Bajirao Mastani explores the romantic side of 18th-century Maratha Peshwa (Prime Minister/ Commander in Chief) Bajirao Balad Bhatt, who fought and won 40 battles against the Mughals with an aim to create a unified Hindu kingdom.
Bajirao is a one-man army! The action sequences during wars and in the battlefield is noteworthy and breathtaking although not goose-bump giving.
If Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela put Deepika Padukone at her best,Bajirao Mastani is stolen by Ranveer Singh hands down.
Sure, Deepika is a real treat like always along with her acting chops, but I think Ranveer has yet again displayed his acting prowess, this time at his best!
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is Hindi cinema’s most opulent artist and each frame is designed for beauty. From the first frame, you know you are in a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film. Everything is scaled up, grander than grand, A*-glitter. The Maratha court is in session. As all eyes turn to Peshwa Bajirao (Ranveer Singh), we are invited not just to see him as a shrewd politician but an excellent warrior and battle strategist.
It is hard to imagine anyone else as Bajirao after Ranveer Singh finishes chewing up the part.
I truly admired Ranveer's work in Ram Leela, but unfortunately, Deepika did dramatically spurn the limelight on her side. Here, in Bajirao Mastani, it's the heart and warrior of Bajirao that we have laid completely open with a Ranveer Singh doing everything but failing his screen presence, fit body, incredible postures and actor's soul. For me, Ranveer did today what even Ranbir Kapoor couldn't do, which is hold the torch Deepika is usually entitled to.
I felt that the movie could really have been a grander magnum opus with a more effective attempt to built an emotional connect with the characters, it was, however, sumptuous and fast-paced.
Bajirao Mastani does scream opulence; what with those fountains, chandeliers and drapes, and the headgears and jewellery that seem to weigh the actors down. The song-and-dances, and the set-pieces in the battle-fields and the palaces. Oh look, there’s a lovely chandelier, and gasp, what a beautiful glass palace.
Vulnerable yet macho, funny and flamboyant, Ranveer's chemistry with Deepika holds well when they spar passionately. Deepika smoulders and looks radiant. Her face is so luminous that she seems lit from within. Ranveer Singh is charismatic and charming complete with the Marathi inflection in his lingo!
The best part is the music of course, with enough drama to excite your senses and urge you as audience to respond to the scenes. The music fits the moments perfectly and we couldn't have asked for more. Deewani Mastani, Pinga and Ganaraya are already so beautifully pictured in their individual music videos, but their depiction in the movie is tailor made. ‘Pinga’ felt like a tired ‘Dola Re’ rip-off, only spectacle, not spectacular as an individual video, it does nevertheless fill up the requirement of the plot. And those electric moves of Ranveer Singh in Malhari.
It’s interesting how Bhansali is the closest ally women have in Bollywood when it comes to the female gaze. Be it the towel-wrapped Ranbir Kapoor in Saawariya or the glisteningly-oiled Ranveer Singh, all rippling muscles as he bathes away in a scene here, it’s the male body that is stared at and celebrated through the heroine, and, in turn, the filmmaker’s eye view. We are certainly not complaining.
I feel that Mastani could have carried on with some more battlefield action, but caught up with a fair portion towards the end.
Priyanka Chopra might have the fewest scenes of the three, but she creates maximum impact. Kashibai is the devoted wife who must come to terms with her husband’s infidelity. I felt it was easier to believe gamine-like Kashi's sense of having been deceived than the 'Ishq' Mastani talks of and the 'Mohabbat' and not 'Aayaashi' Rao throws at his brother.
This is the all-too-familiar triangle made messy by marriage, religion and status.
The Hindu-Muslim love angle could have been done with more depth and layer than mere talk of politics of colour — Kesariya (Saffron) and Hara (Green) — but is timely and relevant in the way it takes on religion and orthodoxy.
Love, this film argues, is a higher calling. Love constitutes its own religion.
To cut it short, Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani makes you do want to be transported but you are not. What doesn’t work as well is Tanvi Azmi as the 'fierce' matriarch, despite her get up as a bald widow, she lacks aggressivity as someone who controls the course of things.
Several critics will go to saying that the movie has no real plot and that it is a deja vu, truth be told: Bajirao Mastani has a story, but you need to fetch for it, and it is not a deja vu; Indian Cinema has never before been presented with a Warrior Princess thrown into a world that kills to protect endogamy. This is not a remake of Jodha Akbar, for this is about the Maratha Clan and not the Moghul or Rajput Clan.
It is hard to imagine anyone else as Bajirao after Ranveer Singh finishes chewing up the part.
I felt that the movie could really have been a grander magnum opus with a more effective attempt to built an emotional connect with the characters, it was, however, sumptuous and fast-paced.
Bajirao Mastani does scream opulence; what with those fountains, chandeliers and drapes, and the headgears and jewellery that seem to weigh the actors down. The song-and-dances, and the set-pieces in the battle-fields and the palaces. Oh look, there’s a lovely chandelier, and gasp, what a beautiful glass palace.
The best part is the music of course, with enough drama to excite your senses and urge you as audience to respond to the scenes. The music fits the moments perfectly and we couldn't have asked for more. Deewani Mastani, Pinga and Ganaraya are already so beautifully pictured in their individual music videos, but their depiction in the movie is tailor made. ‘Pinga’ felt like a tired ‘Dola Re’ rip-off, only spectacle, not spectacular as an individual video, it does nevertheless fill up the requirement of the plot. And those electric moves of Ranveer Singh in Malhari.
Priyanka Chopra might have the fewest scenes of the three, but she creates maximum impact. Kashibai is the devoted wife who must come to terms with her husband’s infidelity. I felt it was easier to believe gamine-like Kashi's sense of having been deceived than the 'Ishq' Mastani talks of and the 'Mohabbat' and not 'Aayaashi' Rao throws at his brother.
This is the all-too-familiar triangle made messy by marriage, religion and status.
The Hindu-Muslim love angle could have been done with more depth and layer than mere talk of politics of colour — Kesariya (Saffron) and Hara (Green) — but is timely and relevant in the way it takes on religion and orthodoxy.
Love, this film argues, is a higher calling. Love constitutes its own religion.
To cut it short, Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani makes you do want to be transported but you are not. What doesn’t work as well is Tanvi Azmi as the 'fierce' matriarch, despite her get up as a bald widow, she lacks aggressivity as someone who controls the course of things.
Several critics will go to saying that the movie has no real plot and that it is a deja vu, truth be told: Bajirao Mastani has a story, but you need to fetch for it, and it is not a deja vu; Indian Cinema has never before been presented with a Warrior Princess thrown into a world that kills to protect endogamy. This is not a remake of Jodha Akbar, for this is about the Maratha Clan and not the Moghul or Rajput Clan.
Lastly, there's more to love than lament in this beautifully brave film.
Note the scene in which a mob of shadows seems to march towards the Peshwa before the camera raises its head from the floor and we realise that they come from a band of purposeful Brahmins. Note the many other scenes in which diyas, mirrors and silks shimmer like liquid gold. Note too Bajirao's secularism, his reminder to us that all religions preach love yet love has no religion, his open defiance of the clergy, Mastani's courage and passion, Kashibai's dignity despite her limited choices. Bhansalified history, as it turns out, makes for good cinema.
Check Out Bajirao Mastani's Trailer: