PADMAAVAT

I was very excited about Padmaavat the grand big screen epic Indian drama.  Heard about it since 2016 since it was starring my favorite Indian actress, Deepika Padukone, although at this point I am only aware of two Indian actresses. Set in the 13^th Century Afghanistan/Western India. Alauddin Khilji (Ranveer Singh), the Sultan of the Khilji dynasty hears of the beauty of Rani Padmavati (Deepika) and invades Chittor, the city where Padmavati lives with her husband, King Ratan Singh (Shahid Kapoor).

At the time it was the most expensive Indian film made and became the highest grossing Indian film, even though it wasn’t released in all areas due to controversy since Alauddin (the guy with the longer black hair) is a Muslim, and King Singh (the guy with the shorter black hair) is a Hindi – controversy from the 13^th Century and you can’t even tell the two guys apart, but that’s for another discussion.

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This is a 2 hr. and 42-minute movie, and it felt rushed through the first hour and a half. The green screen and CGI looked like it was from 1998 equipment – not poorly done – but obvious. Padmavati’s eyes were red for some scenes even when she wasn’t supposed to be sad or crying. (?)

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Then in the middle of the story a musical video scene breaks out, the first one was appropriate, the women were doing a traditional dance, but the other “music videos” were weird and boring. Big sweeping cavalry battles suddenly became hidden from view by the stirred-up sand – they fought, briefly – but no battling was shown. Padmavati the most beautiful woman in the world had a big hunk of jewelry hanging out of her nose blocking her face in some scenes. Finally, at the very beginning there were disclaimers saying nothing is accurate, not the story, the dancing, the clothing, nothing, although the disclaimers were inserted so no one was offended, and the movie could be shown in some countries.

Padmaavat this epic Indian drama, was more like a made-for-TV mini-series instead of a sweeping, grand, epic movie as it was designed to be.

Movie Details

Director

Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Writer

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Actors

Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor, Aditi Rao Hydari, Raza Murad, Jim Sarbh, Anupriya Goenka, Sharhaan Singh, Aneesha Joshi, Priyanka Pawar, Aayam Mehta, Anuj Khurana, Ali Quli Mirza, Padmavati Rao, Vibhav Roy, Gulshan Walia, Rohit Choudhary, Ujjwal Chopra, Komal Chhabria, Manish Wadhwa, Mursaleem Qureshi, Deepak Shreemali, Manjit Singh, Qutee Negpal, Ashwin Dhar, Muzzamil Bhavani, Alisha Soni, Meena Mehta, Anisha Joshi, Swaroop Khan, Farhan Siddique, Veena Mehta, Daljeet Sean Singh, Saar Kashyap, Hriiday Malhotra, Ayaz Khan, Akshay Sharma, Mohammad Sakir, Sanjeev Sharma, Anuj Sharma, Chintoo Singh Vasir, Arvinder Shagmer Gill, Mayank Kathak, Nazir Hussian, Aslam Anwar, Lankesh Bhardwaj, Gopal Thakur, Deepak Sharma

Runtime

2 h 44 min

Release Date

25 January 2018

Genres

Drama, History, Romance, War

Overview

Rani Padmavati - the wife of Maharawal Ratan Singh, is known for her beauty and valour in 13th century India. She captures the fancy of the reigning Sultan of Delhi, the tyrant Alauddin Khilji, who becomes obsessed with her and goes to great lengths to fulfill his greed.