Recently i watched a 1957 movie – 12 Angry Men, and boy .. what a movie. The entire movie was shot in one room with 12 people in it and all the director had was his camera and dialogues. But it was such a wonderful and entertaining movie. It is regarded as one of the best movies of all time. If you haven’t watched it please watch it .. like now !!
You must be wondering , why am I talking about another movie while reviewing PADMAAVAT. Well there is a point I want to make.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Epic PADMAAVAT had all that you require to create any kind of magnum opus
- Unlimited Budget
- Top of the line Actors
- Sanjay Leela Bhansali Brand
- Controversy to create a huge buzz in India
The Sets that he has created are indeed mind blowing and amazing to watch. Even the costumes are authentic and looks like it was a lot of hard work. But a very important thing is missing in this movie … Content .. Character development.
The content in itself looked very promising but what Sanjay Leela Bhansali focused on was the love story of Rani Padmani and Lust of Alauddin Khilji. But both of them do not create any amount empathy or hatred towards these characters. Like when one of the lead dies in the battle .. I didn’t even care , which means I was not invested in the character and this stands true for all the characters.
The Actors on the other hand gave their heart and soul to this movie. Ranveer Singh looks menacing as Alaudiin Khilji and so were the other 2 lead actors.
They did their job well but what was missing was there was no heart in the movie. And that’s disappointing. Plus a lot of scenes that were supposed be of 2 minutes were unnecessarily dragged ( and too many slo mo scenes ).
The dialogues too didn’t have the punch that is required. I was specially amused when Shahid and Deepika continuously reminded the audience of how great Rajputs were ( Karni Sena effect ? don’t know) . It came to the point where audience started laughing when the next Rajput dialogues came in.
So overall i would say it is a magnum opus of Sanjay Leela Bhansali but doesn’t have the heart (content) like BAJIRAO MASTANI .
Now back to 12 angry men . This movie has no budget , less known actors , no brand name. All they have is a simple story which looks like a boring one . But director fleshed out such interesting 12 characters that you are on the edge of your seat while watching a 90 minutes movie happening in just one frickin room . No costume , no sets , nothing. Pure story telling ability through camera.
So I sometimes wonder .. does too much privilege hurt a director’s creativity of making a good entertaining movie ? It is certainly true for this movie.
You can watch PADMAVAAT for the sets, costume and Ranveer Singh but go with minimum expectations. If you want to watch a better movie .. you should definetly watch 12 ANGRY MEN. I bet you will be blown away ..
Nicely written