gargantuan close up of the officer's face in an expression of shock and surprise. His eyes bulge, his mouth drops open, his tongue lolls -- and we don't know if he's just been stabbed or strangled or had a wetting accident. End of scene. Writing and direction that is that careless needs something close to being sacrificially burned.That scene is just an example. I don't mean that it's a terrible movie. Heck, those flamboyant hats alone might make it worth watching. It's just that, if most recent Merchant Ivory productions are exercises in sluggish elegance, this one leans too far in the other direction. Not enough advantage is taken of the location shooting. I hate to say something like watch "A Passage to India" to get some idea of how fruitful staging can add quality to a film -- but watch "A Passage to India" to see. Or even "Kama Sutra", a far lesser film, in which you can almost smell the incense. There's a hunt for a wounded tiger here that lands with a thud. It's hard to screw up a hunt for a wounded tiger but there's simply no suspense in the scene. On the plus side, the writer and director didn't shy away from the realities accompanying death in the tropics. The flies buzz all over the place. The performances aren't bad either.

Although it displays the usually reliable Merchant-Ivory production banner this tale of high adventure and skullduggery in British India is only a routine B movie with exotic pretensions. The background is historically factual, drawn around the ritual murders committed by a secret religious cult of so-called 'Thuggees' (from which the word 'thug' was later derived). But the far-fetched story of a British soldier infiltrating their ranks and losing himself in a netherworld of violence and vices is, at best, contrived, even by the lowest standards of romantic fiction. The idea might have looked better on paper, before its artistic and commercial potential was crippled by a lackluster, coincidence-filled script and a star performance that drains the hero of any charisma. Director Nicholas Meyer tries to convey the allure of an ancient culture, but the film doesn't have enough style to camouflage its slapdash lack of substance, and the token gestures to period flavor and atmosphere don't extend beyond the costume design and some cut-rate esoteric mysticism. When, for example, hero Pierce Brosnan is seduced by a mysterious native girl, their shadows on the wall show him embraced by the six-armed Thuggee goddess Kali… (cue the ominous tabla music)

This is a highly entertaining historical film that had the great misfortune to be released during the height of Schwarzenegger/Van Damme/"Lethal Weapon" era. It is a film about cultures in collision and the people who are crushed by that collision.Pierce Brosnan, in one of his best roles, plays Captain Savage, an honorable British soldier in India who is dissatisfied with the "do nothing" policies of his superiors. One day, he and his fiancée see a gathering on a riverbank. They learn that a young woman is preparing to burn herself alive in the authentic practice of "suttee"...her husband has been missing for a year and custom demands she immolate herself. Savage's girl is horrified and begs for him to think of a way out. He disguises himself as a native man and hopes the widow will see a brief glimpse of him and believe it is her husband. The suttee can thus be postponed. The scheme works, but a mob then chases Savage to ask why he has not appeared earlier. He frantically avoids the mob, but then sees a horrible sight. A band of wealthy Hindu travelers is suddenly strangled, robbed and buried. Savage has seen the secret cult of Thuggee at work! He appeals to the base commander (also the father of his intended) to apprehend the Thugs but bureaucracy prevents him from doing so. Savage becomes obsessed with uncovering the Thugs and hits upon a scheme where he will "go native" and infiltrate the Thugs himself. That way he can get incontrovertible proof of their existence. He enlists the reluctant help of a captured Thug (superbly played by Saeed Jaffrey) and goes undercover.Savage finds himself immersed in the strange and deadly world of the Thugs. As time goes by, he is forced to participate in the ritual murders to keep his cover. His identity is starting to give way. Will his sanity last long enough to reveal the secrets of "The Deceivers"? There's a huge amount of tension in the movie. Its attention to historical and cultural detail is excellent. Doing some research on the Thugs, I discovered the exact words of their "Sugar of Kali" ritual are used in the movie. Most confusing for Savage is the fact that, when not killing innocents, the Thugs appear to be normal and even kind people. The interesting contrast is that the former Thug feels his own loyalty to his people weakening as he sees Savage losing his way.The ending is bittersweet and not sugarcoated at all. I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes tense historical drama as well as those who want a glimpse inside a forbidden, exotic culture.

When a British officer gets wind of a gang of murderous highwaymen he joins their ranks with the intention of shutting down the organization. Spys and counterspys in both camps offset each other until a final battle settles who will remain in charge. Hard to believe that during all the time the officer was with the thugs they never noticed how foreign he appeared or that the stain he used never washed off. Entertaining with plenty of action and great scenery.