Review: Where art thou, Bajirao?

Bhansali makes the late Maratha warrior roll in his grave for sins he never committed

KARACHI:

“We must go to the Orient; all glory has always been acquired there.” This line, famously associated with French leader Napoléon Bonaparte, holds true in more than one ways. Subcontinental history may be layered with luxuriance and savagery; it is nothing short of a spectacle. For some, it was always about the awe-inspiring buildings. For others, it was conquest and plunder and supremacy. However, one rather embarrassing element that unites all statesmen, rulers and conquerors is opulence. Imagine what happens when a film-maker such as Sanjay Leela Bhansali gets a licence for this very opulence in light of historical events. While emperors of that time blinded their siblings in fear of competition, several centuries later their very opulence blinds people such as Bhansali in pursuit of making that very spectacle.

Bhansali’s fascination has indeed turned chronic, to the extent that in making the film called Bajirao Mastani, he forgets to address the elephant in the room: the storyline.



Bajirao Mastani is a continuation of his dwindling legacy which has hit an all-time low with the Deepika-, Ranveer- and Priyanka-starrer. Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the director of the much-intriguing Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam is no more the same.

Rajput warrior princess Mastani (Deepika Pudokone) storms into the tent of Bajirao I (Ranveer Singh), the Maratha prime minister. She kills all the guards, puts a sword on Bajirao’s neck and asks for his help against Mohammad Bangash whose army has surrounded the Rajput stronghold. Impressed by Mastani’s courage and beauty, Bajirao helps the Rajputs win the battle. Where his troops massacre Bangash’s army, Mastani saves his life from an attack. Bajirao presents his dagger to her as a token of thanks during a romantic exchange of dialogues. The Marathas leave for home where Bajirao’s wife Kashibai (Priyanka Chopra) is preparing for celebrations. Now begins a journey surrounding Bhansali’s signature themes such as deceit, chivalry and jealousy and the remaining runtime is not captivating enough to ignore the snail’s speed of the narrative.

This brings us to a pertinent question. Does the film really have a plot or it doesn’t? Bhansali’s fans may have been addicted to his exaggerated portrayal of Romeo but this certainly is no Ram-Leela. It’s a film structured around the battlefield and not around two rival clans. But Bhansali refuses to move on from his 2013 film. Despite there being no real restrictions on the lovers, he treats the film like a tale about unrequited love and one that started as a war drama. Confused? Well, essentially Bhansali tries to pull-off a Troy but fails to do justice to both love and war.



Psychologist Carl Gustav Jung suggests in his theory of human psyche that there are certain universal, mythical characters that are present in the collective conscious of mankind. He calls them the archetypes. According to him, these archetypes are injected in our psyche through their repetition in art and literature and that is why we often tend to behave like one of them at all times; the Joker, the Innocent, the Hero, the Rebel, the Lover to name a few. And Bhansali reinforces these very archetypes with perfection, at places with so much precision that the characters become too typical and shallow for a medium as magnanimous as cinema. Tanvi Azmi’s character of Radhabai suffers a similar fate as she is purely just evil; the persona is accentuated by her scare-inducing make-up.

Having said that, the character of Bajirao has a lot more depth and completeness but Ranveer fails to take advantage of that. The boy inside him is desperate to play a man, let alone a warrior but fails whenever he utters a line or takes off his armour. Even the beard and the Brahmin sikha hairdo don’t save him as the stiffness in his attitude is more physical than psychological and his dialogue delivery is loud but not commanding. He in many ways is a Rowan Atkinson in the cloak of a Bruce Wayne.

Priyanka steals the show as Kashibai. She remains calm and composed for most of her screen time, yet each frame speaks of her agony. Though drawing parallels between Bajirao Mastani’s Priyanka and Devdas’ Madhuri is a bit unjust, but if considered, Kashibai would eclipse Chardarmukhi, at least in the domain of acting. Deepika as Mastani is overly reticent and ends up like a model who ticks all the boxes for a vintage clothing photo-shoot.

To sum it up, Bajirao Mastani is not an entertaining film at all. The fans are in for a huge disappointment while those looking for a history lesson should head towards the library instead.

Verdict: Even the cinematic experience and Bhansali’s signature melodies fail to rescue Bajirao Mastani



Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st,  2015.

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