Padmaavat Review

Padmaavat(i) - is a lavish visual spectacle from the master of Indian magnum opus, Sanjay Leela Bhansali. It has all the ingredients you expect from a film like his, but compared to his previous movies there were some slight misses. 
The movie starts off strong, obviously because of the visuals, but slowly meanders into sequence of three lines of 'Rajput praising' just for the sake of it, songs that don't fit but were there because those worked in his 'BajiRao', Deepika and Shahid becoming side caricatures in a 'heroic' saga and so on. But the film is entertaining, and Ranveer is Ranveer. Ranveer's screen time and performance eclipse the other title characters, and so when they come on screen all they have is some punch dialogs, which was irritating. Aditi is always a pleasant sight for sore eyes.

As a director, I feel SLB failed because I thought he had a great story in hand, but instead of making it into a proper political emotional saga, he went for the stereotypical loud dance drama. I repeat, the visuals are awesome and it will carry you through the whole movie.

Nothing exceptional from the cast either, with only Ranveer having to do any character building. He is shown as a villainous savage, which Khilji might have been, but what happens is we see Ranveer trying and just love it. So in the end when the climax happens many will probably not like it because, in the end, the villainy of Ranveer is not justified because at that point we are not hating him- when we should have.
Songs were a big hindrance in this movie and were not as good as the previous SLB movies too. The one-on-one action sequence...was bad. It felt like two boys playing with sticks. But the visual effects of other war scenes were brilliant.

The movie stops at being a grand visual than anything else. Its not relevant to our times. But that never stopped you from liking the initial seasons on GoT because - there is a plot to like and writing that keeps you on the edge. This movie could have had that.

All that said, I wish the movie does well. It is entertaining. And if it succeeds there is hope for more grand stories which could be made better.