“Bajirao ” is a magnificently unique “Romantic
Historic” film. Moreover, Bajirao
is the definitive historic film of
all time. It is hard to imagine that circumstances will ever again combine to
make a more spectacular, expensive, and -- yes -- splendid movie. Bansali continues his reputation to deliver what
is called “Frame Excellence.” Besides all of this, the only negative point of
the movie is second half a little slow,
and you may feel this could have been little different.
It is easy
enough to praise director Sanjay
Leela Bhansali
for his thundering battle scenes, or his
delicate love scenes, or the quality of his actors. However, these were almost to be expected. What is extraordinary about
"Bajirao Mastani is that Bhansali was
able to take the enormous bulk of Marathi Novel named “Rau” and somehow
transform it into this great portion of the film
without losing control along the way. The trouble with a lot of long history films is that the makers cannot keep everything in hand, and film lose the hold on the audience. The movie
focuses
more on the BajirRao’s passion for Mastani, the beautiful and courageous half
Rajput, and half-Muslim princess of Bundelkhand.
The movie's
opening sequence is as graphic as any war footage I've ever seen. The
beauty of the screenplay is that writer is
able to bring his epic events down to understandable scale without
losing his sense to create an entertaining drama. Also, he delivers magnificent
dialogues to portray how men with power behave and oppose the love of Bajirao and
due to religion. It is possible to express even the most thoughtful ideas in
the simplest words and actions, and that is
what writer of Bajirao Mastani does. The film is doubly effective because every character communicates his ideas in
feelings, not words. Consider dialogues when Bajirao names his second
son as “Shamsher ” or even when he says, “
Bajirao ne Mastani se Mohabbat kiye
hai, aiayshi
nahi” All these dialogues are thoughtfully written which defiantly needs a lot of depth in understanding of history and
thought the process of characters. Another
impressive part is the use of “Rain” and “Sky” to display the intensity of the situation
and Bajirao’s inner battle and fight against his co-religionists.
My love for
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's attention to
detail is never-ending, and I am sure
that you will never, ever, going to see anything to equal it. The scenes
of battles, where all soldiers are in the
same uniform, where it is “Brahmin Bhoj” or
Classic Shanivarvada, Director and his cinematographer delivers the best.
All of the actors
playing the men under Bajirao are
effective, partly because director resists
the temptation to make them crazy "characters" and makes them
deliberately ordinary. If you want to make hero extraordinary then makes
other characters ordinary then hero looks far taller. The performances are
interesting throughout. All of the actors look a little larger and more heroic than life.
About Mastani, she
smiles. She is radiant. She is kind, gentle and sexy as well. Bajirao and Mastani
are shown as characters in heat always.
While she is performing, she displays the love and vibes, and he cares for her and smiles and offers her a meeting
after that. They are in full view, but
nobody ever seems to see them. They make each other very happy whenever they talk. Chemistry seems to the unconditional love of as Bajirao and Mastani, and
it makes them unique and lovable.
Bhansali made
happy choice of an actress of Deepika and
Priyanka when he cast them. Audiences applaud
applauds both of them during “Pinga Dance”.
Deepika and Priyanka delivers a flawless performance in line with the script.
Although, sometimes you may feel Priyanka has been able to steal the show in few lines even though she is not the
lead. Forgive me, for my affection for Priyanka
Chopra.!
All characters
in the movie are strong presences, but for me,
the key performance in the movie is by Bajirao mothers
and that of “Nana” as the frightened little interpreters. Both of these is our entry into the reality because
both of these sees it clearly that the marriage is not possible due to religion
and their love for Kashibai. One major thing that needs to be applauded is that Bajirao stood for his love
against the entire world, and such courage is very rare.
Despite its
length, the movie is not too long. It is as spectacular as a movie can be,
and yet it has a human fullness. Considering its cost and the vast
effort that went into its making, such a film can be made only once in our
time. The wonder, indeed, is that it was made
at all.
