Opinion: In ‘Padmaavat’, Sanjay Leela Bhansali displays his sympathy for the devil

in #movie6 years ago


I approached Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani with apprehension, having disliked his previous films, and given up on them for years after Black. Bajirao’s energy surprised me, and Ranveer Singh was a revelation. He did the impossible: made a Marathi Brahmin male character cool. The release of Padmaavat returned me to the square one of low expectations following Raja Sen’s scathing review and Swara Bhaskar’s trenchant critique of the film’s politics, among other harsh takedowns. Having written in Scroll.in about Padmavati, and about a princess of Mewar who would make a better subject for a film, I felt obliged to watch Padmaavat despite these negative notices. In the event, I found Nandini Ramnath’s assessment in Scroll.in closest to my own response. More importantly, I perceived little of the Islamophobia, homophobia and misogyny that have been attributed to the film, and felt it deserved a defence against these charges.

While Padmaavat incorporates a few facts about Alauddin Khilji’s rise to power, it advertises its disinterest in historical veracity right at the outset, when Ranveer Singh’s scene-stealing Alauddin Khilji saunters into a fort in Afghanistan leading a CGI ostrich on a shiny leash. The ostrich helps him win the heart and hand of Jalauddin Khilji’s gorgeous daughter, but he bangs another woman Sonny Corleone style while his bride is downstairs at their wedding celebration. At least Sonny had the decency to wait for his sister’s wedding to do that deed, and did not murder the man who interrupted it. Alauddin Khilji has no decency, and no moral sense. He takes what he wants when he wants using any means he can. He is a sensualist, a lover of music and dance, of women and men, of birds, jewels, and perfume, and, above all, of things unique, unsurpassed, unattainable, नायाब.
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