#PADMAAVAT #PADMAVATI
Religion is like a drug. In small doses, its curative and in large, its addictive. Passion too is beautifully fulfilling in small doses but in large, it can be overwhelmingly addictive . Our very own Mr. SLB, looks like, is a victim of a passion-gone-haywire. After Devdas, Ram-Leela and Bajirao Mastani, I waited patiently for the karni-sena to sober down their patriotism for their ancestors and let the censor board do their job . I had a sincere hope that the wait would be worth it. Wish I wasn't this disappointed.
Even though Bhansali named his extravagant creation after the lady, Padmavati, he seems to be more obsessed with the Alauddin khilji. His story is almost Khilji-centric. It felt like he was trying to glamorize the evil muslim king. I wish he had spent more screen time on the beautiful customs and traditions of the Rajputs, their royal, political strategies and their festive dances instead of spending his 215 crores on filming a biography of the crazy, evil, muslim king, which is neither inspiring nor entertaining.
The story of Padmavati, a Rajput queen who committed jauhar (self-immolation) to protect herself from Khilji, was kept alive by Rajputs, for over seven centuries and now is reincarnated by Bhansali for just one reason. There has been no bigger mass-sati event in the history of India.
The director, producer, writer, editor and Music director of the movie, Mr. Bhansali took the liberty of vanishing and modifying some characters of the story too. If you go by the history text book story, the main character is a parrot, without whom Rani Padmavati and Maharawal Ratan singh would have never met or even if they did, they would have probably had a long happy married life. Apparently, the parrot is the one who talks to the Maharawal Ratan singh about the beauty of Rani Padmavati, so much so that, the already married king sets sail to win her heart and get himself a second (Trophy) wife. Then the parrot talks to the finance minister of the kingdom, who goes to the khilji and talks of her beauty , when he is kicked out for a finance related fraud. The rest is a sad history. I was looking forward to see how Bhansali would dress up the parrot or what kind of Tanishq jewellery would he use to deck up the parrot with. But, to my disappointment, there was no parrot at all in his story. I guess, he could not find the right kind of jewellery or the right kind of cage for it, so he decided to cut it out from the script itself.
I feel sad for Shahid Kapoor. He did a good job. His poise and dialogue delivery suits the role perfectly. But he is not getting as many accolades or even acknowledgements as he deserves. Deepika and Ranvir have totally hogged the limelight. Aditi Rao Hydari did a small but an impressive role of khilji’s wife, Mehrunissa. Her presence was definitely felt. Not so surprisingly, Deepika looks amazing. I liked her just as much as I did, in her avatars of Leela, Mastani and even Tara (from Tamasha). She can carry off any character or outfit with utmost ease and grace. Ranvir Singh did a good job too but his facial scars did half the job for him. His character could have been modelled better though. In his obsession to maintain a balance between grace and wickedness of the character, Bhansali seems to have lost on the intensity of the character. Wish he had put a few more shades of black into Khilji's character without worrying much about Ranvir's image. It should have been more of Khilji and less of Ranvir on-screen.
The 300 cuts by the censor board, to save Rajput honour, was not quite true but five modifications and a name change calmed down the Karni sena. If it neither portrays true historic events nor does it entertain you thoroughly, I would say it is just a royal waste of money…
Religion is like a drug. In small doses, its curative and in large, its addictive. Passion too is beautifully fulfilling in small doses but in large, it can be overwhelmingly addictive . Our very own Mr. SLB, looks like, is a victim of a passion-gone-haywire. After Devdas, Ram-Leela and Bajirao Mastani, I waited patiently for the karni-sena to sober down their patriotism for their ancestors and let the censor board do their job . I had a sincere hope that the wait would be worth it. Wish I wasn't this disappointed.
Even though Bhansali named his extravagant creation after the lady, Padmavati, he seems to be more obsessed with the Alauddin khilji. His story is almost Khilji-centric. It felt like he was trying to glamorize the evil muslim king. I wish he had spent more screen time on the beautiful customs and traditions of the Rajputs, their royal, political strategies and their festive dances instead of spending his 215 crores on filming a biography of the crazy, evil, muslim king, which is neither inspiring nor entertaining.
The story of Padmavati, a Rajput queen who committed jauhar (self-immolation) to protect herself from Khilji, was kept alive by Rajputs, for over seven centuries and now is reincarnated by Bhansali for just one reason. There has been no bigger mass-sati event in the history of India.
The director, producer, writer, editor and Music director of the movie, Mr. Bhansali took the liberty of vanishing and modifying some characters of the story too. If you go by the history text book story, the main character is a parrot, without whom Rani Padmavati and Maharawal Ratan singh would have never met or even if they did, they would have probably had a long happy married life. Apparently, the parrot is the one who talks to the Maharawal Ratan singh about the beauty of Rani Padmavati, so much so that, the already married king sets sail to win her heart and get himself a second (Trophy) wife. Then the parrot talks to the finance minister of the kingdom, who goes to the khilji and talks of her beauty , when he is kicked out for a finance related fraud. The rest is a sad history. I was looking forward to see how Bhansali would dress up the parrot or what kind of Tanishq jewellery would he use to deck up the parrot with. But, to my disappointment, there was no parrot at all in his story. I guess, he could not find the right kind of jewellery or the right kind of cage for it, so he decided to cut it out from the script itself.
I feel sad for Shahid Kapoor. He did a good job. His poise and dialogue delivery suits the role perfectly. But he is not getting as many accolades or even acknowledgements as he deserves. Deepika and Ranvir have totally hogged the limelight. Aditi Rao Hydari did a small but an impressive role of khilji’s wife, Mehrunissa. Her presence was definitely felt. Not so surprisingly, Deepika looks amazing. I liked her just as much as I did, in her avatars of Leela, Mastani and even Tara (from Tamasha). She can carry off any character or outfit with utmost ease and grace. Ranvir Singh did a good job too but his facial scars did half the job for him. His character could have been modelled better though. In his obsession to maintain a balance between grace and wickedness of the character, Bhansali seems to have lost on the intensity of the character. Wish he had put a few more shades of black into Khilji's character without worrying much about Ranvir's image. It should have been more of Khilji and less of Ranvir on-screen.
The 300 cuts by the censor board, to save Rajput honour, was not quite true but five modifications and a name change calmed down the Karni sena. If it neither portrays true historic events nor does it entertain you thoroughly, I would say it is just a royal waste of money…
You are a wonderful writer Radha. I agree on your views about Bhansali, and I loved the witty 'jewellery for parrot ' comment. I wish people like Bhansali and RGV go back to making movies like the way they did in the past.
ReplyDeleteP.S- There's not really any evidence available if Padmavati existed. It's based on a story Padmavat, written during Akbars reign. Probably it did happen or probably it's just a folklore. Either wise, Khilji and the other barbarians were not a good news to India.
Thanq viji. Chances are more that it's just a folklore. There are lots of incomprehensible details in it like, her father was so insecure that he didn't allow her to talk to anyone but she is also well trained in archery and other stuff..how is that possible. I feel, when the Muslims started invading, the women were encouraged to commit suicide to protect their honour , and this idea was spread through these stories.
DeleteYou back to what you do the best :) and you are to the point for SLB and RGV. They should stick to their genre and not over do things which are out of control. SLB should understand that grandeur does not alone make a successful movie. Maybe if he had portrayed more on Rajput folklore, it would have been better for Shahid.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day this movie got a good publicity from Karni sena and the curiousity drove people to theatres.
All in all a good write up and good read for me.
Thankyou Bro, always a pleasure to read your feedback.
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