Bajirao Mastani
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| Image credit: Dailymotion |
When Sanjay Leela Bhansali makes a period drama and casts
Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone in a Devdas-style dance off, one goes in
expecting a sort of rehash. But Bajirao Mastani is a pleasant surprise.
The storyline is predictable as in most triangular love stories,
even if the protagonist is a celebrated warrior. The dialogue, while good, is
also predictably hair-raising at the appropriate places. The music is lovely,
the dancing impeccable. The action sequences are gorgeously choreographed and well-filmed.
The sets are beautiful, the medieval Maratha grandeur is breathtaking and the
households seem so real, you could walk into one of the mahals and sit at the
arati.
However, three people lift this movie from the level of
ordinary beauty to something brilliant and heartbreaking. [spoiler alert] Priyanka
Chopra as the bubbly, goofy Kashibai smiles her way to one’s heart – her face
is a screen of multiple emotions. She excels herself in two places. One, when she
jumps up expecting to see the Peshwa in the reflection from the chamber of
mirrors but her screen shows Bajirao and Mastani in an embrace, forgotten to
the world – she continues to smile for a while, her face frozen but her eyes
confused and hurt. She looks away and is then drawn to look again in growing
anger and rejection. Later, when she strides out of the empty household to
welcome Bajirao and Mastani – ‘I welcome you and your guest only as the
Peshwani, to do my duty by you (even if you haven’t done yours by me).
Remember, this welcome only reaches this doorstep, not my heart’ – her hurt and
pride is something palpable.
As a powerful man torn between his dharma and his heart,
Ranveer Singh plays a passionate Bajirao. He has great screen presence, he
gives in to his role completely and does both the action and emoting with
aplomb. When the priest refuses to grant permission to perform the naming
ceremony for Mastani’s son and he declares, ‘So what, my son will be known as
Shamsher Bahadur and be brought up a Muslim’ you can see defiance and assertion
but when he looks away, you can see his hurt at what he considered rejection
and betrayal by his own. Also, the audience is in love with the man, a
superstar is certainly in the making.
Deepika Padukone is a revelation. Her eyes speak in many
languages. She spews passion, courage, determination, love and abandon. She
lives Mastani. When she dances in love, when she presents herself as a present,
when she stands defenceless yearning to be accepted by Bajirao’s mother, when
she waits for the attacker to strike a deathblow, when she bids farewell to
Bajirao, when she sends her son off for the last
time, when she struggles against her bonds knowing Rao is in trouble and then
gives in, realizing that their time has come – she is wonderful in every single
frame. Fittingly, for a Bajirao-Mastani story, this movie is as much Deepika
Padukone’s as it is Ranveer Singh’s, perhaps even more so.
These three powerhouses hold up the movie, staying with you
long after the credits roll. The supporting cast do a stellar job in playing
off this talent – the Peshwa’s mother, Milind Soman as Malhar Rao, young Nana,
Chimmaji and Krishna Bhatt.
The story isn’t consistent with historic facts and there is
some such declaration about creative license in the beginning. Be that as it
may, go immerse yourself in the grand Maratha provinces of the mid-18th
century – we could all do with a dose of mastani.
And yeah, do come back and tell me how you liked it! :)
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