Pamawat v Padmawati 2018
At last! I had an opportunity to watch the movie at the Millennium Dome which is now better known as O2 in London on the Super Screen which cost me £13.5 after senior citizen discount. Despite all the negative publicity and outrageous violence particularly, in the states of Rajasthan, MP, UP and Gujarat the movie turned out to be beyond the imagination of its critics. They are damn looser!
Movies started and progress smoothly. Dipika Padukon as Princes Padmawati while out in Jungle to hunt a deer looked stunning and kept on missing her target, perhaps, her target was Shahid Kapoor who played Maharaja Ratan Singh of Chittore who was also out for hunting. However, Ratan Singh rather hunting anything got himself hunted by beautiful princes (reminds me of an old movie, “Shikar karne gaye ther shikar ho ke aye”). Who wouldn’t? Movie gets a bit slow for about 10-15 minutes but picked up very smoothly. Love at first sight, Ratan Singh got married to Padmawati. She joined the group Ghoomar dance in which she looked amazing despite 40 Kg weight of her dress. There was not even an iota amount of exposure of Padmawati about which any sensible person in right mind could criticise except acknowledging the glory of Rajasthan historical dance form.
Padmawati was introduced to Raj Guru Raghav Chetan for blessings whom Ratan Singh had a great degree of trust & confidence. Having met the Queen Padmani Raj Guru was mesmerized by her beauty and wisdom and broke the trust he enjoyed with Ratan Singh when he clandestinely tried to watch Ratan Singh & Padmawati in close proximity. Padmawati's wisdom caught him red-handed and she asked the King to send him into exile. Raghav Chetan, before leaving the Kingdom, threatened the King of the consequences of his action.
Alla Uddin Khiljji enters in the movie as a young spoilt brat soldier pretended to be loyal to the Sultan of Delhi, but his eyeballs were on Sultan’s Beautiful daughter Noornnisha. Alla Uddin with his few victories was able to impress the Sultan who agreed to give her daughter’s had to him. However, Alla Uddin being a playboy with lavish lifestyle no single beauty could ever satisfy lust. Besides his desire for women, he never took off his head of his ambition to seize the power. He first got killed the Sultan’s bodyguards and then the King himself and became the sole undisputed Sultan of Delhi. To settle the scores with Ratan Singh, clever Raghav Chetan manipulate Alla Uddin with his musical skills and drew his attention to the louring beauty of Padmawati and told him there is no glory without winning Padmawati’s love.
Alla Uddin became obsessed with Padmawati and decided to attack Chittore which was one of the best-fortified forts of its time. Ranveer Kapoor’s role as a desperate & obsessed Alla Uddin was amazing and its overshadowed most the players in the movie except Dipika who was the theme of the movie. The change of name of the movie from Padmawati to Padmawati by the Censor Board didn’t help her opponent as Padmawati emerged as the Avante Garde in the movie showing a unique fusion of beauty with wisdom and great courage as the Queen who got her husband released from the prison of All Uddin without a scratch. If the opponents, in particular, Karni Sena could get some lessons from Padmawati they would have done some more good than harm to their community.
The direction, photography, costumes, war scenes and love story are superb leaving no space for criticism whatsoever. In fact, Bhansali has done more to glorify the Rajput women and their traditions that they deserve and deserves congratulations for a commendable job. Had the Karani Sena spent so much energy and time to protect the honour of women today rather than beating something without anything they would have had an everlasting impact on the society and their organization*. I strongly encourage people to go and see the movie with the family.
*I knew personally Kalyan Singh Kalvi would have had a word with him about the movie but taking his son Lokesh Kalvi is merely talking to the walls!
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