Padmaavat, the renamed version of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati was one of the most anticipated movies in recent times. You don’t have to be an Indian to know this as there have been reports across various media about how the Rajput Karni Sena was stalling the release of the film. Having finally watched the film, I actually failed to figure out what the hullabaloo was all about. In fact, they should be thankful to SLB for the positive spin he gave the whole community as the film seemed to be a pean of homage to this community. Instead of going to his set and slapping him, they should be applauding and felicitating him! On to the movie…

As is all Bhansali films, this film’s visuals were lush and beautiful and the beauty of Rajasthan was very well captured here. The contrast between the rugged desert beauty of Rajasthan and lush tropical Sri Lanka where Deepika’s character Princess Padmavati is from is very vivid. I ogled over the gorgeous clothes and jewellery that the main characters wore, but there were times when it looked like an extended clothes/jewellery commercial, especially scenes when the director focused on them for long periods of time.

Ranveer Singh excelled in his role as the villainous Alauddin Khilji, the ruler of Delhi, who lusts after Rani Padmavati, whom he has never seen actually, but heard about her beauty and so wants to possess her. Singh plays the role with his usual flamboyance, but there were times when watching the movie, I felt that I’ve seen this role before. He seems to do the pretty same larger than life role in almost every film and is probably already getting typecast. It does help that, from what I’ve seen and read so far, he has a similar personality in real life too! I’d love to see him a completely different role just to showcase his acting ability.

Deepika Padukone as the Sri Lankan immigrant Rani Padmavati was beautiful, graceful and poised. I feel she has grown in her acting and was pretty restrained throughout the movie. She really came on her own in the second half of the movie, when she goes to rescue her husband who was imprisoned by deceit by Khilji and also shows what a strategist she is when she gets revenge on the brahmin who was behind all the angst in her life by putting his death as a precondition to her even leaving her palace.

Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh, the king of Chittor who goes to Singhal to purchase pearls which his first wife wanted and falls in love with the Singhal princess Padmavati and brings her back to his palace was regal and unflappable. He brims with Rajput pride and there are umpteen instances of dialogues from his mouth which talk about what an honourable Rajput should do and what are the qualities of a Rajput. He is shown to be everything that is good in a person, but the character felt very one dimensional. I mean, is there really anyone in the world who is so good and who does not have any flaws? Seemed to me that the director in his effort to showcase the differences between Ratan Singh and Khilji, made one saccharine sweet and the other a hated warmonger!

Other characters who caught my eye were Mehrunissa and Malik Khafur. Mehrunissa, Khiji’s wife and cousin, who fell in love with him and then was traumatised on her wedding day when she learnt about his infidelity is portrayed very understatedly by Aditi Rao Hydari. I wish there was more screen time for this character who tried, in her way to undermine Khiji’s atrocities especially when it came to Padmavati. Malik Khafur, Khilji’s ruthless eunuch general, played by Jim Sarb was another fine performance. The scenes between Khilji and Malik Khafur had lots of homophobic tones in their interactions.

I did find that there was not so much chemistry between Ratan Singh and Padmavati, which was a bit of a disappointment as in previous Bhansali films, the leads had intense chemistry which added to the film. Also, music which in previous films have always been wonderful didn’t really pull me in this time. Except for the controversial Ghoomar song, none of the other songs really stayed with me after I exited the theatre.

Another thing I really have to point out. This movie is set in the thirteenth century where women’s right’s were pretty non-existent, especially in patriarchy fuelled societies like the Rajputs. So in that sense, the director is not wrong in infusing the movie with a lot of patriarchy driven dialogues which had me cringing in my seat. The worst was towards the end of the movie, the night before Ratan Singh’s duel with Khilji (which Khilji won because Malik cheated and killed Singh with arrows on his back), Padmavati and Singh have some tender moments and during that, she asks her husband permission to kill herself and perform Jauhar should the need arise. The reason she gives is that she needs her husband’s permission to even die, which, in this day and age sounds weird to me.

The last scene, the controversial (I’ve used this word a lot in this post) Jauhar scene is quite over the top, showing hundreds of women, all dressed in bridal red, with the camera lovingly focussing on young girls and a pregnant woman, all walking towards a humongous funeral  pyre led by Padmavati to escape the clutches of the evil enemies, whose main aim in the attack was getting Padmavati. I sat, cringing at this, because I don’t believe a woman’s existance ends when her man’s existance ends. But this is a film and the director’s vision, so I let it go. I also let it go because this was probably how men in ancient India kept their women firmly downtrodden.

As I walked out of the theatre, I thanked  God, I was not born in that era!