Alexander the Great stands as one of history's most towering figures—arguably the greatest individual the Ancient World ever produced, and a serious contender for that title across all of human history. His extraordinary military achievements, combined with his aristocratic Macedonian upbringing and classical education under Aristotle, have cemented his status as a heroic figure in Western civilisation. Modern Balkan nations—Greece, North Macedonia, and Albania—each claim him as their own, whilst broader Western culture has traditionally celebrated him as the conqueror who liberated the Greek world from "oriental despotism" under Persian rule. More contemporary, “politically correct” historians prefer to emphasise his role in creating a enriching synthesis of Greek and Asian cultures through his campaigns and the cities he founded. Yet in Asia itself, particularly in the regions he actually invaded and subjugated, Alexander's legacy appears in a rather different light. This alternative perspective finds compelling cinematic expression in Sohrab Modi's 1941 Bollywood epic Sikandar.
Produced in pre-partition India under British colonial rule, Sikandar focuses its narrative upon those chapters of Alexander's life that brought him to the Indian subcontinent. The film opens in 327 BC, with Alexander—portrayed by Prithviraj Kapoor—having recently completed his conquest of Persia. Before embarking upon his next campaign, Alexander receives counsel from his former tutor, the philosopher Aristotle (played by Shakir), who advises him to abstain from women and base his rule purely upon rational principles. This debate Alexander promptly loses following his encounter with the beautiful Persian princess Roxana (here named "Rukhsana," played by Vanmala). Thereafter, Alexander rallies his Greek-Macedonian forces and marches toward India, determined to add this fabled land to his growing empire. The Indian rulers themselves are divided in their response to this unprecedented threat—some counsel accommodation, others advocate resistance. King Porus (played by director Sohrab Modi himself) emerges as the voice of defiance, urging his fellow monarchs to stand united against the foreign invader. The narrative gains additional complexity when Rukhsana secretly arrives at Porus's court and, profoundly moved by the local festival of rakhi, ceremonially adopts Porus as her brother. The subsequent clash between the two armies proves bloody and devastating, ending technically in Alexander's victory. Yet so deeply impressed is Alexander by Porus's courage and dignity that he permits the defeated king to retain his kingdom—a gesture that has resonated through subsequent centuries of Indian historical memory.
Sohrab Modi (1897–1984) ranks among the most significant filmmakers in mid-twentieth-century Bollywood, celebrated particularly for his grand historical epics that traversed different periods of Indian history. When he embarked upon Sikandar, the subject matter possessed unmistakable contemporary relevance. India, as part of the British Empire, found itself embroiled in the Second World War, and Alexander's relentless conquests invited obvious parallels with Hitler's expansionist ambitions across Europe. Yet Modi transformed what might have been a straightforward historical recreation into something far more subversive. It is King Porus, not Alexander, who articulates the film's central moral message—advocating not merely military resistance but the fundamental unity of India's diverse rulers against a common foreign enemy. This vision of transcending ethnic and sectarian divisions for the greater goal of national liberation mirrored precisely what the Indian independence movement itself was attempting to achieve. The theme of unity receives further emphasis through Modi's careful attention to religious representation: Indian characters appear as devout Hindus, whilst Rukhsana practises her Zoroastrian faith with equal sincerity—a reflection of Modi's own Parsi heritage. The director, an active supporter of the independence movement, even managed to have characters speak of "Indian independence" within the dialogue, despite the obvious anachronism. Remarkably, British censors chose not to intervene, and the film—apart from some restrictions regarding military audiences—reached the public, becoming arguably Modi's most celebrated work.
The film's treatment of Alexander himself proves notably nuanced. Whilst Sikandar certainly does not present him as an uncomplicated hero, neither does it reduce him to a destructive monster. Prithviraj Kapoor—then at the height of his powers as both matinee idol and accomplished stage actor, patriarch of what would become Bollywood's most enduring acting dynasty, and something of a founding father of modern Indian cinema—delivers a performance of remarkable complexity. His acting style, admittedly theatrical by contemporary standards, nonetheless proves extraordinarily effective at conveying the contradictions within Alexander's character. Here is a man who is simultaneously a charismatic leader of men and a brilliant strategist, yet also a weak, emotionally fragile figure who breaks down completely when his own soldiers, exhausted by years of relentless warfare, finally mutiny against him. Kapoor captures both the grandeur and the vulnerability, creating a portrait that remains human even at its most heroic.
Sudarshan's screenplay, drawing upon classical historical sources, strives for reasonable fidelity to established facts, though its interpretation of the Battle of Hydaspes as Alexander's Pyrrhic victory—one that ultimately halted his eastern advance and secured ancient India's freedom—might strike some historians as rather generous. The battle sequence itself, however, is reconstructed with genuinely spectacular ambition, featuring hundreds of extras reportedly provided by Maharani Tabani, widow of the ruler of the princely state of Kolhapur. The violence proves surprisingly explicit for 1940s cinema, with combatants shown being speared, trampled, and crushed beneath war elephants.
Speaking of elephants, the production did resort to some corner-cutting. Kapoor and Modi "borrowed" footage of elephant charges from Carmine Gallone's 1937 Italian epic Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal. This includes distressing scenes of elephants being injured by spears, which—much like in the Italian original—makes Sikandar genuinely disturbing for viewers sensitive to animal welfare concerns.
The narrative does occasionally labour under the weight of melodramatic and romantic subplots characteristic of its era, and the obligatory musical numbers sometimes disrupt the historical momentum. Yet these are relatively minor complaints. The overall impression remains overwhelmingly positive, particularly when one compares Modi's achievement with Oliver Stone's much later Alexander (2004). Where Stone's film treated similar historical material in abbreviated, less accurate, and oversimplified fashion, Sikandar demonstrates how epic cinema can engage seriously with history whilst remaining accessible and entertaining.
The original film's enduring significance is perhaps best demonstrated by its 1965 remake, Sikandar E Azam, directed by Kedar Kapoor. This colour version featured an intriguing casting reversal: Prithviraj Kapoor, who had played Alexander in the original, now portrayed King Porus—perhaps the ultimate testament to how thoroughly this Indian epic had reclaimed and reimagined the conqueror's story for an Asian audience. In the end, Sikandar is not merely as a historical curiosity but as a genuinely significant work of cinema—one that successfully challenged Western heroic narratives and gave voice to an alternative, Asian perspective on one of history's most celebrated military campaigns.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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