Director - Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Cast - Ranveer Singh/ Shahid Kapoor/ Deepika Padukone/ Jim Sarbh
Padmawat is a legend of a demonic Sultan's obsession for aquiring an unobtainable beauty, here in the form of a Rajput Rani.
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Allauddin aka Khilji (Ranveer Singh) is the aforementioned ruthless Sultan, whose morality has been cranked down to sub-zero. Advertised by his eagerness for killing and an insatiable sexual appetite, the writers want you to believe that he is literally the demon incarnate, and oh so well does Ranveer grotesque-ify the character 😈😈. Sporting unkempt long hair, scarred face, kajal contoured eyes and a sexual hunger of a beast, he is both menacing and intriguing at once. His misplaced sense of entitlement is evidenced pretty early in the movie when he says, "Allah ki banai hui har nayaab cheez par Allauddin ka haq hai" He finds early on a loyal maybe-homosexual definitely-perverse collaborator in Malik Kafur (Jim Sarbh) and their chemistry is off the top.
Compared to them the romantic pair of Maharaja Rawal Ratan Singh (Shahid Kapoor) and his second wife Padmawati (Deepika Padukone) pales remarkably. Ratan Sing, despite being a Raja of some land, seems to have nothing to do than stare moonily into Padmawati's eyes and spout the values of the Rajput blood given any opportunity. Barking dog seldom something.
But ironically, when push comes to shove, the valorous Ratan Singh has no bite to his bark when the maniacal Sultan Khilji wages a war against his kingdom in a bid to procure his queen of fabled 'nayaab' beauty.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali stages spectacularly lavish scenes that make you unabashedly appreciate the effort that obviously went into making this movie. The cinematography is top notch but the story leaves something to be desired. While both the characters that Ranveer Singh (the movie belongs to this man 😈) and Deepika Padukone (saved by her taking charge in the second half 🤗) are etched exquisitely, the let down of the movie is the wimpy ass role that Shahid Kapoor (pretty much a wuss throughout the movie) got. Makes me wonder why Shahid said yes to the role in the first place, even the romanticizing of the ending doesn't come close to redeeming his cowardly philosophy to hardship (kinda reminded me of Nepali politicians' attitude during India's "unofficial" blockade and also the virtuous Ned Stark but at least he killed someone in the first episode.)
I found Padmawat to be little else than an unapologetic valorization of Rajput honour and values and an unfair demonization of Sultan Khilji stretching for too long and lacking all finesse that Bhansali's last movie the delectable Bajirao Mastani had.
