Padmaavat

Casting: Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Ranveer Singh

Rated: 6/10

Censor Board boss Prasoon Joshi should have suggested the simplest solution to the Padmavat saga — to name the film Alauddin Khillji which, in the first case, Sanjay Leela Bhansali should have done on his own. Not because the loony fringe of Hinduism was on his trail but because the film, from the start to the end, is all about Alauddin Khilji. All others — including the resplendent Padmavati — are characters fleshed out in reaction to Khilji’s primitive domination of the film.

But let’s first talk of the Karni Sena issue. It is totally misguided, indeed politically motivated and an entirely lunatic response to a film that never gets off the high horse of Rajput honour, and even showcases the misguided Rajput practice of johar with Bhansali working hard to make the entire act look pristine and need of the hour!

Even in retrospect, it is disgusting to see a resplendent Rani Padmavati walking into the flames with a sena of women of all ages following her, a pregnant one too! The Karnis of the world should have been applauding. In fact, if anyone should have been protesting, it should have been the Muslims, so horrifying is the characterisation of Khilji.

As the unscrupulous, power hungry, womanising and demonic usurper king, who has no qualms about killing his closest kin and violently bedding other women as his bride waits for his arrival at the same wedding venue, Ranveer Singh is a smash hit. He is the film and the film him. Every frame is about him and every episode is triggered by his wanton acts. No one could have been more Alauddin than the dirty and unkempt Ranveer with fire in his eyes for everything “nayaab”. The totally stunning genre of eccentric and eclectic histrionics he brings to the screen gives him the patent for all characters he plays. He was captivating as Bajirao and owns Khilji in Padmavat, the best thing that has happened to this beleaguered film.

Yes, Padmavat is opulent, grand and produced with slick camera work, big-game filming etc. But that’s the usual Bhansali fare, his trademark in the industry. All his canvases are mega and this one too leaves no folds of mediocrity in any frame. The war sequences, the landscape panning, the aerial shots, the GOT-type violence when required — everything is big and awe-inspiring.

But that’s it. His Padmavati is not a patch of beauty on his Mastani or his Jodha. In fact, Deepika Padukone, who has it in her to carry beauty, grace and a royal demeanour like a trophy none other possesses, is underdone as Padmavati.

She is neither gaze-stuck beautiful nor has the stunning body language that her legendary status should have brought to the screen, even though there is a splash she makes in the opening scene. Compared to her, Aditi Rao Hydari looks celestial and captures the unspoilt beauty of a Muslim lineage.

The worst selection that Bhansali could have made is Shahid Kapoor as Rana Ratan Singh. He is much too small and baby-faced despite the kohl-lined eyes and rippling muscles to have played a fierce Rajput fighting a towering Khilji. Even his ranis — both Padmavati and the badi rani – look taller than him. Kapoor tries hard to play the role much bigger than his countenance but ends up looking misplaced, much like the protests around this fictional run-of-the-mill film made with awesome technological tricks and visuals.

All said, one wonders rather seriously where this Bhansali magnum opus would have been on the box office without all the Karni Sena fire behind it? Just a thought, really! 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 28 January 2018