The history of Indians distorting culture to provide for themselves is nothing new. Sanjay Leela Bhansali is no exception. He, on the the contrary goes one step further to make sure that his projections(in the most well-mannered way possible)are entrenched in peoples' minds, not only diverting them further away from the truth but also catastrophically giving them an unrealistically larger than life scenario of how things work.Well,let's not blame him solely for the latter,that's what Bollywood does anyway.
Let's start from the beginning shall we?
Cast-
Bajirao Ballal- Ranveer Singh
Kashibai - Priyanka Chopra
Mastani - Deepika Padukone
Radhabai - Tanvi Azmi
Let's just start by talking about the casting of this movie. What is this obsession with placing hugely famous movie stars in roles that don't even match their personalities let alone their physical appearances? This immense need of Bollywood to beautify everything way out of proportion makes me completely speechless.
For Ex-:
The Left-Bajirao Ballal(Original)
The Right-The Buffed Up Bajirao(Bhansali Version)
Is it not blatantly obvious?Bhansali's aim to blow things out of the water has been truly successful with this one,Bajirao(in his version) has a perfectly toned 6 pack whereas originally Bajirao though very athletic,was known for his strategy formation and attack plans.
The Left - Mastani(Original)
The Right -The overtly gorgeous Mastani (Bhansali Version)
This one is just plain embarrassing.They could have atleast tried to make Deepika look like the real Mastani! Mastani in real life was a sword wielding,hot tempered woman who was great at war and horse riding and held her pride on top of everything else,here,Deepika literally leaves her father who she apparently loves immensely to follow the Peshwa like a disease!She shows practically no self respect..aahh..such is love!
The Left - Kashibai (Original)
The Right -The Glammed Up Kashibai
(Bhansali Version)
The first thing that comes to mind when I see these 2 pictures together is how simple the Original Kashibai was,and Priyanka on the other hand looks like she's just stepped down from a Marathi fashion show.Again,the light of glamour completely outshines this character's importance.A descendant of Kashibai claimed that Kashibai suffered from an arthritis-like ailment from a very young age and was bed-ridden most of her life,whereas,Priyanka has absolutely no problem in swinging with the beats of Pinga (the song performed by both Priyanka and Deepika).
The only character that seemed to be played beautifully well was that of Radhaibai Ballal (Bajirao's mother).This is no surprise as this character is played by the talented Tanvi Azmi.
As she is has a very strong personality in real life it's no shocker that she played Radhabai so well.Throughout the movie Radhabai is shown as a dominant and very clever mother who would go to any lengths to protect her son from all kinds of peril.From helping him in wars to preventing him from breaking his Brahmin traditions to marry Mastani, she has everything in her mind's eye,Though Radhabai has been shown as a ruthless woman trying to squish the peshwa's love for Mastani,I believe that her character could be seen in a much more complex light,something Bhansali has again,ruefully missed. Though Azmi did a well enough job of portraying Radhabai as intended,she could have had a lot more to do with the story.
That's all for now folks,this is Part 1 of my review and also my first post..so please be kind.Part 2 comes with loopholes in the story line..which(believe me)is going to be long and lots of other near and monumental misses by Bhansali bhai,so keep reading to know how this film turned out!
With this,I take your leave.
Camera...Rolling...Action!!
Let's start from the beginning shall we?
Cast-
Bajirao Ballal- Ranveer Singh
Kashibai - Priyanka Chopra
Mastani - Deepika Padukone
Radhabai - Tanvi Azmi
Let's just start by talking about the casting of this movie. What is this obsession with placing hugely famous movie stars in roles that don't even match their personalities let alone their physical appearances? This immense need of Bollywood to beautify everything way out of proportion makes me completely speechless.
For Ex-:
The Right-The Buffed Up Bajirao(Bhansali Version)
Is it not blatantly obvious?Bhansali's aim to blow things out of the water has been truly successful with this one,Bajirao(in his version) has a perfectly toned 6 pack whereas originally Bajirao though very athletic,was known for his strategy formation and attack plans.
The Left - Mastani(Original)
The Right -The overtly gorgeous Mastani (Bhansali Version)
This one is just plain embarrassing.They could have atleast tried to make Deepika look like the real Mastani! Mastani in real life was a sword wielding,hot tempered woman who was great at war and horse riding and held her pride on top of everything else,here,Deepika literally leaves her father who she apparently loves immensely to follow the Peshwa like a disease!She shows practically no self respect..aahh..such is love!
The Left - Kashibai (Original)The Right -The Glammed Up Kashibai
(Bhansali Version)
The first thing that comes to mind when I see these 2 pictures together is how simple the Original Kashibai was,and Priyanka on the other hand looks like she's just stepped down from a Marathi fashion show.Again,the light of glamour completely outshines this character's importance.A descendant of Kashibai claimed that Kashibai suffered from an arthritis-like ailment from a very young age and was bed-ridden most of her life,whereas,Priyanka has absolutely no problem in swinging with the beats of Pinga (the song performed by both Priyanka and Deepika).
The only character that seemed to be played beautifully well was that of Radhaibai Ballal (Bajirao's mother).This is no surprise as this character is played by the talented Tanvi Azmi.
That's all for now folks,this is Part 1 of my review and also my first post..so please be kind.Part 2 comes with loopholes in the story line..which(believe me)is going to be long and lots of other near and monumental misses by Bhansali bhai,so keep reading to know how this film turned out!
With this,I take your leave.
Camera...Rolling...Action!!
