By Shashi Narasimhiah

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat is no run-of-the-mill Hindi movie. There are no overtly romantic scenes or love triangles or any typical romantic boy-girl Bollywood dance melodies. There is a triangle of some kind though. Actually this is not even a pure Hindi movie. Unless we have the subtitles, it is hard to understand some of the Persian-urdu based dialogues even by someone who can understand the current day Hindi reasonably well. The movie is based on the poem Padmaavat penned by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi on the Delhi’s ruler Alauddin Khilji’s desire for the queen Padmavati of Chittor. To this day, the poetry is part of school curriculum for Hindi learners in Northern parts of India.

The movie begins with a painstaking assertion of being fictional via multiple disclaimers. At the box office, Padmaavat earned twice the phenomenal amount spent for its production. Why is the movie such a resounding success at the box office?

One of the major reasons for the success of this movie is the opposition and controversy raised from both sides of the religious spectrum even before the movie was produced and screened. In addition, this movie has successfully infused some refreshingly fresh theme into the Indian movie world. The following are some of the major departures from the run-of-the-mill movies:

• First of all, the movie has proved that the main character can play an evil-negative role and stay disappointed at the end;
• The main two characters – Padmavati and Khilji (the proverbial hero-heroine of the Indian movie world) never actually front each other and see eye-to-eye in the entire movie;
• The romance, although there is some, is rather dignified, subdued and subtle – thank heavens for that;
• The music is hardly noticeable and yet the movie is a historic success!! – a huge departure for a typical Hindi movie invariably known for the music;
• The main character does not achieve dramatic win at the end as we often see. On the contrary the movie suffers from a soft ending with even the self-immolation not shown in its fullness and entirety – understandably so;
• Despite the disclaimers at the beginning of the movie, the audience is treated to a piece of Indian history – although the depiction is contestable. The movie is an effort to re-live a historical event of the queen Padmavati, her guile, courage, valour and self-confidence.
• Any discerning Indian who watches this movie would not just watch it, forget it and relegate the movie to a memory. Instead, the movie kindles interest in the historical significance of the event and encourages them in engaging in further discussions, research and understanding of the past.
• Finally, the movie does not take the audience for granted with glaring mistakes, irregularities and inconsistencies. It is hard to find a fault in the movie.

The ambience of a kingdom in the bygone era, the depiction of the festivals of Diwali and Holi as also the picturisation of medieval warfare, give the audience a glimpse of what life used to be in a kingdom some 800 years back.The very romantic yet subdued and controlled expressions of Deepika and Shahid is classy – both of whom have shown great maturity in their acting skills. Ranveer Singh, the brilliant actor that he is has done full justice to being the evil treacherous king that his role demands him to be although there is a mild indication of him taking a leaf out of Amitabh’s legendary dialogue delivery.

The locationis very appropriate, and cinematography world class and technology has been applied very well to simulate the acts of medieval warfare.

Ranging from Ramayana and Mahabharata all the way to the current day Weinsteins of Hollywood, it is men’s lust for women which is responsible for a lot of world’s history. Men have constantly lost their wealth, kingdoms, bodies, minds and even their lives over women and created mayhems and disasters. Though this movie shows yet another such example, it also shows the guile, courage, commitment and valour that befits a queen.