The Relief belongs to the genre of historical fiction. Multiple attempts at Lucknow’s relief are condensed in fiction into one triumphant march, but the film’s claims to authenticity remain an important dimension of its drama. A write-up notes, ‘This film does not yield to fiction to any extent whatever, as nothing could add to so dramatic an episode’ (Edison National Historic Site: Folder 266). Several intertitles read like taglines to historical photographs. The film incorporates actual events and personalities into its narrative, including among its protagonists Major General Henry Havelock, commanding officer who assisted with relief operations, and Thomas Kavanagh (unnamed in the film), a British officer reputed to have escaped the garrison in native disguise.

Fifty-five years after the event, the Indian Mutiny remained a theme with mass appeal in Britain. In the intervening years, the Mutiny had been depicted in memoirs, novels, poems, and eventually on film, making it the most popular topic of British literature and popular culture of the time (Chakravarty, 2005, 3). The Sepoy’s Wife (1910), another Mutiny-themed film, is a fictional account of an Indian ayah (maid) who aids her British mistress despite being married to a rebel. Made by the Vitagraph Company, it uses white American actors in brown face to play Indians. The Relief, which deploys some actors in brown face, is nevertheless remarkable for its use of Indian troops of the British Army for the crowd scenes. Their presence lends a startling realism. In a contrasting scene an Englishwoman assists an officer to darken his face and ‘go native.’ It is memorable because it unintentionally displays the customary artifice of Mutiny films.

By focusing on the ‘relief’ rather than the ‘siege’ of Lucknow, the film makes an ideological display of British courage and victory. It uses several popular tropes of Empire and Mutiny novels that would have been familiar to British audiences, such as the iconic figures of an officer in disguise and a treacherous spy. The former enacts fantasies of superior mobility and access, while the latter articulates anxieties of betrayal and failure (Chakravarty, 2005, 7). The film also portrays women and children in danger, reflecting popular British rage against attacks on the vulnerable during the Mutiny. The figure of a priest stands in for the moral superiority of the British, and the bagpipes symbolize a patriotic and triumphant conclusion to the battle.

The film is edited at a fast pace, and its spatial compositions are planned to heighten contrasts. It cuts from interiors to exteriors, building a confrontational drama between British residents and rebelling troops. A slight romantic plot between a woman and the officer who poses as a native add a lighter touch to the military drama, appreciatively noted by reviewers (Bioscope, 664). Documents reveal that the Edison Company sent taxicabs for British war veterans to attend screenings of the film. ‘I remember that incident,’ a veteran is quoted as saying after seeing the film (Edison National Historic Site: Folder 266). In its form and publicity, The Relief positioned itself as a film that could authentically capture a lost time and national emotion.

Priya Jaikumar