Review of Padmaavat (2018) by Ronak V — 28 Jan 2018

Sanjay Leela Bhansali has always been an amazing visual director. He has a meticulous eye for costumes and visuals. Each frame of his are larger than life, and leaves the viewer spellbound. However, as a storyteller, same can't be said.

His last couple films( Bajirao and Ram Leela) were eye candy, but lacked the emotional depth his earlier films had. When Bhansali announced his film Padmaavat, I believed this will be that film where he can redeem himself as a masterful storyteller! There was a lot of meat to the original story, and I thought This could be Bhansali's classic! And the potentional was there-- a solid story, his cast, and Bhansali himself!!!! However, when it came to executing this mythical tale, Bhansali leaves his audience bored and uninterested! The film starts off on a high note, but then falters.

Normally, I avoid going on my phone at the theatre, but I couldn't resist! The characters are completely one dimensional! Deepika's Padmavati is mounted as a brave woman who isn't afraid of anything! Her character was depicted as perfection! But where's the vulnerability? Her character was about to die! I wish after she took the decision to commit Jauhar, we were able to see some of her vulnerable moments.

Simple scenes like those would make us connect as a viewer! Unfortunately, during the jahaur scene, I wasn't emotionally invested! I frankly didn't care because Bhansali failed to make her character more nuamce! Deepika tried her best to give her character life, but her regal avatar didn't feel effortless as Aishwarya Rai's Jodha! I don't know why Bhansali casted Shahid Kapoor as the maharaja! He tried to put up the king demeanor, but it fell forced! His relationship with Padukone's character fell flat! All they did was give googly looks to one another and that's it! Ranveer Singh played bad very well, but Bhansali made his character to over the top.

Don't get me wrong, Ranveer is an amazing actor, but his character didn't seem natural! Bhansali also depicts his character as a Muslim barbarian! The movie also suffers from unexciting plot points! There's more negatives to the plot, but I'm not willing to Go into spoiler territory.

If you're a hardcore Bhansali fan, you'll like it, but not love it! If you're a film buff, this is just another average Bollywood film that offers nothing new! It's sad because there was a lot of hype around this film.