India Synopsis
“How far can a man journey into darkness…and still find his way back?”
India, 1825: the country lives in mortal fear of cult members known as the “Deceivers." They commit robbery and ritualistic murder. Appalled by their activities, an English military man, Captain William Savage, conceives a hazardous plot to stop them. In disguise, he plans to himself become a “Deceiver” and infiltrate their numbers. Ever present in Savage’s adventures is a sense of dread; he is in constant fear of betrayal and vengeance and also undergoes a disturbing psychological transformation as he experiences the cult’s blood lust firsthand.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Deceivers. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Adventure + Drama in India
33 India titles in our catalog blend the Adventure and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Deceivers itself).
The 1987–1989 India Window
In the crowded 1987-1989 India release window, The Deceivers sits at #31 of 35. The leaderboard below contextualises its neighbours.
The 1980s India Landscape
1988 was the decade’s peak output year for India — 14 titles released, including The Deceivers. Bars below show how the 1980s stacked up year by year (74 total).
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 13 other India films in 1988.
The 122nd India title from India we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1913).
Our India catalog contains 1,983 titles in total (1,904 films).
Audience Engagement
22 audience reviews — more than 53% of India films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 66th percentile among India films.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Deceivers, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- secret society · 4
- arrest · 3
- colonel · 1
- wedding · 24
- muslim · 9
- tiger · 8
- hindu · 7
- revenge · 210
- murder · 155
- india · 84
- 19th century · 32
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,502 of 1,983 India films indexed here (24th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is -0.7 points below the India average of 6.4/10.
Among India Adventure productions specifically: #92 of 113 (top 81%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | India |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | India, United Kingdom |
| Original Language | Hindi |
| Spoken Languages | Hindi, English, Sanskrit |
| Production Companies | Master Productions, Michael White Productions, Cinecom Pictures, Merchant Ivory Productions, Film4 Productions |
| Runtime | 1h 42m |
| Release Date | September 2, 1988 |
| IMDb | tt0094979 |
| Official Site | www.merchantivory.com |