Review of Padmaavat (2018) by Aaron C — 26 Jan 2018

Even though I am not a fan of Sanjay Leela Bhansali style movie making, I decided to give the movie a shot based on reviews by friends, turned out it is your typical Bansali movie, the kind of Bollywood movie I detest. The movie is based on a poem from the 16th century, which itself is a fictionalized story, it has gods, talking parrots and other myths, as such it is a legendary poem with a message, a movie based on that would have been an interesting one. Instead, we get another story which tries to portray those events in more realistic humane manner but fails in the attempt.

Still it could have been a decent watch if not for the terrible pacing and editing, the concept of storytelling doesn't exist in this filmmakers dictionary, we are treated to a song every 10 to 15 minutes, they are not enjoyable, doesn't add anything to the story and only disrupts the flow of the movie. If you are one of those people who love seeing glittery and shiny stuff, you would love these songs, if you have a thinking mind, I am not so sure.

The ending did seem glorious and could have been better handled, again the poor direction shows, this was such a wasted opportunity. The performances itself were good, all the three stars shined.