Aarcflick

 It's easy to be seduced by the sumptuous cinematography of “The Song of Scorpions”, but all that beauty becomes mere window dressing, as the script is too weak to support the potentially interesting story. Once again working with international producers after his narratively ambitious second feature "Qissa," director Anup Singh conjures up an Indian story of a folk healer (played by Golshifteh Farahani) whose savior turns out to be the source of his trauma. Singh makes the most of the beauties of the Rajasthan desert, highly sensitive to contrasts of color and shape, but the visual feast showcases the anemic storytelling, modeled after timeless revenge sagas but without their powerful clarity. Evidently made for Westerners (although Farahani is soulful and learned Hindi for the occasion, Indians will wonder why a Persian actress was cast), "Scorpions" may have a hard time finding an audience. Deadly scorpion stings are a problem in the rural villages of the Tha...