Padmaavat

Photo credit: www.imdb.com

Padmaavat is a film I have been interested in watching for quite some time. I like Sanjay Leela Bansali's visual profundity (although thematically my favorite of his is still HDDCS). And I'm on some sort of an Indian film kick nowadays. So finally I got Amazon Prime because I have found out that SLB sold the film to Amazon, so it was not a certainty but I was thinking of trying it anyway so I got it and right away I watched Padmaavat.

The film is typical SLB, fantastic visuals and loads of visual stimulation, not enough character and emotion. I really liked it though. So I'll write about it with the photos of the characters

Photo credit: www.imdb.com

This is Padmaavati, a princess who fell in love with a Rajput King and married to him and moved to the deserts of Rajastan with him to his small fiefdom (country??). She is not only gorgeous but also intelligent and a fighter. Deepika Padukone is great looking and SLB's current muse. I really like her and she is very good in this. She actually is a good actress who got a lot better from her Om Shanti Om days.

Photo credit: www.imdb.com

This is the Rajput king Padmaavati falls in love with. Shahid Kapoor is a good actor but physically he is a lover not a fighter and no amount of six pack is going to change that. He looks even slighter than Deepika although he obviously buffed up for the part. His acting was very good but his type of acting best suits to arty films (such as Kaminey, man he was fantastic in it) and I just can't see him as a filmi hero (if he is to be filmi then he is suited to the role of the lover - Jab We Met) He has zero chemistry with Deepika despite the fact that she convinced me that she is into him.

Photo credit: www.imdb.com

Aaaaand for me the star of the film, our antagonist Mr. evil Muslim Alauddin Khijli, who hears of Padmaavati from a banished Hindu priest (whose crime was trying to watch Padma and Rajput King getting it on) who said that he'll have many conquests if only he could have her. This character is hillarious in many ways and horrible in many others. Ranveer Singh, normally too hyper for my taste excels here. He is not very handsome but looks so sexy (and there are hints of bisexuality) and normally this much evil is a turn off but he is so over the top that for some reason none of it seems real and you get the best entertainment when he is on screen.

SPOILER:

In the end Padmaavati commits jauhar which is to walk into a holy fire because Rajput king is murdered by the muslims (despite winning the one on one fight with Alauddin) and she doesn't want this evil man to get what he wants (he is her husband in real life).

Despite its length I was totally entertained by the visuals, the songs and the art direction. Ranveer Singh totally turned me over to his side.