Movie: Padmaavat
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapur, Deepika Padukone, Aditi Rao Hydari, Jim Sarbh, Anupriya Goenka, Raza Murad
Cinematography: Sudeep Chatterjee
Music: Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sanchit Balhara (BGM)
Editing: Akiv Ali, Jayanth Jadar
Direction: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
When we are walking into a theatre that plays a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film, all we thinking about is what will the master craftsman of visuals has for us to offer. Will he deliver a delightful Black or will it be a Guzaarish? The contrast between the two is while the first one celebrates life with visual aesthetics the later just glorifies visuals without much panache in storytelling aspect.
Unfortunately, we meet the second kind of Sanjay Leela Bhansali in this film. He carefully, at times painstakingly crafts a visual almost painting like but then doesn’t really come out of that zone where he is locking horns with subject and story with visuals rather than enhancing the beauty and the depth of the story. His characters are more caricaturish and we don’t really feel any empathy for all important Rani-said.
We see a Demon like Allauddin Khilji walking on earth, played an effortlessly by Ranveer Singh but it all appears superficial rather than connecting without human emotions. The emotions lie in the love story of Ratan Singh and Padmavathi. But we seldom, are given any insight into what makes them what they are depicted as. We don’t really understand why a King values more about his family values than his Kingdom’s virtues.
We don’t really see a reason for Khilji and his clan being shown as almost demons. Are they suggesting pure Hindutva has been attached by Demonic outsiders? Is that the win, that Rani Padmini aka Padmavathi celebrates by self-immolation? Even if that is the case, we need to be given a context to subscribe to those thoughts at least. There is no wrong in giving an audience member a direction to understand the whole point and connect to it rather than leaving some abstract ideas for their own imagination.
Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapur get some backbone fewer characters that try to behave in a certain manner, look in a certain way while they are needed to be grounded. We just see them like characters that walk and talk like some people of an alien time rather than humans who lived once upon a time more in sync with the belief system of those times. We don’t get such deep analysis to ponder upon. All we get is visuals and more visuals and some more of them. By the time, the director gets everything right, we end up near the climax and the boredom doesn’t allow us to watch this finale in awe as well.
Ranveer Singh proved that he is an actor worth in gold but his quirkiness doesn’t seem natural here. There is an inconsistency in his tonality and the hints at popular legends don’t really support the image as well. We are left wondering could such a person be so clever and driven in the first place. Aditi Rao Hydari and Jim Surbh deliver on the scenes they are given room to shine.
Sudeep Chatterjee, Sanchit Balhara deliver promising visuals and stunning BG score but they don’t compensate for the editor’s lack of panache in communicating the story. We are left wondering why Padmavathi needed to take those decisions she took? What drove her love? Fear? Or just the customs of those times? Why was Ratan Singh been able to win her heart in an instance? What made him so special? We don’t really get answers to these questions and by the end of it, we don’t just bother about it so much anymore.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is definitely a craftsman and almost a wizard-like artist in filling up a screen like a good painting but even Leonardo Da Vinci is famous because of his life like paintings but not for some good looking brush strokes that try to tell a story without any real concern for the average onlookers. Well, really “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholders” but one needs a guide to understand the beauty too!
Rating: 3/5
