Padmaavat

The huge controversy, the incessant protests and the innumerable hindrances, all boiling down to nothing but the release as grand and welcoming as this with people at the edge of their seats and
bubbling excitement to finally watch the movie of the year which had managed to cause such a conundrum and raucous before the release itself. Padmaavat, formerly known as Padmavati, with the befitting, regal and spectacularly monumental set ups has outshined and surpassed our hopes with the grandeur that it serves alongside a deeply engaging plot. What history serves is truth while we are mostly oblivious of it and for a director to absorb the minutest details and bring forth the presentation of an era of yolk, it calls for more than eulogy to celebrate the success of this film and hold Sanjay Leela Bhansali in high esteem for the courage, dedication, determination and hard work he has shown through and through.

The story begins with Maharana Rawal Ratan Singh (Shahid Kapoor) going to Singhal when he not only gets struck by the arrow, but awe struck by the looks of Padmavati (Deepika Padukone) while reverential of the qualities she possessed. Bound by the brain with beauty she was, he married her. While their guru is noticed eavesdropping and staring at the two when they were in private, the guru is thrown out of the city or what was called Desh Nikala. Antagonised he went to Allauddin Khilji, who by then had become the ruler over Delhi Sultanate. He lures him into attacking Chittor in pursuit of getting Rani Padmavati who would have become the gate to his fortune and led him to rule India and then the globe.

Shining dream brighter than the twinkling star, Khilji does all it takes to get Padmavati, yet fortunately or unfortunately, never for once gets to see her properly or meet her for once for she manages to dupe him time and again, showcasing her wit and intelligence. How the story further unfolds is for all you readers to watch in the theatres for I wouldn’t want to disclose the story further. But what I can definitely vouch for is the fact that this film has impressed me with the grandiosity and the scale. The magnitude this film is brought to is unimaginably huge and incredibly breath taking while not for once will it leave you less surprised with how the director has left no stone unturned in making this film at a level beyond expectations and imagination.

The aesthetics, the direction, the acting and the effects..I wonder what it is to point that I could feel fell short in the film, but to my surprise, I could never have watched regality come alive in such a form considering he could visualize all of it and bring it into light.

The film does get slow in the middle I agree, but if that’s what history was, there couldn’t have been any better way to film it. Well, talking about actors, the movie, before the actual issue of it all, had created a furore with the cast itself, with actors as magnificently adroit as Deepika, Shahid and Ranveer. What I can unequivocally exclaim is the indubitably talented and incredibly plausible actor Ranveer Singh whose shear acting and presence on screen was so astonishingly huge that it could have swept us off our feet with the darkness of the character he played. The way he has acted is absolutely unparalleled and I, honestly, couldn’t have thought of a man other than him who could perform better than he did. I’d thought Shahid Kapoor didn’t have a role as big, but you would, on the contrary see that it was Shahid and Ranveer who ruled the screen for the major portions.

Deepika looked her pretty gorgeous self and the role of the ultimate revered, determined woman was aptly played by her. I would fall short of words in complimenting the director enough for the efforts and the larger than life projection of such a beautiful story to showcase.

This movie doesn’t deserve anything less than 4 stars.